Through all our skype dates this semester, I have learned a lot about the world of telenovelas. It was nice to interview and talk with writers, directors and actors. It helped with forming an understanding of all sides and views of the telenovela culture. The talk with Padron was interesting because of the extensive amount of work he has done in the telenovela trade. It was fascinating to have a normal conversation with someone who as at the top of his profession, especially since we have studied him for a majority of the semester. It's nice to have personal reinforcement for the materials we have discussed in lecture and seen in the works we have studied.
Sometimes you forget that these are real people when you are only studying them and hearing things about them in lecture. It always fascinates me to see what people in positions of fame are really like outside the spot light. Especially with the actors and actresses. For example, Marisa Roman and Julie Restifo play many roles with varying personalities in their trade. It was really interesting to see who these actresses really were. Julie was super professional and sounded extremely knowledgable of her trade. Despite speaking with a younger audience, she still remained as if she was conducting a professional interview. Before we talked with Marisa, I was curious to see what she was really like off the set. She was very entertaining. Her personality was comforting and made all those around not help but smile. I was talking with Christian the other day about how of course we thougt she was attractive, but we had no idea she would be that cool and fun to be around (even though it was via skype). We felt as though she'd be fun to go out on the town with and despite her obvious fame over Christian and I's, she would probably still makes us feel as though we were all just a few young people out on the town.
The skype talks were absolutely helpful for rounding out our studies of the telenovela culture and the people that make this culture.
