Fernanda Torres On Her Golden Globes-Successful Efficiency In ‘I’m Nonetheless Right here’

In Walter Salles’ Oscar-shortlisted movie I’m Nonetheless Right here, set in 1970 on the peak of Brazil’s navy dictatorship, Fernanda Torres performs a unprecedented mom: Eunice Paiva, who was left to lift 5 kids alone after the disappearance of her activist husband Rubens (performed by Selton Mello). Within the film, as in life, nonetheless, Eunice refuses to be worn down by the scare techniques of the regime, mounting a marketing campaign of defiance that will take up 25 years of the widow’s life earlier than the authorities lastly took duty for this historic crime and issued Ruben’s demise certificates in 1996. The actual Eunice by no means broke down, a minimum of by no means in public. “Photographers needed to take footage of us wanting unhappy, so we began a battle in opposition to the media,” defined her son Marcelo, who wrote the memoir that Salles’ movie relies on. “The household of Rubens Paiva doesn’t cry in entrance of the cameras.”

Torres’ personal mom, Fernanda Montenegro, is an equally formidable determine; a legend on the Brazilian arts scene, Montenegro was herself a Golden Globes nominee, for an additional movie directed by Walter Salles (1999’s Central Station). In contrast to her daughter, Montenegro misplaced out (to Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love), however final August, on the age of 95, the actress hit a milestone of a unique type, making the Guinness Guide of World Information for The Largest Viewers of a Guide Studying (Portuguese Language) after a studying excerpts from French thinker Simone de Beauvoir’s writings to a crowd of 15,000 individuals.

Inevitably, Montenegro was uppermost in Torres’s ideas when she took to the stage on Sunday to obtain the award for Finest Actress in a Movement Image – Drama. “In fact I wish to dedicate this to my mom,” she mentioned. “She was right here 25 years in the past, and that is, like, proof that artwork can endure by way of life.” However Torres additionally has her mom’s indomitable spirit, as she proved on this Zoom interview carried out on the finish of 2024. In actual fact, she had just one request earlier than the dialog began. “Let me simply discover my glasses,” she mentioned, “so I can see you correctly.”

DEADLINE: Clearly, you’ve labored with Walter Salles earlier than, however was it a shock when he got here to you with this movie? What had been the preliminary discussions that you just had with him about I’m Nonetheless Right here?

FERNANDA TORRES: Earlier than he invited me to participate, I already knew that he was going to do that movie. In the future, as a result of we’re good associates, he gave me the script to learn, and he mentioned, “I’d such as you to inform me what you assume.” I cried once I learn it, and I mentioned, “It’s great, Walter.” However I believed he would do it with another person, as a result of I used to be too outdated to play Eunice. At the start, she’s 41. I’m 59 now, and I used to be 57 at the moment. So, the day he invited me to participate within the film, I believed he needed me to work on the script with him. I had no thought. After which I began to work, and get actually deep into the method.

DEADLINE: What did you do?

TORRES: The very first thing is that Walter waited a very long time to solid the actress for this half. So, when he requested me, I believed I couldn’t simply deal with the primary studying like another first studying, I believed I ought to put together myself, to offer him one thing [substantial]. So, on my own, for a month, I went to an appearing coach, and I labored on Eunice in order that, on my first studying, I had a glimpse of Eunice already. There was one thing there.

Afterward, we began to work with one other coach, one who stayed on the film for the entire course of. She labored with us [to create] a way of household. In fact, we additionally had the home. The home is a personality within the film, and that home turned our house. Walter shot every part chronologically, so every part that occurs to Eunice, or to anyone else, was taking place to us, too. The day I mentioned goodbye to Selton was the day Selton—my good friend, who I really like—was leaving the film, and [after that] I must keep alone with the kids and the unusual males that had come to the home. In the home, there was no mild any extra.

For instance, after we did the social gathering scene [early on in the movie], these individuals you see are all associates, and we had been all actually comfortable that Walter was coming again to Brazil to shoot a film. All of us had such satisfaction that we needed him to have expertise. So, in that social gathering, we had been all comfortable and partying. Immediately, that feeling is over, and [my character] is taken to jail. I come again to that home to satisfy my cute household, and I’m completely different.

The entire course of was very [organic]. From the start, Walter informed me, “Much less, much less.” I bear in mind him saying that, telling me, “Belief me, please. Much less.” And I mentioned, “I belief you utterly, Walter.” In actual fact, I spent virtually a complete yr with this movie, as a result of I did a complete a part of I’m Nonetheless Right here that’s not within the ultimate film, that maybe can be [reinstated] within the streaming model. The movie didn’t want it. All of us tried—in my case, and I feel Walter’s case as properly—to be loyal to Eunice Paiva. You see, she was the primary information for us.

DEADLINE: Did you do a lot analysis into her story? How a lot did you resolve you needed to find out about Eunice?

