Meet Marycarmen Portillo

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marycarmen Portillo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marycarmen, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risks have been everything to me.

If you want to make art you need to make bold decisions
To take a bold decision you must trust yourself and your gut. To trust yourself and your gut, you have to know yourself and love yourself. And art helps to grow, to know, to add, to realize, to accept. So it’s kind of like a full cycle!

Risking is always gonna take you further, either you take it and nailed it and get a step closer to your goal or you don’t accomplish it so you learn how to do the next one and still make a step closer to your goal.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a really passionate and intense artist. I love to give my all in every performance I do. I’m always looking to be approachable, open, and vulnerable to serve best the stories I’m working on. Every time I’m on stage or on set I’m all about serving the story and the message that we are trying to communicate to the public. Which is the opposite of what a lot of people think about artists. I’m selfless at my work.

That’s what got me into going around the US performing in different festivals. It wasn’t easy for sure, it took a lot of work, dedication, and many times frustration but I was always resilient and did what I did for love because I believe in the plays that I’m in. I believe that they carry something that people need to hear, I believe acting and dancing are a way to get things out of your chest for the performer and the audience.

I remember once I presented a dance I choreographed about inner fights. After my performance, one girl came to me and hugged me while crying thanking me, because she felt her story was told and she understood why she had to go through whatever happened to her and gave her another perspective to deal with what she was dealing for many years.
To me, that’s what art and life are about.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I love Griffith Park! That would be my very first stop, there’s a little bit of nature and several stories about films.
On another day I would take them to Venice Canals for a little chat and catch up and also to make some space in our stomachs. A place I love to go eat is called Vegan Glory (I know, I know vegan) But it’s so delicious that you don’t even realize that is not real meat. And it has so many options, from Curry and Tacos to Pad see ew and Burgers. It’s delicious!

I also would like to go to the Getty Museum, It has a beautiful garden and a lot of knowledge. And if they are into hikes Malibu Creek State Park is really lovely. It has many hiking options plus you can see wild bunnies and there’s even a little lake where you can swim!

And when it comes to meals I honestly think that the best places to eat in LA are vegan restaurants. There are so many and so delicious with so much variety. There’s Next Mex which is Mexican vegan, Doomies which has American vegan, and a lot of vegan cakes that honestly taste better than the normal ones. Pretty close to those two, there’s a vegan ice cream shop called Dear Bella’s. The variety is incredible and they have seasonal flavors. Seriously you don’t even notice that all that is vegan because the flavor is 10/10!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My stepdad was an enormous inspiration when it came to defending my art. He had a huge impact on my resilience. I constantly had fights with my mom about me acting and dancing but somehow he always had the right words to just make my mom take a step back and let me do my thing. So he showed me that everything was possible! He always supported my art and always treated me like a superhuman who could do everything I wanted. I’m beyond grateful for him and so happy to have him in my life.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marycarmen_portillo/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/marycarmenportillo20/ 

Image Credits
Alexis Masariegos Carlos Franco