Today it is the premiere in Telemundo of the telenovela “El Juramento”, which substitutes “La Traición”. The new telenovela is stared by Osvaldo Ríos and Natalia Streignard, with Susana Dosamantes (“Rebeca”) Hector Bonilla, Salvador Pineda (“El Manantial”), Dominika Paleta (“Los Plateados”), Hector Suarez Gomís y Pablo Azar (“El Cuerpo Del Deseo”) completing the cast.

The telenovela is a version of “La Mentira” in which Guy Ecker and Kate del Castillo stared.

“El Juramento” is the story of Santiago, a young man who, when coming back to Mexico, discovers that his brother has committed suicide owing to the pain that the betrayal of a woman he felt crazy in love with caused him. Santiago, full of anger and pain, swears revenge and goes in search for the woman who caused so much harm, to conquer her love and then torment her with his indifference. But what he doesn’t know is that he aimed at the wrong woman, not the one that caused his brother’s death.

To tell you about this new telenovela we managed to talk with Osvaldo Rios, so that he would present it to us and explain more things about this new production.

Osvaldo, tell us about your character Santiago de Landeros in “El Juramento.

“Santiago de Landeros is a young businessman, multimillionaire, dedicated to the sugar cane industry and stockbreeding, apart from being a very dear and respected investor in the Wall street stock market. He’s a man who has raised himself, an orphan, who all he has in life is his younger brother, Diego, with whom he was raised in an orphanage. Everything he has, he won it by working very hard, by the sweat of his brow. He’s a very fair man, noble, intense and passionate. When his brother Diego kills himself with a shot on the head before him, his life makes a complete twist and swears to avenge his brother’s death.”

This telenovela has created a great deal of controversy. First, the protagonists were going to be Fernando Carrillo and Gaby Spino who, for different reasons, must have abandoned the project. Is it easy to embark on a project when it has already been advertized with other actors?”

“The thing is that the few scenes that Fernando and Gaby shot were never used, and besides, as the telenovela was never broadcasted with them is as if a new story was created. And in fact, it is, because from chapter 35 on, we’ll see a story completely different from the original one. I think the public can distinguish very well between the different interpretations of different actors.”

Second, another aspect which was debated is that this telenovela is a remake of “La Mentira”, stared by Guy Ecker and Kate Del Castillo. Are you afraid of the comparisons? How do you set out this telenovela so that people can value it and not compare it?”

“I’ve never been afraid of the comparisons, since the versions are totally different. I don’t think that Harrison Ford has been afraid of being compared when he did the remakes of so many movies, neither Robert De Niro when he did the remake of “Cape Fear”. The good stories are always worthy of being remade, as long as they exceed in quality and production the previous ones, and that’s the case of this telenovela. I know that the public of more than 40 countries in which we’re going to open it this Monday 30 of June, will really enjoy it.”

Did you see “La Mentira”?

“No, I didn’t see “La Mentira” and I didn’t dare to see it. There’s not much time left when I have to shoot 16 hours a day from Monday to Saturday, hahaha!”

Lately, there are many new versions of other telenovelas, for instance another version of “Rauzán”, which you stared back then, is being broadcasted now. How do you appreciate it?

“Rauzán” is a great story and like I previously said, the good stories are always worthy of being retold! I know that in the Colombian version of “The Count of Montecristo” Mario will create a great character, since he has grew and matured a lot as an actor, and I think he finally found his own style and acting method. I’m sure people will really enjoy this new version in the same way they enjoyed mine, when it was broadcasted in more than 100 countries all over the world.”

Did you see anything of “La Traición”?

“No, I didn’t see “La Traición” for the same reason I didn’t have the time to see ‘La Mentira’.”

Osvaldo, tell us how is the shooting of “El Juramento” going. How much have you shot already?

We’ve been shooting since January (6 months!), and we completed 20 episodes, which gives us a great relief at the moment of the premiere, because we don’t have the pressure of getting, while on air, those typical delays of every production. The work atmosphere was wonderful and to share scenes with great actors such as Hector Bonilla, Susana Dosamantes and Salvador Pineda, just to mention a few, was a true challenge and a great honor for me.”

Something I must ask about: How was your relation with Natalia Streignard? Did you achieve chemistry? Do you think that people will fall in love with your characters?

“I’ve always wanted to work with Natalia, because I consider her a very good actress. We did a very organic, deep and, above all, honest work with our characters. As a result of this, I know that people will enjoy a great acting chemistry between us, which we achieved by giving it all to our work. The story is very intense, passionate, violent at times… and that makes us be very focused and concentrated on our own characters. We studied a lot and we rehearsed our scenes as many times as it was needed when we had to shoot so that in that way we could make our work bloom, a believable and full of ‘histrionic truth’ work.”

Why shouldn’t we miss “El Juramento”?

“You shouldn’t miss “El Juramento” because it’s a very original proposition, risky in its dramaturgy and nothing like the previous versions which have been done (the first one was with an actress called Julissa, in the ‘60’s). It was completely recorded in high definition format, like “El Zorro”, which gives a visual deepness in true cinematographic style. The production levels, as well as the natural sets in which the story develops, are wonderful, beautiful and provoke to visit our ‘dear and beautiful Mexico’, hahaha! Lastly, this story counts with a cast of actors ‘by trade’ as few times seen before. The performance level of all the actors is impressing. Everybody is very compromised with the real protagonist of this production, which is the story itself.

Best wishes, hugs and kisses and blessings for all of you who day after day follow our work.”

“Osvaldo, it was a pleasure that you told us about your new telenovela and we wish you great success.”

We’ll have to wait a little to find out how original can this story be and if the protagonist couple can captivate us like Guy Ecker and Kate del Castillo did in their times.