Celina del Villar and her husband Benny Ibarra during the presentation of the book Adolescence, chance and challenge in June 2022 (Photo: Medios y Media/Getty Images).
Shoemaker to his shoes, everyone should mind his own business, his profession and speak his mind only on what he understands and that was one of the most important lessons he discovered Model Celina del Villar at the beginning of his career as briefly ventured into the world of acting a little over three decades ago.
Celina del Villar, who is also a presenter, athlete and speaker, began her career at the age of 16 and has toured the main catwalks in Latin America, Europe and Asia. She has been a model in magazines such as Vogue, Viceversa, Women’s Health and more.
While starting out in the modeling world, she met the love of her life: Benny Ibarra, ex-Timbiriche and son of singer Julissa. “The story is very simple: I started dating Benny one summer while he was in Mexico – because he was studying in Boston – he came, I met him, I started dating him, eventually I went to see him home (where he lived with her mother) and just like that, without asking me what I was doing, what I was doing, whether I was a writer-secretary-painter-actress-or-what-, (Julissa) offered to me to audition for a novel, and I, like the Borras, I let myself go, why not?”.
The project to which the pioneer of Spanish rock invited her was Dulce desafío, which she produced in 1988 and which featured new stars such as Adela Noriega and Angélica Rivera, as well as Chantal Other, Fefi Mauri, Angélica Zorrilla, Paola Ochoa and endless etc.
At the center of the story is a young woman who falls in love with her teacher, who is a few years older than her and who also becomes the heroine of the boarding school where she is studying. A typical story of boys and rebels defying their parents until they get their attention.
Del Villar came to the casting with only the clues her then-boyfriend’s mother had given her and her memorized lyrics. “When I arrived at Televisa and stepped on Televisa for the first time in my life, I was horrified when they put the prompter on me because I didn’t even know what it was about and then I turned it off and then I have the dialogues released and They told me “stay”. I had never taken acting classes, never been in front of a camera. They said to me ‘come on, it’s a novel that’s going to be about an all girls school, the cast is happy with that’, I said ‘it’s going to be a lot of fun’”.
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He soon realized that his initial daring would not go down well. “Everything was organized in such a way that I said ‘that’s not exactly what I want'”Celina is sincere in conversation with Mara Patricia Castañeda.
The fact that he had never acted in his life was one of the reasons, but also who directed it was the filmmaker Arturo Risptein (El castillo de la puridad, Lecumberri, El imperio de la fortuna), who had already won 8 Arieles by then. Dulce desafío was also the first telenovela he directed and it was a big challenge for him, says Del Villar.
“I confess I was very fortunate and unfortunate to have directed by Ripstein and I say unlucky because, as we know, Mr. Arturo Ripstein, the great director, came out of film and then to taste television for him he started a lot of work because of the rhythm and the speed at which you work and because he wanted to do three different shots with three cameras and that’s not allowed on TV,” he says.
Another blow that eroded her confidence was Julissa’s departure halfway through the project: “Mr. Eugenio Cobo came in and then I was even more vulnerable, I wasn’t supported anymore by someone who also had a lot of affection for each other and stuff, and then I didn’t have a good time, the truth is that I didn’t have a good time, on the one hand it was super fun, locations in Puebla but as soon as we got to the location, I started shaking and it made me very nervous and I had not a good time.
“I had two options: either study acting and continue there, or bolster my career as a model, which I was passionate about.” Nearing her 20th birthday, Celina understood that catwalks and editorials were what she loved, and although the modeling was not so celebrated in those years, at least in Mexico, it was her way.
“Maybe I consciously knew that I wasn’t going to earn what an actress deserves and less than a soap opera actress and that fashion in Mexico wasn’t what it is now and it’s not first world worldwide, but I like it , and so I was true to myself, to my tastes, to what I believed in, to what I felt good about, and I chose to walk this path and I guess I wasn’t wrong. I’m sure I wasn’t mistaken‘ he accepts, touched.
After pausing her career to focus on her kids, “I retired thinking about being a full-time mom,” the model saw a second wind shortly after her 50th birthday (she’s 54 now). . “With this opening up that has appeared in fashion and many other professions, of color, height, height, weight and age, I started doing things. Now they’re calling me to do campaigns about all of this, to demonstrate that fashion is way more inclusive than before.”
In addition, on various occasions he has also shared a catwalk with his daughter María, who has followed in his footsteps.