Caray, Caray!

Yeah, it happens. They film these shows at different times and they start and end in Mexico on a different schedule too so you don't really know if they were filming them at the same time. Renee Strickler seems to work a lot. So does Ana Martin. Male actors and character actors who aren't leads seem to be everywhere sometimes. Ocasionally, you'll see a female lead play a supporting role somewhere else.

I know that a big problems results when they extend a show due to popularity because some actors have contracts to start filming another show, sometimes on location somewhere else. That's when people get killed off and dissapear. Ocasionally you'll get a different actor playing the same role. We used to joke about that on Heridas. Tons of people dissapeared before the end because the filming must have gotten delayed or something.
 

A different actor playing the same role--that's pretty funny. On Acorralada, we seem to have found the same actor playing TWO (albeit minor) roles! The first character was killed off months ago.
 

From what I understand, Amar was on in Mexico in 2006 and Heridas didn't start until much later, Amar just wasn't shown in the US right away.
In Duelo we had both things happen - two roles suddenly had different actors (Hugo and some girl who liked Gaspar who was really hot and then the new actress was quite a step down), but we also had one actor playing two roles - the army general after Jose early in the show and then a ranch hand for Raquel later on.
My wife says Rene Strickler usually plays those nice guys, his part in Amar is a departure for him.
 

Whoopes I meant to say 'Destilando didn't start until much later' before, not Heridas. Chris Ferro regrets the error.
 

Yep, the chick who plays SanJuana in Destilando was also in something else at the same time (Amar? Duelo?) and ditto for the woman playing Clarita.

I've taken to thinking of the small world of telenovela actors as the Mexico City Repertory Theatre. :)

As for the Rene Strickler character - he's not a doctor as in MD, but he is Gavi's boss, head of public relations at the CRT (tequila regulatory council). His real name is Alonso, um... Santovania? Santalbania? Something like that. Someone else called him Dr. Blondie, and I liked that better, and now the rest is history. :)
 

I made a mistake too, I see. I meant Duelo instead of Heridas in the second graf so I was basically talking about what Chris was talking about. I never caught on to the ranch hand. It was really funny to see Vera, the housekeeper at one of the haciendas explaining away the absences of some of the other servants--remember Braulio who was in jail forever even though the charges were supposedly dropped and Rosita and her galan, whose name escapes me and his mom, who were all fairly important roles. Once the couple got married, they dissappeared and then supposedly the mom was sick and they were out of town looking after her. I think Vera's husband dissappeared too by the end. And all those actors were showing up on different shows.

I don't know how the telenovela world works in Mexico but I know that at least until the 90s, Venezuelan production companies were tied to particular TV channels. Actors would sign contracts with the production companies which would entitle them to appear in novelas made for that station. I don't know if they got a cut of the international syndication or not. They also appeared in goofy "specials" and one off type miniseries that the channel produced. Usually these were cheaply done things that were never syndicated but I'm sure the actors didn't mind as long as they were paid. I remember seeing one special that had kind of a religious theme, which struck me funny because the villain in a novela playing at the SAME TIME played a saintly character and one of the devout characters was a streetwise hooker in the same novela! Talk about suspending belief!

Now it is different. One of the major TV channels with novelas was shut down by Hugo Chavez and Venevision seems to have completely internationalized. The last two shows I've noticed were set in the Dominican Republic or Miami. And the actors they use aren't mostly Venezuelan anymore. Karyme Lozano (Mexican) who plays Azul was the lead in Amar No Cuesta Nada which was done by Venevision.
 

Whoops, sonar no Cuesta nada. I need more coffee.
 

Margaret, I think it works the same way in Mexico. I see the same people again and again in the Televisa/Univision shows, but from the very little I've seen of Telemundo, it looks like a whole different group of actors.
 

yes it is unusual.
because Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise haven't been in more than one project at a time. that would be impossible since they have to be in your tv do so.