Chespirito: Sin querer queriendo’s Pablo Cruz

Building on the heritage and values of the beloved Chespirito brand, Grupo Chespirito and THR3 Media Group have been working together to produce content created by Roberto Gómez Fernández, beginning with a biographical series about the Mexican actor, comedian, producer and director Roberto Gómez Bolaños. Chespirito: Sin querer queriendo, a Warner Bros. Discovery LatAm original that debuted globally on HBO Max in June, is produced by THR3 Media and Perro Azul and stars Pablo Cruz as Gómez Bolaños. Cruz spoke to TV Drama about having the support of Gómez Bolaños’ family and preparing for his role in Chespirito: Sin querer queriendo.

TV DRAMA: Congratulations on the success of Chespirito: Sin querer queriendo. I grew up with the characters of Roberto Gómez Bolaños and the series brought back beautiful memories.
CRUZ: It’s a wonderful series! It was filmed with the intention of being a fantasy, where you can see elements related to [his creations] like El Chapulín Colorado and his imagination, as well as his family, friends and colleagues. Gómez Bolaños placed great importance on the collective process—the idea that everyone contributed to generating laughter and humor. However, we used fantasy to distance ourselves from reality so that people wouldn’t feel like they were watching a documentary. [The series is] based on and inspired by the life of a man who influenced our lives with his characters, and [through it], we want to get to know him.

TV DRAMA: How did your involvement in the series come about?
CRUZ: The family of Roberto Gómez Bolaños and my relationship with two of his children, Roberto and Paulina Gómez Fernández, were fundamental in granting me access to information, videos and photographs. They opened the doors of their memory, their hearts and their most treasured objects. As an introduction, I read his autobiography Sin querer queriendo, where I learned details of his childhood. [He enjoyed] playing with words, turning that into humor that reached national and international audiences. Gómez Bolaños was a professional in every sense when it came to comedy.

TV DRAMA: From an actor’s perspective, was this the most difficult character you’ve had to portray?
CRUZ: I don’t know if it was the most difficult or the easiest. Honestly, I think that depends on each character, whether inspired by real life or not. Each character offers a universe of possibilities that we can discover, and when that journey is collective, it becomes more entertaining, more fun and even more accurate. I don’t think it’s about one or the other, but rather that it depends on the character—and this one is no exception in terms of complexity, the amount of information and all the material I saw to understand who Roberto Gómez Bolaños was. His family witnessed his greatness and has its own version of the story. [To all this, we must add] that he was surrounded by a group of professionals—including writers, producers, actors and directors who contributed from our own understanding to a fictional story, featuring beautiful, fairy-tale-like characters.] [It’s important to clarify that] the character portrayed in the series did not exist. The person who did exist is someone we admire and who is no longer with us, whose name is Roberto Gómez Bolaños. We tried to interpret what we believe he would have felt in the critical moments of his life and to understand him from a close perspective, as witnesses of those who created this story.

TV DRAMA: What impacted or moved you the most—not only as an actor but as a person—about Roberto Gómez Bolaños’ life story?
CRUZ: The importance he gave to collectivity in the creative process, to the idea that everyone should have a voice in the experimentation of comedy and humor—knowing that humor had to be approached with absolute rigor, because otherwise, the message could become diluted.

TV DRAMA:  What were the main challenges of portraying Gómez Bolaños?
CRUZ: Beyond [immersing myself in his world] to try to replicate his mannerisms, the most difficult part for me was mastering a soccer ball, which I understand Gómez Bolaños did quite skillfully. Here, the production helped me. Without editing, it would have been obvious how distant my relationship with the ball is.