“She was very young, she didn’t know how to deal with certain situations”: Guadalupe Farfán talks about AFHS, her acting growth, and ”¡Funado!”

Guadalupe Farfán was afraid to leave. She was 17 years old when she joined “Al fondo hay sitio” and, for four years, July grew with her. The character gave her popularity, a family in front of the cameras, and the security of a job she loved. But there also came a time when staying began to weigh on her. Leaving the series meant giving up the known to discover who she could be as an actress beyond July.

Read more The atmosphere in the request for powers: reasons to be alert

“Many things can scare me, but I am one of those people who say: ‘If you are afraid, do it afraid’,” she says. “Sometimes you can lose, other times win, but you will never know what happens unless you decide to do it.”

New challenges

Her departure from the América TV soap opera opened a new stage. Farfán began to explore other formats, take on new challenges, and accept the possibility of making mistakes. She went through television, theater, and an international production. Now she is part of “Funado,” a comedy about a very current topic: how a phrase taken out of context can trigger public condemnation on social media and reduce someone to a single mistake.

The play, written and directed by Gerardo Ruiz Miñán, brings together Óscar López Arias, Anahí de Cárdenas, Miguel Álvarez, Jackie Vásquez, Elisa Costa, and Guadalupe Farfán. It premieres on September 10.

In “Funado,” Juan Carlos, a renowned writer played by López Arias, goes through one of the most important moments of his career when he must receive an international award. Sick and medicated, he arrives at the ceremony under the effects of a cocktail of pills and ends up making a series of comments in front of the press that spark a scandal. The next day he does not remember what happened. The internet, however, does.

The comedy stages an uncomfortable question: how much do we really know about a person before condemning them. That perspective was one of the things that interested Farfán the most.

“It impacted me because it is a very current topic. Today anyone can be canceled and many times phrases or clips are taken out of context. I myself have thought several times: ‘Better not do this, they might cancel me’,” she admits.

The play made her look at the phenomenon with more distance, but also with more empathy.

Growing up in front of everyone

Guadalupe started acting at 16 years old. She did castings, university short films, commercials, and studied at the same time. Shortly after, the opportunity that would change her career arrived: “Al fondo hay sitio.”

She joined the series very young and had to learn something that no acting class fully teaches: how to grow while thousands of people have opinions about you.

There were moments when attacks on social media stopped being directed only at her character and began to reach her personally.

“I remember there was a stage when they went after July for a long time and I thought: ‘What did I do wrong for them to hate me so much?’,” she says. “I was very young, I didn’t know how to deal with certain situations.”

Over time she learned to give less weight to comments and more value to how close people see her. She also recognizes how much she has changed since she was 17.

“If they take something of mine from four years ago, I would say: that person is not me now. I have changed a lot. I used to be impulsive; today I am more reflective, more empathetic, and I understand that not everything is black or white, there are also grays,” she states.

That transformation also explains why, when everything seemed stable, she decided to leave.

Read more How China and Russia are losing ground in Venezuela’s oil to the U.S.: what will happen to their agreements?

Goodbye to July

Leaving “Al fondo hay sitio” was difficult because Guadalupe loved July. But after four years she began to feel that comfort was also limiting her.

“I was already in my comfort zone. I wanted to move forward, do other things, feel that I could go for more,” she recalls.

Added to that was the exhaustion. Her days started around 5:30 in the morning to film in Pachacámac and continued between workshops, studies, and theater. Some nights she slept only a few hours. Her body ended up asking for a break.

But there was another concern: that July would become an impossible label to remove.

“I love that character with all my life, but I don’t want to be remembered as the eternal July,” she says.

After leaving one of the most stable jobs on Peruvian television, Farfán decided to do exactly what she hadn’t had time to try for years.

“This year has been trial and error. I have tried things and said: ‘I don’t like this,’ but I would never have known if I hadn’t tried,” she explains.

She also participated in “Los principiantes,” an international production that allowed her to experience a different shooting dynamic and broaden her experience as an actress. But this new stage also left her with a lesson off-camera: understanding that life cannot revolve only around work.

Private space

In that change, she mentions Mathias Spitzer, her partner and also an actor. “Matías came into my life to teach me that not everything is work,” she assures. Sharing the profession allows them to understand rehearsals, long days, and the demands of the career.

Even so, both try to keep their relationship away from exposure. “We want to keep this private because it is something of ours,” she explains.

Not staying still

For now, Guadalupe is not looking to settle into a new comfort zone. She takes workshops, explores formats, and allows herself to discover what she wants to do.

“This year is about experimenting. The important thing is that I am learning new things and discovering what I like and what I don’t,” she says.

She dreams of an international career and feels she has already started taking small steps. She is 21 years old, has many characters ahead, and a conviction that guides this new stage: fear can accompany her, but no longer stop her.