Viviana Salame, Paula Lituma and Gigi Mieles, the centennial faces of acting and social networks

Instagram and TikTok were his initial platforms. They rediscovered them during confinement, while the hours at home were endless and standing in front of the cell phone camera represented a healthy and fun distraction. Parodies of everyday situations, dances with songs in trend and collaborations with other characters, whether they are national artists or new talents or influencers, have managed to make their names begin to sound strongly at the local level and appear among the suggestions of the networks making it impossible not to know about them.

Paula Lituma, Viviana Salame and Mieles Teeth They are three centennial actresses in training who turned their digital platforms into spaces for experimentation and rehearsal, a kind of laboratory prior to entering the formal and traditional stages, theater and television, where they have already had their first professional experiences. His aspirations continue to grow, such as the number of his followers in each of his digital accounts, and although all three were born in Ecuador, his goals are set to cross national borders.

Viviana and a career that started as a dream

“Since I was 14 years old, I wanted to be an actress. I used to watch Disney series and I saw myself on television, but they are dreams of a girl, I think we all dream the same thing. I had that little bug ever since and while I was growing up I would sing in the shower, I believed myself to be Hannah Montana, I even had a wig, I did shows at my house, and in my last year of school I did not see myself working in offices and I decided to be an actress. My inspiration came from my cousin Fernando García, I was going to see his plays, he has a long repertoire. Knowing him as a cousin and then seeing him on stage as another character was wow”Says Viviana, 22 years old.

His decision had the support of his parents. She is currently in the eighth semester of the theatrical Creation career at the University of the Arts and although her dream has always been to become an actress, social networks served as therapy for her to lose her fear of public exposure.

“In the pandemic I downloaded the application, I downloaded everything and started making videos for myself. I had no followers then and I was uploading them for myself, but when I uploaded one with Guayacos audios, it suddenly started to upload in likes and reproductions and from there I began to trust myself, due to the public’s response and the comments ”, he explains. And he adds: “Before this I was afraid to do castings, I was afraid of rejection and I didn’t do it ”.

Getting followers in their networks also served to make job proposals appear. When she managed to get 300,000 people interested in her content (currently 407.2k on TikTok), various trademarks called her to be her image and recently, to name one, she was part of the main cast of the series Pandemials, produced by Rompekbezas, which was broadcast on the TÍATV YouTube channel. In this production he shared with Diego Chiang, Rafaella Pimentel, Ricardo Valero, Joyner Rojas and Josua González.

“Before college I was only doing television commercials, but when it came to acting, I was scared, I didn’t do casting because I was afraid to listen to myself. Now I have learned to socialize, to start a conversation, that shame that I felt made me distance myself from the rest. I have more confidence ”, he refers.

Their social networks are intended to expose their diverse talents. Therefore, always review in detail each of the posts you share. “I have learned that networks are still very dangerous and you have to be very careful because for me they are like my portfolio, my image. My content is family friendly, I think twice before uploading something, because people can misinterpret everything, ”he says.

“I used to see Joselyn Gallardo while I was in Colombia. I admire the talent and technique that she has in acting. I am someone who does not settle for anything, I want to experiment, I want to do television, cinema, theater, everything, to the point that people get tired of me ”, Viviana Salame.

Salame has already been linked to the local theater. Now he shares the stage with his cousin, whom he grew up admiring for his profession. They have a stand up comedy at Casa República (October 29). It is a work written and directed by Fernando García that speaks precisely about the family and its different members.

Paula, the artist of the family

He could study any degree, but his bright eyes while watching series and movies did not lie. Conventional professions did not appeal to him and convincing his parents that in his future he envisioned himself acting was even more difficult. “My mother has always been very open, she supports me a lot, she told me: you decide well. My father, on the other hand, took me with a friend who is also an actor, Pepe Sánchez, to see a play by him and to tell me about the profession. He trained me, he helped me a lot, that’s when he realized that this was what I wanted, ”says Paula, 22 years old.

