Kate del Castillo celebrates two major milestones: ‘I feel happy, fulfilled and very comfortable... I still have a lot to do’

I have a lot of mixed emotions. It’s 50 years, half a century! It’s a lot and I hadn’t realized it. Age is just a number and the truth is that I feel very energized. I have so much stuff I want to do and so many things I haven’t done. I just hope my body accompanies me along the ride because otherwise, I’m doing fantastic.

I think this is also an important stage for me as an actress because it’s when the most important characters will arrive, the most intense roles. Also, as a producer, I’m starting to do things that I wasn’t doing before, so my 50’s are settling in very well and I’m very happy. I feel happy, fulfilled, and comfortable. I have a lot of stuff to do in the future.

In any way I can and in a big way. I wanted my fifties to slip by unnoticed, but I wasn’t allowed to (laughs). It’s a wonderful age.

It’s an enormous joy, especially because it’s an ambitious ‘Reina,’ one that’s packed with everything we’ve got. We haven’t had a ‘Reina’ like this one and that’s saying something because we won an Emmy on season 2. I don’t even know how to describe her. I’ve done so much promotional work that I have no words left to explain what this season is. It’s up to par with any American TV series.

It’s always a learning experience as an actress and person. All seasons are different, they have an arc and a story development. This season unveils incredibly well, without losing the essence of Teresa Mendoza; still, the story has matured. At first, Teresa was so innocent, then she became a girl that fell in love with a guy that made her change her destiny, so she had to run to survive. Afterward, she becomes this cold and calculating woman, someone who’s not afraid of anything. To lose that fear, she decides to have a daughter.

In the second season, she wanted to be afraid. And she is, isn’t she? Her daughter is kidnapped, there’s nothing more frightening than that. And this third season… it represents growth in the sense that Teresa knows her daughter is fine, she knows that she can stand up for herself. Now she’s a vigilante, which I love… she’s not out for revenge. She wants justice for those who’ve been harmed, especially women.

I’ve been in the US for twenty years. I come from the old school and when I got here there weren’t the advantages that we’re now witnessing, even if there aren’t that many of those, because we progress very slowly. The characters, without a doubt, have changed. 20 years ago, they didn’t want to hear an accent like mine. The average American wasn’t open to listening to it, and now it’s very cool, sometimes they ask me to have an accent. I feel like characters are still stereotyped. As a Latina actress, I still see a lot of sexualized characters. There’s a lot of work to do with Americans and the industry as a whole, we have to continue to explain and teach them who we are and what we’re made of.

I’m not against girls going out half-naked if that’s the way they want to dress. I love that women have that freedom. What happens is that we live in a misogynist world, starting with women.

A lot of things. And I’ve always said that the industry is the way it is because the people that occupy key positions and that are in power are not changing the narrative, and they’re generally men. Things are changing slowly. Now I’m in a key position because I have a microphone and I can be heard, and that’s why I need to be responsible with the words that are coming out of my mouth. Also, as a producer, I have to be responsible for the things that I’m going to produce. If I’m talking about something or preaching about something, I need to be faithful to that and not betray what I’m saying. I need to be as congruent as I can be.

As a producer, I want to do everything… from banal and fun things that are merely entertaining to deeper stories, but always honoring my ideas.

No, I think it’s time to let her go and to know when you have to say goodbye. Actually, we already stretched it, it should have been done after the first season.

I mean that we should have stuck with the first season because there’s just one book. We had the great honor of having Arturo Perez-Reverte outline the second and third seasons, with that genius crazy mind of his. Honestly, I think we need to let it go now, for me it’s the rule of thirds, there we go. We need to know how to say goodbye no matter how painful it is. In my case, I know it’ll hurt a lot but I also know it will make me very happy.

Well, I don’t know… I still feel very young to have a series (laughs) because I still need more to tell. Maybe further on. I want to focus on a project that I’m developing that I can’t talk much about. It’s about a part of my life that only I would produce; obviously, I wouldn’t act in it and that’s something big that I’m looking forward to. I would also love to write things because I can write and I’d love to share stories of my life.

I have a very bad memory, because I forget great stories. That’s why I share everything, so it’s not forgotten and there’s evidence of it (laughs).

Yes, it was a year of cleansing in my life (laughs) and I think it’s good to do that every once in a while. When you’re in the midst of a problem, you don’t see it until after it has passed, but time heals everything. When they teach us acting, they say tragedy + time = comedy. Now I’m able to make fun of my situation and also to be thankful for the people who left my life and those who stayed, which are very few. It worked to see who is who, like rats deserting a sinking ship.

I think what I disliked the most was that people believed that I was on that person’s side or in favor of something when it’s exactly the contrary and I know all the harm that that has done to my country in different ways. That was never my intent. They also said I had sex with this man whom I’d never met. Still, I made a decision and I face it, I accept it. That’s how it is, period. Time will pass and time will rearrange everything in the way it’s supposed to be.

I don’t know… I would have maybe liked something related to psychology or architecture (laughs).

A happy woman, fulfilled in all regards. I never thought I would reach 50 feeling this way. My 48 were a blow and now here’s 50.

No, no… I just thought that I wouldn’t feel this good, I thought I would be old so it’s amazing to know and think about all that I’ve yet to do.

I regret not having a better time (laughs). I was very intense when I was younger, I was very into working. I think I didn’t have enough fun, but otherwise, I don’t regret a thing. Regret isn’t in my vocabulary because it’s just another life experience.