Mayrín Villanueva says mature women are finally getting lead roles

Mayrín Villanueva’s leading role in Corazón de Oro landed her squarely at the center of Univision’s summer lineup, with TelevisaUnivision setting the telenovela to premiere July 14 at 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT. In an exclusive conversation, Villanueva made the case that mature women are finally getting the lead roles they deserve, and her casting gave that point immediate on-screen weight.

Corazón de Oro was billed as a major launch for the network and paired Villanueva with Gabriel Soto and Gala Montes, with Diego Olivera also linked to the cast. That lineup matters because Villanueva is not playing a decorative supporting part or a passing mother figure. She is one of the faces carrying the drama, which is exactly the kind of shift longtime telenovela viewers can see in real time when a network puts an actress with staying power at the center of a flagship production.

Villanueva’s career makes that placement even more telling. Apple TV’s profile of her notes that she made her television debut in Preciosa in 1998, played Diana Soriano in Niña Amada Mía in 2003, won the Best Female Revelation prize at TVyNovelas for that performance, and later held the female lead in Mentir Para Vivir in 2013. That trail is the story of a performer who has not faded into the margins as she aged, and Corazón de Oro continued that pattern by keeping her in the marquee slot.

The broader shift is visible beyond one title. TelevisaUnivision has long framed telenovelas as a genre built on multi-generational emotion and family conflict, a format that gives mature women room to lead as mothers, lovers, rivals, and moral centers rather than background support. The network also previously pointed to a 2019 telenovela built around a gay couple as leading characters, another sign that its storytelling has been widening in both age and representation.

For telenovela fans, the change is practical, not abstract. A lead actress like Villanueva brings different romantic dynamics, more complicated family stakes, and a longer emotional history to the screen. Corazón de Oro turned that into casting reality, and Villanueva’s comments matched what viewers were already seeing: mature women are no longer waiting at the edge of the story. They are carrying it.