Like many other children, when I was little, I would watch the TV commercials and say, “Ah, but I can do that too!” It didn’t look difficult. You just had to say a few things, smile and that’s it.

I always had that little thorn of seeing myself on screen. So one day, I decided to take the bull by the horns and launch myself into the world of casting for television commercials.

Without any previous experience in acting or modeling, I set out together with my sister Yanelia to make life out of commercials on television.

But at first it’s not like it was a path of roses.

Castings

I think it was harder to be selected in a casting than to act in the TV commercial itself.

Although later on, when we were positioned in the casting environment, people thought we had a monopoly on commercials, it really wasn’t like that.

When we entered this environment we did not know anyone. Everything was absolutely new to us. In fact it took me a world to be chosen in my first TV commercial: we realized later that as everywhere in this castings environment there is the “lever” (someone you know and who helps you get in).

For example, although advertising agencies set up a casting to select talents, it was often the case that the girl selected was a friend of the client and was therefore chosen without even going through the casting.

In many castings, you fit perfectly for the director, but if the client has a friend or acquaintance then the one who wins is the client because, after all, it is the one who pays.

At last being left

Every time I was left selected in a casting that was absolute happiness. I was jumping for joy! and when I was watching myself on TV, I was even more happier. It’s quite an art to be selected in a casting.

But getting started wasn’t easy.

My first casting I went was one of hair shampoo and I wasn’t be selected. How I cried! But that wasn’t an impediment to continuing, so I started to take modeling class.

After that I started to go to more casting but I had a hard time getting a role play in advertisements so I decided to take acting class and that’s when the opportunities started to flow better.

At first, I was the one who annoyed my sister to take modeling class and go to the castings. In the end she was the one chosen in the commercials! But I kept going to my casting (they called me annoying). I learned in Venezuela that to achieve your goals you have to be annoying, in the good sense of the word.

Yanelia’s first commercial was one from CANTV, Venezuela’s telephone company.

And my first commercial, finally, was for some vitamin C tablets called Redoxon.

Recognition begins

I remember one time I was at work and at that moment there was a commercial on air where I showed up, a co-worker told me: “Hey, I saw a girl just like you in a commercial this morning.” I said “Oh yeah, it’s me.” She replied: “Really? It’s no true! It can’t be you… Are you sure? ”. Many people reacted the same way.

I had the privilege of experiencing all three media: film, television and theater. I started with commercials and there was a very good time where even the payments were in dollars.

The hardest part of the castings was working with children and the most rewarding advertisement were those with Nestlé products.

Then came the Rikesa (cheese cream to spread) and others I was over the moon doing what I enjoyed and get paid for that was the best thing!

The TV advertisements in which I participated with children looked so real that people who had time without writing to me or knowing about me wrote congratulating me and telling me that they did not know that I had had children.

Combining two jobs

At that time commercials paid well. But even if I wanted to, it wasn’t enough to be able to live off of them alone. But it was certainly a good extra incomes.

At that time I worked in an Insurance Company and it was funny because at my lunch time I used to run away for casting. I used to get work with no make-up in the morning but afternoon and it was because I came from doing a casting.

My co-workers looked at me in a strange way. My excuse was “In the morning I don’t have time to put on makeup so I do it at noon.” Then when I was in the casting and usually needed the whole day to film, I always made any excuses. And if I ran out of excuses, then I asked for a day of vacation

The most interesting thing about the whole process of going to the casting, was everything that involved making a television commercial, or better said behind the scenes, such as the costume test, the makeup team, the recording team, the director, the client, the costume designer, etc. It was completely new to me, I really enjoyed this new experience.

You can’t imagine how many new people you meet and, in a way for me, it was the engine to keep casting. It’s another world, another language.

Nestlé commercials

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the commercials that had the biggest impact on me, undoubtedly, were those of Nestlé.

I really enjoyed it when people recognized me on the street|. Especially with a group of famous Nestlé commercials that I starred in. Those commercials -7 in total- lasted a week to be recorded and were on air throughout Latin America.

I was in a bakery sitting with a friend and a friend having a coffee. After a while a lady touches my shoulder (she was sitting right at the back table) and asks me if I was the one in the Nestlé commercial.

When I said yes, the lady tells me that since she walked into the bakery with her daughter and her daughter saw me, she said, “Mom, mom, she’s the one in the Nestlé commercial!”

Her mom didn’t pay attention but she insisted, “Mommy, mommy… Yes it is her, ask her, ask her!”. When her mom asked me and I said yes, the excited girl started crying.

I didn’t know what to do; it gave me grief rather. I felt satisfied and happy because in a way we contributed through commercials like Nestlé’s to rescue the values of the family. These commercials had very good reviews.

Most of those who saw me and recognized me, congratulated me on the concept of the commercial and the rescue of values.