Ana Karen Sahagún 

Born: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico — May, 1989 / Living: Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Interview by Speciwomen — March 2018

Speciwomen: Who are you?

Ana Karen Sahagún: I am Ana Karen Sahagún, a Mexican actress. I would like to say that I am an actress not only because I love theatre, but because I believe in its power since it has given me a meaning, as well as answers to many of my questions and perceptions as a woman and as a human being that I’m sure I wouldn’t have found with any other thing.

I am someone that finds inspiration and growth in the arts, and I do believe that art can give us the answers we are looking for if we listen close enough.

S: How did theatre become a part of your life?

AKS: I think theatre has always been a part of me, somehow. I wouldn’t know how to explain it, but I still remember being four or five years old, looking at myself in the mirror trying to do an impression of someone. It wasn’t as I understand it now, but I knew it was this kind of acting “thing.” I found it thrilling and I still do. I didn’t take any proper classes until I was fourteen, and I haven’t stopped since then. And I don’t think I ever will.

S: What has been the hardest role to mentally prepare yourself for?

AKS: I think it was when I had to personify the actress Rita Hayworth. The thing about playing someone people know is that it is not only about working on the voice or the body, but about their motivations, their inner impulses; it’s actually working on the movement of their true inner self, and that is where the hard work starts.

S: How has showing your work to an audience made you feel?

AKS: It has been scary, it has been fun, it has been thrilling. I do expect people to feel themselves, I expect myself to be a mirror where others may find their own faces, their own bodies, their own feelings, not mine.

S: What is the most important aspect of theatre?

AKS: This is a hard one. I think talking about theatre is talking about something important and necessary in itself. Theatre has been needed since the ancient Greeks, and it still is in our world and in our societies. But if I had to mention the most important aspect I find in theatre it would be its humanness, its universality since it shows us our fears and struggles but also our most deepest longings in life, like love.

S: What is in the works?

AKS: We have been to New York City with Remedios a look inside a master’s world, at United Solo Theatre Festival and now we are still traveling all around Mexico, besides that I am working on some other performance projects at the moment.

S: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

AKS: Being an artist is such a mystery, you never really know where you may end up, although what I do know is that I will continue to explore the scenic world in different ways for sure.

S: What have been your biggest challenges thus far?

AKS: I have had a lot I guess, like every other girl and especially in this industry. Beginning with sexual harassment, racism for being a Mexican woman living in the United States, and others of the same nature.

But the biggest challenge for me has always been finding roles or stories I feel passionate about or that I can look up to. It is so hard to find great stories for women, we have always been in the shadow of men. I don’t like to say it this way but it is true- and that is why I think women should start writing about their own beautiful, truthful stories and put them out there. We must, it is our obligation, so history stands round in the future, and not in half.

I am a woman with deep feelings willing to share stories different from than those that try to make us seem like we are just an extension of men. We are not. We are actually complex individuals with passions and fears just, as men, and we want to be able to tell these stories too.