Fernando Colunga, star of Soy tu dueña

This gorgeous, sexy Mexican star was born March 3, 1966; he is the only son of engineer Fernando Colunga and Margarita Olivares.

He majored in civil engineering and has an hardware/auto-parts business (ferreteria); he has worked as a car salesman and bartender.

He began his acting career as a stunt double for Eduardo Yáñez in the 1988 novela Dukce desafia (Sweet Challenge). He decided to go on in acting and graduated from Televisa's school in 1990.

His first telenovela was the 1992 series "María Mercedes" - his character was originally featured in only 10 episodes, but after his huge success the producers made 80 more episodes with him.

Carla Estrada, one of the most respected directors in Mexican television, gave him a role in 1993; he came to the attention of American tv viewers with Estrada's novela "Amor Real" (Real Love) in 2003; he played the bastard son of a rich hacienda owner and won bhe best actor award that year. It had a worldwide success and we all love these Estrada historical novelas.

He did some theater work and then in 2005 returned in another Carla Estrada historical novela, taking place in the eighteenth century. "Alborada" (which means dawn). And again won the Best Actor award.

He starred in a third Estrada historical telenovela, Pasion, in 2007. Also showing on Univision in the United States, his novela Mañana es para siempre (Tomorrow is forever). In that year he also made the movie Ladrón que roba a ladrón (Thief who robs a thief)

He has been an innovator, not the typical galán (hero) - he sought to change the image of the protagonist a bit, to be a bit scruffier and more casual.

As far as I know, he has never married.

Inma Moscardó interviewed Fernando Colunga in January 2009, during the filming of Mañana es para siempre. The interview (here, edited for brevity) was kindly shared with me by her friend Eve Zadoyan, a reader of the Caray! blog from way back who is now a frequent contributor at Fernando's official website, http://colungateam.com. Inma's comments and questions are in green. Thanks, Eve and Inma!

Every three minutes in some place of the world there is a soap opera airing with Fernando Colunga as the main character. For the last 20 years he has made his life a soap opera, but only on screen because his life away from the screen is not within reach of the public eye.

At 43, he affirms that his work speaks for him: he is probably the most respected actor in the genre. Charming, intelligent, and very well educated, he seems to be more than just a pretty face on a soap opera.

She asked: At this point in your career, do you still enjoy your profession?

Fernando: "I love what I do, because the balance is positive, very good. I have been lucky enough to be in soap operas that have worked very well because of the excellent teams I've worked with, also in theater, or in movies. These 20 years, to tell you the truth, I've had a really good time."

In 2003, 'Amor Real' (True Love) was the soap opera that propelled him to fame and his role as rancher Manuel Fuentes Guerra, gave him international exposure no other actor of the genre had ever achieved. With a setting in the 19th century, it was aired in 150 countries and broke records in almost all of them. In the U.S. it was the 4th most watched program that year despite being in Spanish.

"Is this your favorite character?"

Colunga: "No, I don't have a favorite character. I am still waiting for the character that will probably be the best of my career, but I think it hasn't arrived yet."

Obsessed with perfection in his work, after attending CEA, Televisa's Center for Artistic Education in 1990, Colunga continued to develop during stints in directing and production schools in Los Ángeles and London -- and he keeps studying. Maybe that is why his performances have awarded him the respect of the critics and the acknowledgement of the business industry in awards.

She asked: Do you have any technique to build up your characters?

Colunga: "No, I don't have a main technique, I use several. The first thing I do is read the stories, after that I like to talk with the authors, to see how they see them, how they interpret the characters. After that, I let them know how I perceive the role. From that point on, we agree on what characteristics will or will not go with the main character."

Though he doesn't lose sleep over it, he is considered one of the sexiest Latinos in the world -- and the actor best positioned to be the first Latino to do the role of James Bond. (In a People magazine poll he received 40 percent of the votes with 27 percent for Argentinian Sebastián Rulli).

She asked: Would you be willing to do a completely naked scene if required?
Colunga raised his eyebrows, caressed his right cheek, stared at her with a very flirty look, played hard to get, pretended not to understand the question, burst out laughing and finally said, in a joking tone:

"Do you mean I would act completely naked? Look, an actor has to be open to posibilities. Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't, I don't know. So far, none of my roles have required a nude scene. The work must have a dramatic sequence, an objective. I've had propositions, but with no basis, with no objective ... I don't do things like that."

