An Interview with Fernando Rovzar, Co-Creator & Executive Producer of ‘Women in Blue (Las Azules)’

Key Art for ‘Women in Blue (Las Azules)’ Courtesy of Apple.

Fernando Rovzar is a talented, and award winning, producer, director and writer that has brought to life many incredible projects throughout his career. His most recent work, Women in Blue (Las Azules) made its debut on Apple TV+ today, and to celebrate its arrival we sat down with Fernando, who is the co-creator and executive producer of the show… to discuss its inception and more.
 
John Betancourt: Thank you so much for your time today, Fernando, the show is an absolute pleasure to watch. I am very curious what inspired you as the co-creator to bring this story to life.
 
Fernando Rovzar: Thank you so much for your kind words. I mean, what inspired me was just reading an article very, very hidden in newspapers in Mexico about this obscure time when women were invited into the police. And really nobody, nobody knows about it. The craziest thing is that at the same time, I think the reason nobody knows about it is because true intentions would have, would have come to light, and the true intentions were just making people forget about the student massacre of 1968 and it was trying to distract people, from a terribly violent government. And in doing so, they just created this, this female police department, without any intention of letting these women actually investigate, let alone arrest anybody or do any real police work, and forcing them to have to work behind the backs. of the police they were working for, if they were going to have any chance at helping catch this serial killer that's actually just murdering women.
 
John Betancourt:  It's also such a poignant story for now, I kind of noticed as well, and I'm very curious, because of all the messaging and all the layers, what's the number one underlying message you hope the audience takes away from this season?
 
Fernando Rovzar: I think that what the show is really about, and not only in the case of Las Azules, of course, but I think that the show is really about doing a little self-exploration in trying to become who we are really meant to be, and not who society says we have to be. And I think we're all trapped in that, not just women and not just in the 70s. I think anybody that grows up in a certain environment or country or religion, you know, we are automatically preloaded with an operating system that says we have to be this, we can't be that. And I think that the journey of self-discovery is a beautiful one, and I think the Azules went through that, but if you look closely, I think you'll find every single character show is actually in the same journey, only in a different way. I think, the men who were extremely chauvinist in that time were also trapped in that environment, in a society that sort of made them be that way. You know, and if you go back to history, and you can, you think of, you know, I was talking to a friend of mine about, like, even, like Nazi Germany, or like slavery in the U.S. and you think about, you know, its many, many people were just part of the wave. Because that was society. Society told you, you had go along with something that is, in retrospect, absolutely inhuman.
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for you today, what are you most proud of when it comes to what you've put together here?
 
Fernando Rovzar:  I think that I'm proud… I'm really proud of the show. I've watched it with my teenage daughters, and they find heroines on the screen. And it's very difficult in Mexico, because heroine Mexican TV stars tend to be soap opera stars, and they tend to value, you know, different things. And they tend to be, I guess, praised because they're good looking, or because they, you know, get the hottest guy, and I think that to have characters that young girls can look up to in Mexico is something that I feel… very fortunate to be a part of it, and also to be able to show a character like María, like Valentina, Gabina and Ángeles, who in many ways remind me of my own mother and my grandmother. Who were women, raised kids alone, and worked, and also were mothers, and were like your business partners, and were your therapist, and were your coach and also were your caretakers, and the many faces that women wear, I think is something… it's nice to stop for a second and praise that.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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