The also student of Stage Communication at the Casa Grande University assures that a comic video allegedly running alongside businessman Álvaro Noboa highlighted her on TikTok, where she already registers 461.5k followers. “I have learned to respect my work through networks, although people do not see it that way, the bad thing is that many have not formalized it as a job. First of all I am an actress, it is my career and what I have studied ”, she says.

The Guayaquil woman has already been involved in local productions. He recently recorded for the series Almost 40tons, from TC Television, and in Pop Up Teatro Café it is part of the comedy Santa and Zabel.

He does not want to settle. Her dream is to be in Hollywood (before reaching that point, she wants to work or be directed by the Ecuadorian Alejandro Fajardo) and be part of the cast from a movie with Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson. “If I’m in an action movie and it’s Scarlett who has to drag me, I don’t care, let it be her, please,” he laughs.

“It is difficult because the networks make many people enter, but Viviana, Gigi and I have studied an acting career, so I feel that it is good that we have those jobs, but when a person who is only an influencer, without studying, enters work, I feel it is unfair because those opportunities are denied to others. You have to respect the profession ”, Paula Lituma.

Paula is joy personified. The smile is his cover letter and the good energy he shares in his videos is the same in his real life. “My audience asks me about my life, I share about animals too, it’s like my digital diary. I believe that my networks are 100% what I am, I just don’t show everything I feel, but I prefer to share my moments of happiness “, he notes.

Gigi, from Manabí to the world

The art carries it in the veins. In his family there are artists of various branches. And if the saying ‘what is inherited is not stolen’ is entirely true, Gigi has shown since she was a child that her natural habitat is the stage. Playing at home with her siblings helped her develop her imagination. It was common to see her in the living room or in her bedroom, playing characters, putting together shows for her family.

“When I was little I played Pedro el flamoso, did his dance and he called me Pirulina, because of the song in the soap opera,” Gigi recalls. Four years ago he left the comfort of his parents’ house in Santa Ana (Manabí) and settled in Guayaquil with his brothers to study acting at the Casa Grande University. “I always knew what I wanted, from the moment I arrived, I was 17 then, I didn’t know anyone or where they were made castings or anything, but any opportunity that came out to work on this was assumed “, he admits.

In 2018, Instagram became his showcase. On this platform I posted videos about phrases or common situations of manabitas or beliefs that they have about their customs. “I already had a small audience and little by little I started to move on TikTok as well, until one day I went viral with the video that contained the audio of a influence Mexican with whom I am currently friends ”, she adds.

He lost his first account on TikTok, however he has already managed to gather 402.8k followers on his current profile. “I care, although it sounds a bit cliché, more about quality than quantity, it happens that sometimes you have a lot of followers and it doesn’t help you at all, having followers implies that they are also part of your process, that they help you. If you are in a live audience, the applause gives life to the scene, in networks interaction is needed and that they comment and thank God I have an audience that adores me and I adores them ”, says the 22-year-old artist.

“I entered the commercial world of acting as a tiktoker, at first it bothered me a little, and there came a point where it bothered me because I have studied four years of my life, I have a scholarship even at university, I am an actress, I am a stage communicator , being a tiktoker is my hobby and my other job. Until I stopped taking it personally, the comments come from people who are currently doing nothing and feel threatened by the new generations instead of going to learn from them and see what can be merged. I had those conflicts at the beginning, being a tiktoker is a secondary effect of what I like ”, Gigi Mieles.

In this month, Gigi is part of the play Cleotilde and Matilde, witches to power, which is presented every Wednesday at the Sánchez Aguilar Theater. It stars Fabo Doja and Ney Calderón; made a series of stand up comedy together with Álex Vizuete and in a micro theater Quito. Next year, Quito and Cuenca will become his new workspaces.

The networks, in his case, have also allowed him to meet new friends. Víctor Aráuz, Álex Vizuete, Juan Carlos Román and El Chino Moreira are some of the actors with whom he wanted to work and with whom he now develops content for digital platforms. They are a creative digital artistic network.

“I am an actress and wherever they put me to act, be it on television, outside at the traffic light, I do it. I would like to go to Mexico, Colombia, Miami, or in a theater in Argentina. The theater is 100% my safe place ”. (E)