What do you prefer: movies, theater, TV? Which one do you identify with better?

Colunga: "No, I have no preference. I like the three of them and the three of them are branches of a tree, the tree of performing arts, they are different ways of expressing art."

Are you not afraid of being portrayed as the eternal soap opera flirt? Do you think you've already reached your peak?

Colunga: "No. I think that the performing arts are a universe; regardless of the genre where you work, as an actor you have a variety of tools for the creation, shaping, and the enrichment of a character."

Will we have Fernando Colunga even after 20 years?

Colunga: "Well, I see myself acting as long as I like it, as long as I have fun doing what I do."

Will we see you in a villain role?

Colunga: "Why not? I think that those are the weapons of the actor: to be able to play universally with the tools that you have available to build up a character."

As opposed to other actors, you have totally armored your private life; we barely know anything about you that doesn't have to do with your work. You don't appear in "heart" magazines, you don't do publicity, you only go to parties or events that are work related. Have you had to pay the price for keeping your personal life away from the spotlight?

Colunga: "On the contrary, you pay the fee when you don't have a private life and have to constantly sell episodes of your own life, whether it is in the shape of scandals, or other things. The easiest way is to do what I do: to concentrate in your acting phase, which is complicated enough."

Are you affected by the rumors that are regularly heard in México questioning your sexuality?

Without any sign of discomfort, he answers sharply:

Colunga: "No. It's all the same to me. I know who I am, my people know who I am, and my work speaks for myself. I worry about my work. I don't care about the rest, they can say whatever they want."

He concludes: "At the end of the day my work belongs to the public, to the people that follow and support me. The work is mine when I create it, after that it belongs to the public. If someone has a temple and they want to paint over it, trash it, or put holes on it, that is up to each one of them. There is nothing you can do about that.

"As an actor, you can't take positions; as a human being you can. I don't want to influence anybody, I don't want to change the way people think, that is why there are questions that I never answer. I give you my work and you interpret it the way you want."

Fernando Colunga's own official website is called
Colunga Team.

Mexico's biggest male actor, Fernando Colunga, who is considered by some to be the Mel Gibson of the Spanish world, stars in this beautifully done story about true love, betrayal, revenge but above all, romance.

At the beginning of this 7 month long novela, Eduardo (Fernando Colunga) and Fernanda (Silvia Navaro) are two young children whose life-long friendship had slowly developed into first love. Fernanda, the youngest of three siblings belonged to wealthy society, lived in the beautiful Mexican country side in a mansion with several nursemaids and personal servants - one of whom was Eduardo's widowed mother Soledad.

It was a happy family; but unknown to them all, a dark cloud of conspiracy and revenge was looming over the horizon and would forever shatter the lives of everyone, including Eduardo and Soledad.

One day a beautiful young woman named "Barbara Greco" arrived to become the personal assistant of Monserat, Fernanda's mother. She is on a secret assignment to destroy this family, sent by the bitter, wealthy half-brother of Fernanda's father. She has Eduardo sent away, murders Montserrat, and marries the widower. She has Liliana, Fernanda's only sister, who overhears her dastardly deeds, committed to an institution for decades.

Having been educated in the United States on the father's dime, Eduardo returns to Mexico determined to marry his childhood sweetheart and thus stunned to discover she is about to marry the cellphone-throwing villain, Damian and that his mother has been hounded to death by Greco.

This once sweet romantic story now takes a dark turn, becoming "an eye for an eye." Barbara's dark "source" instructed her to take Fernanda's family and bankrupt them, thus tearing them apart one by one and destroying their lives. Who is Barbara Greco really? Where did she come from? Who is behind the secret plot to destroy an entire family and why? Will Eduardo and Fernanda ever have the chance to find love in one another again? Find out in this exciting story FULL of twists and plots at very turn.

PS I believe this was Lucero's first appearance as a ruthless villian. For those of you who don't know, Lucero is one of Mexico's biggest stars. She is ramarkably talented in both singing and acting; in the past she played the heroine or the woman in distress, but as Barbara Greco, its Lucero at her best performance yet!