The controversial bioseries The Last King, based on the book by Olga Wornat, has been the cause of a flurry of articles, notes, tweets, posts and phone calls to comment on what is right, wrong and regular in this production of TelevisaUnivision, which went on air despite the wishes of Cuca covers and kids – who already had an authorized project in production with Netflix and Caracol that this series already burned them, albeit a little – and even legal claims.
Ivan Arana at an event in Mexico City. (Photo by Carlos Tischler/Getty Images)
With a luxury production directed by Juan Osorio, who has a touch of King Midas for melodramas, the series aired its first episodes with a very high rating for its slot and garnered many comments for its cast, which included the outstanding Angélica Aragón ( on his return to television), the enormous Salvador Sánchez, Emilio Osorio, Iliana Fox and Pablo Montero as Chente, although one of the actors who has attracted the most attention is Iván Arana, in his incarnation of Vicente ‘Vis’ Fernández Jr., whose kidnapping in 1998 forms the main part of the first arc of the series.
With his performance, Arana managed to not only leave the audience shocked, but also to connect with them, allowing them to feel a part of the ordeal the hostage was going through (nothing like it has been on screen in such a crude way since In 1988, famed director Paul Schrader filmed the story of the famous kidnapping of Patty Hearst, starring the hapless British actress Natasha Richardson), the intensity of his performance made his name trending.
However, it should be noted that Iván Arana did not come from nowhere: in fact, the Jalisco actor has a career of more than ten years and has worked very hard, taking part in various series such as the cult favorite ‘I am your fan’, with Martín Altomaro and Ana Claudia Talancón and gained wide recognition for his role as Ismael Casillas, the son of the title character in El Señor de los Cielos (for Telemundo) and films such as Be Careful What You Wish for and as Darío in the telenovela Empire of Lies.
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Now as “El mayor de los colts,” Arana has an opportunity to be recognized as a mature professional actor who, in 15 years – he made his debut in 2006 with a short titled “Give me an instant” – it was down with patience and a good eye without admitting fame and nonsense, what he calls his “real life”, alongside his wife and two children, whom he keeps out of the limelight – now Arana is one of those actors who , because of their versatility, they can can afford to go out into the streets and hardly be recognized by people or photographers, so until now they could afford to live quietly and away from any scandal.
As he has told in some interviews, Iván felt drawn to acting since childhood, since his father worked as an actor and set designer at the university theater and also produced short films that allowed him to be behind the camera and explore the subject. At the age of 8 his father explained to him what it was like to be an actor and he says: “The limelight came up and I said, ‘I want to make a living from this, I want to make a living from acting'”.
Growing up in an art-influenced home – besides producing, his father is a well-known visual artist and one of his uncles is a famous writer – gave him a special sensitivity and brought him closer to great actors who came to give classes in Guadalajara, alternating with the family circle; Thus, Iván (or Luis Iván) had the opportunity to attend and learn from great masters of dramatic art and began to follow his vocation alongside Ariane Guesua, linked to his private life and his role as a father.
“I think that the arrival of my children helped me a lot to find a center, a nest in my life. It has pushed me to make choices to move forward in my life in other ways and I feel a lot more centered. In a way, my existence simplified it,” he said in an interview with People in Spanish. “Now all I care about is that my family is doing well, and that fills my spirit the most. I think it helped me a lot to accommodate my ego. Now I have a lot of dreams, but I feel much more objective. Being a father has helped me focus on the success I’m experiencing at this point in my career.”
Iván, who has also devoted himself to fine arts (it runs in his family), continues to record the series and receives the best comments from the public and experts, proving that he is a versatile and brave actor – the scenes of his torture were very shocking and he did them with convincing aplomb – that from here he will conquer a platform to stardom.