Exclusive Interview: Fernando Gaitán

September 27, 2010 World Screen

When Fernando Gaitán, the VP of product at Canal RCN in Colombia, decided to write a story about an ugly, unkempt secretary who worked for a tyrannical boss, he never thought the telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea would become a global phenomenon. Betty and other works created and written by Gaitán changed the telenovela genre.


WS: How did you start out writing for television?
GAITÁN: I started out as an investigative journalist and writer and I’ve always been keen on writing stories. A friend of mine told me a television producer wanted to meet me because writing entertaining stories came naturally to me. But at 22, I had never seen what a script looked like. My friend then gave me scripts tossed out by actors at studios after filming, and I began to study them. I put a project together and I showed it to Bernardo Romero Pereiro, who at the time was the grandmaster of all screenwriters in Colombia. He liked what I wrote and gave me a stint on a comedy that aired at noon and that’s how I got started in television.
 
WS: One of your novelas, Café con aroma de mujer, was the first to bring Colombian product into the international spotlight. How did that come about?
GAITÁN: It’s quite ironic, Café con aroma de mujer was never meant to be an export because at that time the only telenovelas around were Mexican. They had neutral accents and cities and food were never mentioned. Novelas were made with the idea that the more neutral they were, the more they’d appeal to audiences. We never did anything like that because we didn’t have the experience or the volume to export.
 
With Café con aroma de mujer we decided to write a story about the value of Colombian coffee, which has always been our sacred product, in the midst of the hardships we’ve always had. The idea was to create something with a redemptive quality for our country and was never thought of as an export. We were careful with the accents and local slang [to avoid upsetting] other regions because Colombia is split into five very different regions. We never thought it would become an extraordinary international Colombian success. So that was quite ironic for telenovelas because it did away with the idea that the genre couldn’t portray the country of origin. Café con aroma de mujer changed the way novelas were made in many places. People do like to know about the culture where novelas come from.
 
WS: Colombian productions have often dealt with difficult, serious topics such as drug trafficking.
GAITÁN: I think it was about time those topics were discussed. It doesn’t necessarily benefit the country’s image but it was something that was bound to happen. Drug trafficking was something everyone was talking about—the Americans, the Spaniards, foreign producers and writers—everyone except us. It was as if we had a story tucked away, waiting to happen and I think it was only fair that Colombians began telling their own stories [instead of] having someone try to do so from their particular point of view.
 
WS: Where did the inspiration to create Yo soy Betty, la fea come from?
GAITÁN: Yo soy Betty, la fea came from observing women, observing the people at Canal RCN, the models, actresses, female anchors, the most glamorous and beautiful women, the world of beauty. These women coexist with secretaries, messengers and chauffeurs. It’s a very unique place because they all live in the same environment. A woman’s perspective here is interesting to me, that world of beauty I mentioned that is quite real. Once I saw how cruel a boss was to his secretary. He demeaned her and was very rude to her. She wasn’t very pretty and one day she got fed up and quit. Her boss felt his world crumble because his entire life was in her date book: his appointments, contacts, et cetera. That was the starting point for a series of events I began writing that eventually became Yo soy Betty, la fea.
 
WS: Are you involved in the production of adaptations for Yo soy Betty, la fea?
GAITÁN: No, and it would be impossible because every version, except for the American one, is more than 100 hours long. There are production guidelines producers have to follow in different parts of the world. Theses guidelines are very flexible and allow every Betty to adapt accordingly, or to customize situations or characters to the cultural context where the story is taking place. This has given the property tremendous freedom. What we do require is respect for the spirit of the story and the character. This has been done around the world with much success.         
 


 

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