Blanquita leaves her imprint in every performance —the boisterous, vulgar and defiant Carmen in La otra Cara de la Luna; the gentle, understanding and sweet wife of Rolando Brito in Páginas del diario de Mauricio; the evil sevretary in Salir de noche .

She says she is not against the necessary nudes and that is why she is here with us bringing “one” that is smart too. Here is Blanca Rosa Blanco.

—Like in the Actors Studio, do you improve your gestures acting in front of a mirror?

—Just when I was in my second year at the ISA [Higher Institute of Art], a colleague who is no longer among us, asked me a thousand things about mirrors and I have always avoided using a mirror, maybe because I was rebellious or because I was not convinced it was an exercise that could actually determine a feeling or an attitude. The truth is I never went through that at that time. I rather used to believe more in what I had inside, to trust in those who took over my emotions: those teachers who used to give us a thousand assignments and, while trying to do them all, the less you were thinking of was in a mirror... so I would not dare say “the mirror" has been a significant tool in my career. Training is an individual process of searching and you learn a lot from mistakes. Let us just say that I will think about using a mirror from now on (she laughs).

—You are one of the actresses with best body work. How do you do it? Have you ever been a model or a dancer?

—Well, although it seems a compliment, I am not always satisfied with that detail. The aesthetic values of every human being vary according to “taste”—although I think taste is not an aesthetic category. What it could be good to you, I could be not good to me, which does not mean exactly what we see. All this is so relative to me that the only think I can thin of is telling you that, when I was a kid, my mum made me take lessons of rhythmic gymnastics and thanks to those four years of discipline and efforts I grew up like this, because I had a very different look then.

"In favor, I was very persistent and a bit nice like all children, indeed. Today I am persistent and nonconformist. I was lucky to work with Roberto Salas once, the photographer, to appear in his series Yagrumas and some others I keep. I love photography".

—How challenging was for you the role of the vulgar woman, who neglected her son, in La Cara oculta de la Luna ?

—It has been a while since then and it is still a mystery to myself that unexpected role. So I devoted myself to understand the world of women like Carmen whom you can see everyday in this city. I always say I contribute and I tried to change something in other people´s life —which is what interests me the most as a creator—, as far as we are capable of to improve the human being. So it was a role with many purposes and challenges.

—Did you enjoy the obvious chemistry between Rolando Brito and you in Páginas del diario de Mauricio ? You have had some negative experiences before. What do you usually do in those cases?

— Páginas del diario de Mauricio was almost three years ago and I will remember it forever. Like Rolando Brito, I enjoyed every minute of shooting and I did not want it to end. Every day was as intense as the movie itself; I miss him. He is a friend and an actor to whom circumstances have taken him to another place, but he is one of those people you can not forgive for not being here.

“Negative experiences? When I can not find an answer and I feel I am running out of time to make more things, to run with my creative world maybe, with my whole life.”

"I can not stand waiting signals of any kind. It is a mechanism that triggers itself so fast I can not control it. Anyway, I have become aware of it and taken some measures. I get tolerant (sometimes)".

—Are you a feminist?

—I definitely stand up for women, for their right —our right, I mean—, to express and I love freedom. I can not stand a male “NO” in any sense.

—What role would you like to play?

—Right now is quite difficult to say, so while my dreamed roles arrive, I prepare for the day that it happens. I study, observe, talk to common people and everything that comes to my life is important to me. I make up stories, imagine things. If I want to play a character that tells what is going on with the people from my generation? Today, right now, it is the concern for the future of our children. A character capable of arousing in the audience their own yearning, their truth they do not know how to express and I think I will go to the stage to do it. I want to pay off a debt to myself. Since Roberto Blanco´s demise, I have not set foot on a stage. I want to oxygen my words and my body and I know I will suffer doing it, but I am going to try. I will let you know about it.

—What Cuban or foreign actresses do you admire or constitute an example for you?

—I admire many people and I enjoy very much my colleagues from other generations. They scare me at the same time. Then I become a regular spectator. I try to do that and it helps to watch all things from a different perspective. An actor (actress) is so many things that it would be pointless to mention some names. Some because they did not have enough opportunities, and others because they made a mistake and they did not get a second chance. Let me tell you that being an actor in Cuba is a very hard work and so end up amazed about everything, even what you do not want to do. It is a very funny phenomenon. Maybe it has something to do with bread and some concessions. Maybe I better tell you Glenn Close or Isabelle Huppert, anyway.

—Where do you feel better, on the stage, cinema or television?

—I feel ok at every place I have been given the chance to work, to make it better, to make mistakes. I can not live without that fear, without the eternal fright acting makes me feel. Any place is good to me if they let me dream.

—Are you one of those divas who use to cook at home?

—Let us just drop the “diva” thing, because days still have 24 hours and I am just a simple mortal who entertain herself in the necessary fact of eating, of consuming something so you do not get a hypoglycemia. (She laughs) I just try to find some pleasure in my obligations and it is not always that funny, especially when next day you have 19 scenes to shoot and you kid´s homework. I like cooking. It is a divine please to see other people enjoying everyday things. I like it. It keeps me entertained.

—Do you think the Cuban people need a radio and television magazine?

—Yes, maybe, as long as they always respect every person´s private life. I think I would be ok taking it seriously, just like there are many things that happen in the media and we do not know about them, about those that really should come to public and you just hear the people comments in the halls. Yes, I think that would be good.

—Are you against nudes?

—I have nothing against the necessary nudes imposed by the director or the scriptwriter´s esthetic in any media. I did nudes on the stage during a season we played La Noche de Abilo Estévez, night after night. And I though, “if I am capable of doing this, I could do anything in my life” (justifications) … (she laughs).

"It is true that I had better days that others, but it was a very unique experience, an act of bravery, about the only thing that belongs to you: your body".

—Are you afraid of getting older?

—Me, afraid of getting older? When I get there, I will let you know. But I suspect I have lived such a wild life that I will die before that, and I will never get to know what you feel when growing older. I am sorry I do not have the answer to that, although I am a bit older than… I was before, of course (she laughs).

Translation: René Fernández Cruz