TORRES: Effectively, I knew it already, as a result of I’d learn the e-book. We talked in regards to the script, however the very first thing I did when the e-book was out was to learn it, as a result of Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the creator, is a superb good friend. And in addition, he was a hero of my youth, of my adolescence, as a result of he wrote this e-book— Feliz Ano Velho (Glad Outdated Yr, 1982)—about his accident. He was this stunning boy that couldn’t transfer anymore [after jumping in a shallow lake at the age of 20], however wrote this very simple e-book about his accident, asking himself if he was ever going to have intercourse once more, which will need to have been actually laborious coming from a man who’d misplaced his motion.

So, he was a hero, and he turned an excellent good friend. I all the time knew that his father had been kidnapped and tortured and killed by the navy dictatorship, however no one knew how. And never solely me—journalists, and individuals who had been often very well-informed didn’t know both. So, when Marcelo launched the e-book, I ran to learn it, as a result of I all the time needed to know what had occurred to Rubens Paiva.

DEADLINE: Did making this movie deliver again any reminiscences?

TORRES: The home [in the film] was like the home of my youth in Rio. I may really feel it, scent it. I knew these sorts of individuals, Eunice jogged my memory of my mom within the ’70s. I knew what Walter was speaking about, that type of Rio de Janeiro. After which the story will not be solely in regards to the father, however about this wonderful mom. The imaginative and prescient I’ve of Eunice is the wonderful girl that was in Marcelo’s first e-book, which additionally turned a theater play. And her character within the play was very shifting, this robust girl who helped her boy to get better. However this new e-book was rather more than that. This e-book talks in regards to the coup. The e-book may make 4 seasons of a sequence, as a result of you have got the coup, you have got Rubens escaping to the Yugoslavian embassy, gunshots, airplanes, after which he comes again. It’s unbelievable.

I didn’t know any of that. The e-book was my foremost useful resource, and in addition the interviews that she gave. It’s wonderful, as a result of, within the interviews, you have got this very elegant, well mannered girl, who’s very persuasive, however in a delicate method. She’s all the time smiling, even when she’s telling you that her husband by no means returned house. Even when she was speaking about Marcelo’s accident, she had that smile. I’d by no means encountered that earlier than. It’s not chilly, nevertheless it’s not heat both. It’s one thing in-between. That is somebody who confronted massive tragedies in life however was nonetheless working and knew make life go on. I’ve by no means encountered this.

DEADLINE: Deadline’s evaluate of the movie means that a part of the movie’s message is that being comfortable may be an act of rebel in itself…

TORRES: Good. And what’s wonderful is how she handed this on to Marcelo, as a result of that was the shocking factor about him—he was paralyzed, however he refused to turn out to be a sufferer of that. After which once you uncover Eunice, you uncover that it began along with her. It’s about face tragedy and never collapse. I don’t know in case you have this expression in English, however she did it with a straight backbone. It means you weren’t damaged. That’s the factor: If I’m not damaged, it doesn’t essentially imply that I’m robust. That’s the factor about Eunice. She was all the time very female. It’s a feminist story, however she doesn’t appear to be a feminist heroine.

And she or he has plenty of contradictions. Like the truth that she by no means informed the kids what occurred with their father. On one hand, you perceive it. It was very tough to elucidate to kids from seven to 18. It’s one thing you can not clarify. I feel she didn’t wish to move over to them the bitterness that she felt when she found that disappointment, the sensation that humanity doesn’t exist, all of that. I feel she couldn’t inform this to the kids due to all of the bitterness, all of the anger that it will create. However, then again, she by no means mentioned something in any respect, which is merciless, in method. So, it’s not that she’s a heroine, a girl with out contradictions. No, she’s filled with them. It’s a hell of a personality to play.

DEADLINE: Walter’s filmmaking could be very romantic and really nostalgic right here, and but we see the military, we see the planes. Have been you conscious of all that as a toddler? Have been you conscious of what was happening within the background?

TORRES: In fact, as a result of I lived in that idyllic Rio earlier than the violence, earlier than the excessive buildings that destroyed Ipanema. I bear in mind as a toddler, the concern that my dad and mom had of the dictatorship. Performs could possibly be censored. I imply, my father [actor-director Fernando Torres] virtually went bankrupt as a result of they censored a play that he produced with Chico Buarque and Ruy Guerra [called Calabar, 1973, about 17^th-century Portuguese soldier Domingos Fernandes Calabar]. It was an enormous musical, an enormous manufacturing. And it was cancelled, the day earlier than the opening. I used to be raised with all of the costumes from the manufacturing in my grandmother’s home. There was a warehouse there with all of the costumes from Calabar that had been by no means used.

All this I came upon later. We moved lots. I used to be born in Rio, we moved to São Paulo, and we got here to Rio within the ’70s, actually in a rush. However my father stayed in São Paulo. And he stayed there as a result of his producing associate was arrested, similar to Rubens Paiva. However his associate was sponsoring the guerrillas, and my father didn’t know! So, he stayed in São Paulo, and my mom, in a method, escaped to Rio. I bear in mind, I spent a yr with out my father, with out understanding what was happening. I used to be youthful than Marcelo. I used to be 5 or 6 years outdated.

