Description
Fernanda Montenegro is interviewed by Mateus Araújo Santos at Montenegro’s home in Rio de Janeiro on March 21, 2016.
Montenegro begins the interview by sharing her earliest memories of the cinema culture in Rio de Janei-ro. She talks about how much she loved going to the movies as a child and discusses her early introduc-tion to American and European cinema. She reminisces about her favorite actresses of the time, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, and details how her passion for watching films inspired her to embark upon a career in acting. She talks about the years she spent working as a radio announcer and fondly remembers performing in numerous theater productions from Antigone and Electra to plays by Oscar Wilde and Henrik Ibsen. She shares how she met her husband of more than 50 years, Fernando Torres, and describes their various artistic partnerships throughout the years.
Referring to her transition to cinema, Montenegro discusses her breakthrough role in Leon Hirszman’s A falecida (The Deceased, 1965), and speaks with great admiration about the Brazilian playwright and novelist Nelson Rodrigues, on whose work the film is based. She shares her experiences working with filmmaker Arnaldo Jabor on Tudo bem (Everything’s Alright, 1978) and with director Suzana Amaral on A hora da estrela (The Hour of the Star, 1986), the film adaptation of Clarice Lispector’s novel. Montenegro reminisces about acting with Marília Pêra and Othon Bastos in Walter Salles’s Central do Brasil (Central Station, 1998). She discusses how the international success of the film impacted her ca-reer, recounting how she felt about being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also reminisces about a number of other films, including Marcos Bernstein’s O outro lado da rua (The Other Side of the Street, 2004), Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) and Andrucha Wadding-ton’s Casa de areia (The House of Sand, 2005). Montenegro shares her acting philosophy and techni-ques and illuminates the differences between acting for the theater, television and film. She ultimately concludes that she owes everything to the theater: great friendships, a lifelong companion in Fernando Torres and a rich and fulfilling acting career.
(jtakahashi 7/21/17)
