In Hotel Todo Incluido, the Cuban actress explores youth, grief and second chances while revealing the kind of risk she wants to take next.
In Hotel Todo Incluido, Yare Santana steps into the life of a 70-year-old woman who suddenly becomes young again, but carries every memory, loss and emotional scar with her. Sharing the role of Laura with Ofelia Medina, Santana had to create a character whose body may have changed, but whose inner world remains shaped by an entire lifetime.
The fantasy comedy reveals a lighter, more playful side of the actress without abandoning the emotional complexity that has defined much of her work. Beneath Laura’s renewed youth lies a story about grief and the difference between recovering the past and rediscovering the desire to live.
For Santana, the role arrives at a moment when her own ambitions are becoming increasingly clear. Guided by the Cuban roots and Mexican experiences that have shaped her career, she is now drawn to imperfect women, uncomfortable emotions and stories capable of frightening, and transforming, her.
Here, Yare Santana reflects on building Laura alongside Ofelia Medina, the hidden desire behind her character’s wish, her evolving definition of success and why uncertainty may be exactly what she wants from her next role.
"The beautiful thing is that we are two different actresses, with completely different ages and experiences, both trying to protect the same soul"
You have portrayed emotionally intense stories, and now you are stepping into a fantasy comedy. What side of Yare Santana emerges in Hotel Todo Incluido that audiences have yet to discover?
Yare Santana: I think it allowed me to explore a woman who is lighthearted, curious, and playful, with a certain shyness and boldness at the same time. Laura experiences a second awakening: she feels alive again and begins exploring life with tremendous curiosity, almost like a teenager. She has a young, agile body, but deep down, she is still 70 years old, with her memories, convictions, and way of seeing the world. Finding that balance was incredibly fun and allowed me to explore things I had never approached in quite the same way with previous characters.
Laura is a 70-year-old woman who regains her youth without losing her memories or experience. What was the greatest challenge of inhabiting a young body from the perspective of someone who has lived such a long life?
Yare: For me, the challenge was understanding how Laura thinks on a deeper level. She has my body, but she does not have my relationship with time. She has loved for decades, lost her husband, built an entire life, and carries memories and experiences that I do not yet have. I worked extensively with that contradiction: a body that suddenly regains its energy, possibilities, and desire, alongside a mind and heart carrying the weight of an entire lifetime. I found it beautiful to consider that she could become physically young again without being able to erase everything she had already lived through emotionally.
You share the role of Laura with Ofelia Medina. How did you work together to build the identity, memories, and gestures of the same character?
Yare: It was an enormous privilege to share a character with Ofelia. For us, the most important thing was finding Laura’s essence: how she observes and listens, what matters to her, where her wounds lie, her sense of humor, and the way she relates to others. From there, we found small physical connections, gestures, and ways of reacting that would allow the audience to feel that the same woman was still there. The beautiful thing is that we are two different actresses, with completely different ages and experiences, both trying to protect the same soul.
"She believes she misses her youth, but what she truly misses is feeling alive. That is one of the most beautiful aspects of the character"
Laura wishes to become young again after losing her husband. Do you think she truly misses her youth, or the life she shared with him?
Yare: I think that, at first, she believes she misses her youth, but what she truly misses is feeling alive. That is one of the most beautiful aspects of the character. Sometimes, we believe we want to return to a particular age, place, or moment, when what we are truly searching for is the way we felt at that time. Laura is not only confronting the process of growing older; she is also dealing with grief. When she regains her youth, she realizes that having a young body again does not mean recovering the life she once had. Her true journey ultimately becomes learning what she can build with the life she still has ahead of her.
The series explores desire, friendship, and second chances. After playing Laura, did your perception change regarding what we believe we want and what we truly need?
Yare: Rather than changing, I would say that my perception became more complete. I think what we believe we want is often connected to something outside ourselves—something distant, in the future, or perhaps in the past. We may want to change something we have already experienced, recover what we lost, or receive another opportunity to do things differently. Perhaps what we truly need is to be honest with ourselves, embrace that honesty, accept our history, and learn to relate to it in a kinder and more loving way. We need to live in and appreciate the present: our connections, our friendships, and the people we love today.
You trained as an actress in Cuba and later began a new chapter in Mexico. What part of your roots inevitably remains within every character you portray?
Yare: Cuba is present in the way I feel, speak, and relate to others—even in my sense of humor. We can transform ourselves physically and create characters who are completely different from us, but something from our personal history inevitably finds its way through. Mexico later became a fundamental part of who I am as well. It is where I have built much of my career and adult life, through experiences that have shaped my judgment and, consequently, the way I express myself, move, and feel. Without a doubt, my characters carry a blend of Mexico and Cuba.
You have moved between comedy, melodrama, and highly emotionally intense characters. Is there any aspect of your acting that you feel audiences have yet to discover?
Yare: I would like to explore uncomfortable, complex characters with stories and traits that challenge me—perhaps something psychological or physiological that is completely removed from who I am. I am also very interested in working in genres I have not yet explored, such as horror or action.
As your career continues to grow, has it become easier to trust your intuition, or has the pressure to make the right decision also increased?
Yare: Both. I trust my intuition much more today because I have lived through enough experiences to recognize when something genuinely moves me. At the same time, it is true that the further you progress, the more each decision seems to carry: which project you accept, which one you turn down, which character you choose, and what comes next. I used to spend a great deal of time wondering what the “right decision” was. Now, I try to ask myself something much simpler: Does this excite me? Does it scare me? Will I learn something from it?
"I used to spend a great deal of time wondering what the 'right decision' was. Now, I try to ask myself something much simpler"
How has your definition of success changed from your early years as an actress to where you are today?
Yare: At the beginning of my career, I strongly associated success with achieving certain things: landing a role, playing the lead, working more, or seeing a project succeed. Of course, I still have many dreams, but my definition of success is much broader today. For me, it also means having a life that makes me happy, staying close to my family, nurturing the friendships I have built, having people whom I love and who love me, and being able to enjoy both my work and my life beyond it. Over the years, I have learned that achieving everything you once dreamed of means very little if you have no one with whom to share it—or if you are unable to enjoy it once it arrives. Today, success has much more to do with finding that balance: continuing to dream and grow professionally without losing sight of my personal life.
As you look toward the next stage of your career, what kind of stories do you hope will find Yare Santana?
Yare: I want stories that scare me a little. I want characters that make me read the script and think, “I don’t know if I can do this,” because that is usually when I feel the strongest desire to take them on. I would love to bring contradictory, imperfect, funny, dark, uncomfortable, and vulnerable women to life—characters who are not necessarily written to be liked by audiences, but to be understood. I want stories that force me to transform and that, in turn, transform the audience; stories with historical or social relevance—stories that need to be told.
Photographer: Eduardo Ramos @eduardoraos
Glam: Aleromua @aleromua
Stylist: Salvador Ramírez @sir.styling
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