Don Francisco transforms himself to take on his new professional challenge

Miami. Mario Kreuztberger, better known as Don Francisco, will embark on a new professional project on Feb. 15 that, he said in an interview with Efe, will complete a major personal transformation, including a change of ‘appearance’ and even psychiatric sessions.

“I turned 80 during the incarceration and I felt that a new phase had begun. I decided to start a new book on the last phase of my life and in those reflections I realized that the pandemic had made me think a lot, revise things. I know many other people have experienced this process and it occurred to me to create a space where we could talk about it, ”said the Chilean driver.

The result is “Don Francisco: Reflexiones 2021”, a 10-episode miniseries in which he will converse on CNN in Spain with personalities from entertainment, art, medicine, sports and other professions exploring personal issues that most affected him during the confinement.

“Who are we more, mother or father? I look like my mom in my love for the show because she was the one who inspired me. My mother was trained as an opera singer in Germany and she had to leave everything behind when she escaped the Nazis, ”she said.

These are the kinds of stories he wants to get out of his interviewees and which he will tell himself during the meetings, which will start airing on February 15.

It seems to be more about the inner world of Mario Kreuztberger and less about the very public Don Francisco, the character who made him the most famous host in the Spanish world thanks to his decades of directing the “Sábado Gigante” program at Univision. network.

One of the signs of your desire to be more authentic to your audience is your new look. Now she takes her hair natural, all white and as lavish as ever.

“My hair grew during delivery and it already looked like (Albert) Einstein. When I finally put myself in the hands of the hairdresser, he asked me if I was going to dye and I decided not to. I am entering a new phase as myself, an 80-year-old man with all his gray hair, ”he explained.

However, the biggest change Kreutzberger has made seems to have happened inside. The driver has been receiving psychiatric therapy for weeks, “to keep improving as a person”.

“We can all get better and that’s what I’m working on, a better husband, a better father, a better grandfather,” he acknowledged.

After thousands of interviews, it’s hard to think that Don Francisco needs improvement in that area, but he said his new program, if not better, will be very different.

“This experience with the covid has changed us all, it has made us more open and vulnerable. It is an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other. It is what I want to offer ”, he said.