Afterward, I bear in mind the concern I had. You bear in mind the tunnel scene at first of the film, when the oldest woman is within the automotive? That was my adolescence—we had been all afraid of the police. And we’re all nonetheless afraid of the police in Brazil. The police may be actually robust. This, I feel, is a part of our historical past, nevertheless it turned worse through the dictatorship, they usually had been after college students. I used to be raised with a concern of police. And even on the finish of dictatorship, when the navy needed to open the nation and finish the dictatorship, there was part of the military who didn’t need them to.

One evening, my mom and my father heard a gunshot of their room in São Paulo. They had been in a play, and somebody had known as the theater to say that if my mom went onstage, she could be killed. There have been bomb threats. And I bear in mind, in fact, when [fashion designer and activist] Zuzu Angel was killed [in 1976]. They mentioned it was an accident…

It was an odd time. I grew up in a rustic that was completely closed to the world. We had the sensation that we had been condemned to Brazil. Condemned. So, I bear in mind it actually vividly. Nevertheless it was additionally a time when theater, music, artwork—every part was actually robust and fascinating. [Laughs.] We didn’t have so many events [as the Paivas], however our home was similar to that. That was my childhood.

DEADLINE: Your mom additionally seems within the movie. Have you ever labored along with her a lot earlier than?

TORRES: Many instances. We did one cleaning soap opera. We did an avant-garde theater play the place I’d eat her coronary heart. She would…. What do you name it once you take the pinnacle off? She would behead me! [Laughs.] I did The Seagull, Chekhov’s play along with her. [In 2005] we did The Home of Sand [directed by Torres’ partner Andrucha Waddington], which is a fantastic movie. We spent two months within the northeast of Brazil on this wonderful place. We play mom and daughter, then I get pregnant, and the movie jumps—I don’t know what number of years—and I turn out to be the child and he or she turns into who I used to be. It’s a narrative that spans 100 years, I feel. And not too long ago we labored with [British director] Isaac Julien. We did an set up known as A Marvelous Entanglement about [Brazilian architect] Lina Bo Bardi. We’ve labored collectively many, many instances, and it all the time works out properly.

DEADLINE: What’s your reminiscence of her being nominated for Central Station in 1999?

TORRES: I bear in mind she was 70. I bear in mind her telling me, “’Nanda, I’m 70 years outdated. I’ve finished every part I needed to do in my life, I’ve performed all of the characters I needed to play, and I feel now it’s a time to shut my door. It’s over, I feel.” However then: Oscar! And she or he hasn’t stopped since. [Laughs.] Yearly she says, “Subsequent yr, I’ve to cease. I can’t work the best way I’ve been working.” She’s a workaholic. Extreme workaholic. She simply tailored a monologue about Simone de Beauvoir. It’s an excellent adaptation. She did it in a theater for 1,000 individuals they usually projected it on the identical time to a park with 15,000 individuals.

DEADLINE: Clearly, the movie is out on the planet now. You took it to Venice, and also you’ve proven it to audiences all over the world. What has been the response internationally and the way does that evaluate to the response at house in Brazil?

TORRES: It’s just about alike, in the best way it provokes a commotion in individuals. And it’s not a tragic type of commotion. There’s nothing [shocking] within the film. You don’t have pornographic scenes of torture. You don’t have a sense of, “Oh, how unhappy.” There’s something… I can not clarify it. Do you’re feeling it? You don’t get unhappy, you get touched. There’s hope within the film, as a result of these individuals endured. The boy you see on the display screen went on to put in writing the e-book that’s being filmed, and it’s being filmed by somebody who was truly in that home. Walter is opening the home windows of that home once more. Selton informed me, “You recognize, surprisingly sufficient, this movie is the physique of Rubens Paiva. It’s the proof that he’s alive.”

DEADLINE: Has it had a big effect in Brazil? Did individuals know the story?

TORRES: Individuals need to know the story. In Brazil, like America, we’re just about divided between right-wing extremists and progressives, and lots of people who I feel should not right-wing extremists most likely voted the best way they did as a result of they didn’t need [what the left was offering]. However, proper or left, individuals had been touched by the film. Why? As a result of that household is cute, and since they didn’t deserve what occurred to them. Individuals with all types of beliefs can agree that it’s a fantastic film. It created a cultural satisfaction, as a result of in Brazil generally we hate our personal tradition. Not the music, however theater, cinema. It’s hated and it’s liked. However this movie created a love wave for cinema, I feel.

DEADLINE: You talked about music. Do you assume I’m Nonetheless Right here will do something for Brazilian rock band Os Mutantes?

TORRES: Os Mutantes doesn’t want the film! [Laughs.] I’ve 4 boys. Two are my stepsons and I’ve two sons, so, that’s 4 boys. All of them take heed to Os Mutantes. All of them. They’ve by no means been extra in style. They take heed to it time and again…