Fernanda Torres Interview: I'm Still Here Wasn't Acting, "We Were Just Being"

I've got eight random questions and you get to pick three numbers and each one corresponds to a different random question [Music] okay so what is your first number of eight three so this one we call other jobs if you could learn more about another job on a film set what job would you pick and why I think I would pick what I picked so far when I thought about another thing with script writer that's I think what I I would like to do at I end up doing doing quite a bit of that right now

I like hearing that yeah all right what is your second number out of eight two all right two is a nice one this one we call the little things I just want to know a seemingly small thing in your everyday life that brings you Joy someone out there might think it's small and meaningless but to you it brightens your day being alone my house really I love to be alone it's my great Gab ah I get that so much need the recharge time the me time I need it so much and I think I have

a kind of social phobia well especially when you're as busy doing what you're doing right now with ctoa the other day the actor he told me I I thought I was okay with my sociophobia but then I went to another screening and I want to go home I get that all too well I feel like I run around to all of these press days and all these events but I can do it because then I go home and I hibernate after that's it everyone needs their hibernation time all right you got one more number to

pick what is your last number M seven okay number seven is a fun one this is called set vice do you have an onset Vice something like like a food or a drink or something you turn to that helps you power through a really long day on set espresso you know I I I I I was never a fan I addicted to coffee and then I went to work in television I was doing a long TV series and they put an espresso machine that I mean it it finished me yesterday I was like in this

long long day of interviews and I was like taking coffee just to wake up and when I went to bed yesterday I was like I said no I shouldn't have done it today I'm trying but coffee coffee as someone who drinks a lot of coffee and has an energy drink at her feet I very much understand that no the energy I don't the the I don't like it and I don't like tea coffee in America you do this I like that creamy coffee Italian one short and Powerful Like a Pill what's up everyone welcome back

for a new edition of collider ladies night one that I've been been eagerly awaiting since Tiff this year when I was lucky enough to celebrate I'm still here with Fernand Torres I get to say congratulations yet again can't wait to talk thank you very much I mean and it's wonderful to meet you again what is the movie you saw performance you saw personal experience you had whatever it may be that first made you say to yourself I absolutely have to be an actor my parents on stage of course I mean that's I was raised in

the wings of theater our dining table was the place where they rehearsed so I would come from school and those crazy people are like rehearsing jeat H Miller nelso Rodriguez Eugene O'Neil and and it's a profession that your parents do with such a love and you can feel that they're enjoying it sometimes more than being at home then start to think oh it must be good to do that so that was it I get that I'm going to come back to them in a moment but first I wanted to make sure to ask this question

because I feel like sometimes you can decide I want to become an actor but it's another thing to really believe in your ability to do it so do you remember the very first thing you did that you know gave you confidence in your craft made you say to yourself like I'm good at this and I deserve to be here good good I don't know you know because I had my parents but at the same time time in Brazil during the 70s this theater group with a strange name of as Tron which is a name that

doesn't make sense they were the MTI Pyon of Brazil we all wanted to be like them they were like uh they were amazing comedians uh so I started because of it and I was very young I went to this theater school at the age of 12 perhaps and I did this old lady and I I had the feeling we did it at the end of the year that perhaps I should do it but then to think that I I did something good it took a while so you you did that uh that class when you

were 12 did you go on to do any other formal training or was it more about learning on the job it was a very practical uh school a lot of improvisation and then all my generation we all learned uh practicing and it's funny because at that time was a really a time of grovy and improvisation and it was a theater against the text you could not do that was old style should improvise and my parents came from this generation that really liked plagues and and and talking and Shakespeare and so I had this kind of

uh generation collision with my parents and my generation and later it was wonderful to have both of it the capability of improvising together with the capability of delivering a line what advice would you give to a newer actor who is intimidated by improvisation what are the first kind of like baby steps one can take to get them comfortable with that part of the craft there would be no other way dear come on and when I started to write uh I discovered that it had a lot to do with improvising as an actor you just jump

into the skin of a character and you start to behave like him and suddenly a lot of things come from that and writing has a lot to do with improvising that's interesting like with with me sitting here looking at my notes that I wrote out the only way that I can improvise and listen and come up with uh follow-up questions that I had in planed is because I wrote it all out and I can kind of free my mind exactly first you have to to structure it in some form so you can deliver it it

