Second season of Calendar. Photo: Taken from the cast's social networks.

Jennifer Pupo always wanted to be a part of Calendar. She was not in the casting of the first season, but she was super happy when she was called for the second. "What attracted me most about Natalia was everything that this girl defended, how she handled herself in life, how was her relationship with the rest. When I read the script I only thought that he was a good, powerful, earthly character, with a lot of internal and external strength," the actress confesses to Cuba Joven.

His life goes a little in everything he defends, he adds, between the relationship of friendship, of love, what he is able to achieve by his means to do justice. "All these things were getting me. Natalia is a confident girl, who accepts herself as she is, a friend of her friends, in love, a person who defends love at all costs."

Although the script describes Natalia brilliantly, Jennifer adds a lot to her character: "I'm giving her my soul, my time, my mind. All the time I am in function of her. At that moment in which I interpret her I fall in love with Natalia, in fact, I have known her a lot, I have understood her and I justify everything she thinks and does. I'm being her and I feel like we're doing well together. That makes me very happy."

The actress says that between her and her character in Calendar there are many points in common. Jennifer stands up for justice and when she read the script she knew that was a point won, and it motivated her even more. Also the value of friendship and that of being unconditional, as a guide for the rest, as a goal that has all the time. Finally, love, because when Jennifer falls in love she doesn't care about anything else. Natalia goes around.

"The series has given me a lot of beautiful things. It has been a school. It's one of the first big things I do on television, with such a strong, difficult character, that I've enjoyed myself. It has been wonderful to be able to share with so many spectacular actors in this country, and also to create empathy with the younger ones who are also brilliant. To be able to know about planes, lights, sound; Getting fully into those things that one had as a background. Then comes public recognition. I bristle. Sometimes I cry with the amount of nice things they put on me, or that people stop you in the street and recognize your work. That fills me with pride; explosion of happiness."

Jennifer Pupo says that every time they arrived on stage and put on the locker room it was like entering a bubble that belongs to them, full of those energies that they create as a team. "I thank you for having Clarita Garcia with us. He is a being of light, a wonderful being who transmits a lot. That was a gift."

In fact, according to the actress, the scenes of the classroom, where Amalia is teaching them classes are recorded as they are seen on the screen. "We don't have to act at that moment. All that emotion that comes out of us is what Clarita, like Amalia, is able to transmit to us. Many times we cry, we have emotions on the surface. I don't know what's going on at that time. It is an internal energy that I would not know how to define it, but I do know that with Amalia the scenes are always taking a different color, which has been brought to the screen. It's something we never force, it comes naturally."

Jennifer Pupo on Calendar. Photo: Jennifer Pupo/ Instagram.

-Calendar is a reflection of Cuban society...

-This series has been a before and after in Cuban society. I feel that many people both in their life and in their family environment, have discovered things that they did not see before or that they simply did not want to see, and thanks to Calendar they have had to face them. I feel that we also have little empathy towards the human being, and with this issue of homosexuality we have seen a lot.

"I always say that you have to respect other people, whatever sexual orientation they have. You cannot attack them, nor do you have to make strong comments that harm them. What goes above all is love and that is what we are trying to defend with Calendar. As an actress – and I'm sure Karen, like Sofia, also thinks like that – the premise was to defend love above everything that can happen with society. That is what we want to be understood.

"Right now there are teenagers who are going through this, who need support, who want to be identified, and there are Sofia and Natalia. It's not a game, these girls are in love. In Natalia's case, the family accepts, understands, helps and supports her.

"You have to give importance to other strong themes that are touched on in the series such as rape, harassment, physical violence, drug addiction. Calendar is a reality of everything that is happening, of what surrounds us. There are people who are going for the basics, for prejudices that they have since their upbringing, and they are not seeing where there really is a problem.

-What do you think is the reason for the success that Calendario has had?

-When you have a good background script, a masterpiece to defend tooth and nail, very powerful, is like having a percent won. It also influences the direction and the work team, in addition to the cast of actors and actresses who carnally defend each character, put their soul and give everything so that when it reaches the viewers it is like a blow to the chest, that they feel it as a raw truth what they are transmitting.

"We are used to things being adorned and there are things that are not adorned. Right now we are at a stage where people need the truth. Enough of things having a lot of color, when in truth life also has black and white. People have to understand that. This is the space to say we are here, we are young, we are defending this, and what we stand for may be happening to you too. Identify yourself, we are here for that. It's a complete. The public has received the message and has understood everything we wanted to convey."

***

Jennifer Pupo. Photo: Jennifer Pupo/ Instagram.

Jennifer Pupo says she still doesn't feel able to answer what characteristics as an actress set her apart from the rest. "I don't feel like it's that different, or that it's so similar. I think everyone shapes their own style."

His method of work is always based on the truth. "I've been a professor at the ENA for a while. I teach in first year, the base, the moment in which we have to tell students that they have to think and act from them. Then, in the next few years, you'll be thinking like the character.

"I feel that the main method is to know the character, to know how he thinks, to justify every action he does, to understand him. Then comes the issue of creating an image for him." Precisely, from those methods taught in school, and the possibility of studying and experiencing others outside the classroom, Jennifer takes the one that works best for her at a certain time, and creates the complete character.

"What does acting mean to me? When I was six years old, my parents took me to an acting class and there, without understanding it, something stayed with me. From the age of eleven I was aware of what I was doing and my whole life revolved around the theater. From then until my current day, which I am 25, I have not stopped doing theater.

"My whole life has revolved around acting, my love relationships, that internal process of growth. It was the most beautiful thing that happened to me. For me, acting is everything; I don't know how to do anything else in my life.

"I've dedicated years, time, I've stopped going on vacation because I'm doing theater. I was born in Camagüey and thanks to the performance I said 'I'm going to Havana, I'm going to finish my school and I'm going to spend my social service there'.

"Acting has given me so many beautiful people. I have seen around me how all my family and friends support me. They picked me up at school, took me to the theater, we went back to the house, we came back to be at the performance. Sometimes I feel that my parents have forgotten their own life, to accompany mine. That's priceless. That's how my life has been to this day and it will continue the same way."

Jennifer Pupo. Photo: Jennifer Pupo/ Instagram.

Jennifer Pupo. Photo: Jennifer Pupo/ Instagram.

(Taken from Cuba Joven)

See also:

Calendar Series: Sharper conflicts for us to be better human beings