Carmen Armendariz Mafer Suarez Televisa
María Félix, la Doña is one of the two original productions that ViX+ is including in its catalog as part of its launch this Thursday the 21st. The production by Carmen Armendáriz and directed by Mafer Suárez, will show five decades of the life of the Mexican film diva through eight episodes.
“I have been looking to produce this series for five years and we finally did it. First, we worked on 42 scripts, then 15 and we ended with 8. María Félix, la Doña arrived at the right time along with the birth of ViX+. We start with a 12-year-old Maria and end when she dies. We know that eight episodes are not enough, but we adjust the story to have her most important moments, such as her childhood, her four marriages, emotional and physical losses, and her relationship with her family,” said Armendariz.
Suárez considered it a challenge to approach such a strong personality. María Félix is “one of the most important women of the 20th century, courage and love for her were needed. After that, it was studying her and understanding the times she lived that led her to be as we knew her. We want the public to remember her and for those who didn’t know her to have a bridge of empathy with a woman who, moreover, has in present time a very relevant discourse, especially regarding being Mexican.”
To create the script, the producer and her team of writers resorted to everything that has been written about the actress and even interviewed Luis Martínez de Anda, her only heir, who was companion until the day she died: “He knew her very well, he knew what she liked and what she wanted, so we were able to start writing the story. We had an ethnographer who worked with us all the time, in addition to the fact that the 20th century in Mexico is well documented and we were able to have direct reference and infer different things.”
For Suárez fiction plays an important role when doing period work, since “we didn’t live through those times, we could not know precisely what she said and how she said it, but by getting acquainted with her personality helped us to make inferences. One of the highest values of this project is the plastic beauty that it has, not only in the locations and the art direction, but also in the costumes and the demeanor of each actor”.
It has been seven months of work since pre-production and they are currently in the final stage of recording.
Starring Sandra Echeverría, Ximena Romo and Abril Vergara, who play María Félix at different stages of her life, the miniseries was written by Larissa Andrade, Alejandro Gerber, Tania Tinajero and Gabriela Rodríguez.
View trailer here
