Clarissa Molina: “Now that I am approaching my thirties, I know more than ever what I want in my life”

I’m very honored. I feel that the work that one is doing daily is going to be noticed. Sometimes it feels that things are going slowly, and all the sudden the opportunities are there and one says, “this is what I was waiting for.” Thank God, I stayed consistent when I felt tired or when I wanted to give up, I didn‘t. Since I started at Univision I took classes in public speaking, general culture, entertainment, who the singers and musicians were. I prepared myself to be able to stay on the Univision platform and really make a career. All that work I’ve been through, tears ... because not everything is pretty, it’s like a roller coaster of emotions. The important thing here is not to give up and be consistent, even if you feel that you are doing so much and nothing is happening, at the right moment you will get that opportunity.

I imagined my life working in what I wanted, doing what I love, but God has really blessed me a little extra. I think that for the same reason ... because everything I do I put 100%, sometimes 200%, I demand a lot from myself. I think the key has also been to work with the people you like to work with, who have the same energy and that leads you to create very beautiful things. At the end of the day my vision is key, but without the right team, it is impossible to achieve it. I have been able to channel all those emotions, desires and be able to do it ... I already have my house, I have a second one as well, I want to continue investing, I want to continue growing at the business level with my own brand, I want to give so much to my fans because they have given me so much and thank them, I am here today. That is what this is about. I want to grow little by little, I think I have done it at the perfect time, everything has come at the right moment too and definitely, Nuestra Belleza Latina was the platform where everything started.

Possibly, I would have been working in the dental industry (laughs). On my mother‘s side, I have a person who has her own dental practice and on my father’s side as well. Before Nuestra Belleza Latina, I worked In one dental office and at a dental manufacturers that supply different products around the world, so that was my last job before NBL, I did customer service. I learned a lot, I loved it… but obviously, my dream was to be a part of the entertainment industry. I remember when I got up from that chair and said: “I hope I won’t come back”, not because I don’t want to be there working with my family, but I want to achieve my dreams, so my boss, who is my cousin, told me: “If you go and nothing happens, the doors are open if you have to return.”

For the first time, I want to celebrate my birthday in style, with my family, on behalf of mother and mother, that we are quite a few (laughs), with my friends too. I‘m going to have a mega party in New York, because my whole family is in New York City, my dad travels from the Dominican Republic there, my friends also travel from Miami to New York.

To turn 30 is important to me, I don’t know ... I feel like that, I feel special. It’s like a new beginning, a new stage, a new cycle in my life, then in style. I’m going to be comfortable, I’m not going to wear heels, no, no, no… comfortable because I want to dance, I want to eat, to live every second of the night with everyone.

One changes a lot. One visualizes some things when you are 20, when you are 25 and so on. Now that I am 30, I am more clear than ever what I want in my life. On a professional level, I want to continue climbing. I want to perform in the market in general here in the United States, in Mexico, in Spain, Argentina, which is making very good films and series. I want to do something more international at the acting level. We have a plan in Germany, I hope it happens… we are still in process, but I am saying it here so that it can be declared and passed.

It is a movie, a thriller.

(Laughter) In English and if I have to learn German, I do it.

Everyone asks me if I would move to New York again and I say that if I go back there working on what I love, of course I will. I spent almost 10 years working and living there, so I love it. It‘s like my home too. Miami is my home, because I’ve been here for 5 years.

Since I won NBL I knew that I had to focus on my goal, which was to stay in the industry and grow in the industry. I would like to find someone who knows and respects what I am doing, what I love. In a relationship, complicity and understanding each other is key. When I decide to have a partner, it is because we both know what we are doing and that we support each other 100%. Part of the success has been that I have focused a lot on my career.

I think timing is everything. It goes beyond the physical, because if it were for the physical, I would already have like 500 boyfriends (laughs). I want a persone who is on the same frequency.

Yes of course! I see myself dressed in white ... my dad actually tells me: “Clarissa, how’s that going?” I tell him: ”Daddy, calm down” (laughs).

My mom too, sometimes, but my dad more. Daddy dreams of walking me down the aisle at any moment, but I tell him to calm down, that is going to come.

I met someone who has become a very important person in my life for this. Reynaldo Pacheco is an actor but also a writer. I have opened my eyes and I have learned much more about the business and I really like it. I’m learning more about cinematography, production, how one can get a movie to pass. I would love to get into that part . “If the opportunity does not come, you create it yourself.” I am in the process that I would also like to produce or finance a film through people who are interested in this project. I’m looking from all angles, but acting is definitely one of my number one passions. I already made a movie in March, but I already want to know what’s next.

It‘s tempting… (laughs). I would do the same thing I’m doing right now; I’m on television but I’m also doing my acting projects. As long as God allows me to continue doing both, I will. The day that I cannot because of the schedules, because there is a conflict; well, I will have to decide. Meanwhile, I am happy doing both. They are very different things and both fill me up.

The message to the NBL girls is definitely to be themselves. They are three months of many tests, more mental than physical. One cannot spend three months in a house pretending to be someone else. I think the most important thing is to show yourself as is, always be faithful to your values and principles and your personality.

Struggling with yourself, because you have that little voice always tells you: “But why are you going to continue, why are you going to continue casting, why are you going to continue taking these classes, I’m tired, I’m sleepy, better go out with your friends.” You have to fight with oneself. Also, at the beginning, social networks affected me a lot, because it was very recent when I won, obviously the fans of the other girls are hurt. At that time, I did not understand it like that, I got over it, but it did affect me a lot to read negative comments.

When I first arrived in Miami, yes. I would come to my house and say: “I am working where I want, I am learning a lot, but I come home and I am alone”. In that first year, it was difficult for me because of loneliness and I was also depressed because I was not at my best weight and people criticized me a lot for my body and at that moment I was not mature enough to understand that I have to love myself as I am. It made me very anxious when they criticized me. Later, I got used to the changes and things calmed down.

I have grown spiritually. It is not easy for me to be stressed. Maybe, if something doesn‘t go the way I want it or [someone] isn’t there on time, I’m very punctual, there it does give me a little anxiety.

The first time I got nervous in an interview was with Enrique Iglesias and it was because he was so humble ...

Everybody tells me, why don’t you sing? They have made me many approaches; you can not imagine. I say that if the people who are out there who sing and are passionate about it get that same opportunity they would jump with emotion.

Many ... but I prefer not to say anything (laughs). But I would like to sing a lot in a musical theater or movie, I would love to do it there, not as a career. Or maybe I put a song on YouTube, you never know.

I love it, and I have talked about it a lot with a friend of mine, Carmen Miranda, from Brazil. She was one of the pioneering Latina women in Hollywood. She was unique, very natural. She fascinates me.

Yes of course, I would love it. In fact, someday we’re going to do something like honoring her, but only photos of her. Still no cinema.

As a young Clarissa, I would say to her: “calm down, don’t despair, girl, that everything will come in due time, in due time, because no matter how much you see that things are not happening due to the circumstances that you are living now , everything will happen in due course and do not despair. Even if they say no, always follow your heart.”