The Peruvian who came to Disney and dreams of more: “Everything can be achieved when there is desire”

The protagonist of the television series “La piel de Alicia” and the film “Encintados”, Ximena Palomino, feels that she has already completed an important cycle in Peru. Not wanting to leave her country forever, she seeks to make her way abroad on the side of her two passions, acting and music. With the smile on her face that she always has, she remembers the stories in which she participated, such as “Cumbia pop” (América TV) and “Bia” (Disney Channel Argentina), and sheds light on an upcoming musical project.

Watch the full interview here via instagram account of Skip Intro.

“Who taught you to smile?”

I don’t know, I think of my dad. I think we are a laughing family. He is an architect and my mom is an interior designer. When they were together, because not anymore, they built a house in La Molina, where we live with my sister. That house is my dream place, where my childhood was. It was nice that my parents designed and built it alone and together. Today my sister studies architecture in Barcelona. A family of architects, except me. My dad likes to sing and dance; My mom, when she was young, wanted to dance and play the piano, but her parents wouldn’t let her. I feel that she adopts things that they couldn’t develop.

What makes you happiest about acting?

It’s very nice when that energy is generated between the scene partners, but also when you feel that you are the character, everything else disappears. Although they call you “cut”, you realize that you are living another reality, fiction.

“And about the music?”

It is a new path, and the time to take risks and try it. I have some songs that are waiting to be released. It excites me a lot and I’m scared to death, because there are artists in Peru who released songs, but they stayed there. That fear turns me on. Over time, unwittingly, I have gained experience recording in a music studio, due to my work as an actress. I bet everything on “Cumbia pop” and the next project I was involved in was also musical.

“Are you going to put out a record?”

If you’re not Bad Bunny, kind of… meh. Taking out a disk I think is not necessary. I think you should have several themes to launch and see how it goes. A compilation of songs, EP, is what is most done now. That is what I want. I am working with three producers, but more with Chino Sabogal, because we have worked on previous soap operas. That work is very nice, because there are people who bet on me. I think we’re close to the first song coming out. It will be surprise.

—The first song you released was “Tortura” in “Junta de neighbors”.

No, but the first one I launched on networks. For now, I’m going little by little, but I already have things prepared, it just requires a media campaign, the whole process for it to happen. Even more so in Peru, where it is much more difficult… because there is no industry or a contemporary urban benchmark that is breaking it worldwide. So it’s hard for people to take you seriously. As artists, we have to do everything we want to do hoping it goes well.

—Will you do urban genre then?

Urbano, like that, like Natti Natasha, no. It would be more like Greeicy, Tini, Aitana, an urban-Latin pop-ballad. Everyone is with that wave; for example, Karol G is putting out things less reggaeton than before. But, well, everything merges, it’s part of the same genre. There are two songs that other people have composed for me and the other compositions have been a cooperation between them and me.

They gave me a scholarship at Telefé for six months with a group of 20 people.

Ximena Palomino, actress of “Encintados”

—A large part of this nascent career has to do with Argentina; I think, it was an important point for you.

Argentina is everything, I always say that this country is my second home. First, because I grew up watching Argentine projects as a child, like “Rebelde wey”. He was a big fan of soap operas, but also of music. I had all their records and I was amazed at their world tours. I wanted it. I felt it with “Cumbia pop”, but on a one scale. It was important that, in Peru, they try to get out of the mold and do something youthful and musical. The process and project was wonderful and I learned a lot. I remember it with too much love, because it opened the doors to music for me.

— Was “Cumbia pop” a project that took place at the same time as the recording of “BIA” with Disney Channel?

No, I went to study in Argentina in 2018, the year after the filming of the series. They gave me a scholarship at Telefé for six months with a group of 20 people. He had applied in a very long stage of castings; first individual, and then group. I had an acquaintance who worked in the Argentine channel and she recommended that I send my presentation to the brand. It was to tell an anecdote in which they saw how I developed. They told me I was going to the next stage. There were two acting, singing and dancing classes per week of eight hours each day. Many actors, producers, important people who taught us. It was my first approach and I was excited. There, I met a friend who was applying for a Disney project and I asked him to send me his email so I could send my profile as well. He gave it to me when I was already in Peru recording “Ojitos Hechiceros 2″, but they told me to do the virtual audition and I had to come back. Happy, me.

—It was like four days of recording, right?

Yes, it was beautiful to have the vision of how an international company as big as Disney Latin America works. Another world, the film sets were crazy, the responsibility and professionalism, the people. Everything is very different from national television, because it is a very large company. Imagine, the supervisors came from Spain to see if the makeup was well done. In the cast of “Bia”, there was an Argentine majority, but the protagonist was Brazilian; the character of her friend, Italian; some guys, from Ecuador, and there were many from Brazil, because that country was the intention of the series. What surprised me a lot, apart from the fact that each star had their own dressing room, was that we had a room where there was a special coach to help us go through (analyze) the scenes before going in to film. Something I haven’t seen before, but they do it all the time. There, we met Isabela Souza, everything was fine, we rehearsed once or twice to pass movements, it is recorded and then you leave. There is no more, end the day.

—Recording a scene takes less time than in a Peruvian shoot?

Yes, at least in Disney, yes. Because it is very well structured, you no longer waste time recording on set and things are clear on a technical level with the director, since you already spent it with your colleagues.

—There are actors and actresses who take time to make the decision to travel abroad. Others don’t start at an early stage filming for Disney. It tells me a lot about how you make decisions.

In life, sometimes, I am quite indecisive, but I feel that, with my career, I have always been very risky when I have a goal. It’s much easier that way, because I’ll do everything to get there. Now I’m living a turning point in my career, because I don’t have a project coming up, so it’s time to jump again. I want and I feel that I have already done the things that I wanted to do in Peru, such as “Encintados”, because I wanted it to be released, to play the leading role that I never did. Now I want more, which means leaving the country. Argentina is a place where I want to work. But I’m about to go to Mexico, or suddenly, I’m staying. I like to try things and I believe that everything can be achieved when the time is right and you feel like it.

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