makes all the sense in the world jumping into your first credits now I know you were on Two telen noas And I've had a lot of guests on the show who tell me no it's not tel noas no I did one soap at the age of 18 that I hat it so much oh no I hat it so much and I was like the the I was the mosa the the little heroine and they cry they just cry and every I hated it so much that I said I cannot do it I and it was

a problem because in Brazil the soap poer industry is very strong with a lot of great things it's not that it's bad but it's it was not for me then it took a long time I went to cinema I went to theater and finally I was called to a sitcom and I discovered myself in television because then you you don't have to cry just have a great time in a very heavy industry and I did two it's a sitcom it's a series that were very popular and after two films out of it and the other

one was five years five years when you are on a show for five years I mean I imagine some of this can be attributed to writing but what is the key to making the experience feel fresh and continuously creatively fulfilling for you the group I mean it we did it like we do it in theater or like when I do it with vter it's a group so we all friends and in a way we prod produced that among ourselves so we would choose the people who would come in so the group of actors and directors

were really important for that but it was at that time because it's tough you mean you repeat a lot of times the same scene and that was when I wrote the first novel I wrote Because I I I needed escape and I could not do theater working so much as a actress and television and then I wrote a novel that became very successful later so it was interesting I heard is that the novel that you then adapted to screen yeah that's it I need to I need to get around to reading it I'll give it

to you oh I would love that I am uh I am an audiobook Fiend I just like I can't stop listening to audiobooks I take them everywhere I go love audio books I love it what's the last thing you listen to you know I decided to learn Italian because I have this citizenship and I said I have to speak Italian and then I heard all uh Elena feran Laika jali do you know this one I do not it's a Blockbuster in Italy and all around the world wonderful then italin do you knowto EO the name

of the Rose I don't think so the great Italian right come on there is a film with Sean connory oh okay and then I can fandal in Italian amazing amazing amazing and Victor GMA say dant amazing I love getting homework from these uh these interviews that always makes me so happy going back to going back to your parents actually because those early shows I I believe both of them were on one or the other I'm curious what is something about each of their approaches to their work as an actor that you appreciated and kind of

Incorporated in your own but then also what is something that you wanted to be unique to you and how you tackled your work as an actor with my mother and father in the beginning you see to to do Cinema was a way to be separated from them because they were so related to theater I started in theater but then I did like four movies in a row that were very successful in Brazil and in one of them I won a pal doring at the age of 19 so that created for me a kind of Separation

that I existed and them existed separately and and later was like but it was not easy you see many times they compared me with my mother and my mother something that you cannot reach so I just forget about it and just move on and also my generation wanted to to be actors so I had a generation was not only something related to my parents I had my generation to to grow with so that was important I think I always like asking um actors about their relationship with with Awards and those types of honors like the

palm of or because I know that's not why you do the work but depending on when you get that kind of recognition it could really mean something to you personally so at 19 what did that honor mean to you in Brazil I was doing the soap opera so I was thinking about giving up I mean the profession and and then I got that award and I was in Brazil shooting the soap opera and in the streets at that time nowadays it wouldn't be like this but at that time it became like a World Cup like

a soccer award that became like a p was something like unbelievable but and then I young I believed well now I'll have an international career I I I I made all kind of oh I would do just Cinema and that was when the first president elected in Brazil he just closed Andra fil me who was the the I mean andrai was the the the main producer of sim Nea in Brazil and they just destroyed it so Cinema was over in Brazil when I thought I would be doing a lot of movies but it saved me

because I went to theater and I did Orlando by Virginia wolf so was rehearsing for six months and I did a play and so sometimes the difficulties or something that you dream so Awards normally awards are related to something that you have done but the problem is that what we're going to do after and sometimes you think that it's the end of your career like this like there's no more movies in Brazil and you go to theater and discover A Whole New World mhm you brought you just brought up International Cinema and this had crossed

my mind and I don't know if this is something that ever interested you or you wanted but a lot of times I've spoken to actors on ladies night who started their careers in other parts of the world and they've expressed to me that they hit a point where they're like I want to go to Hollywood and make it there was that ever an an itch for you I think it was not never possible for me first I was not like I I don't know I never had like a film that hit internationally even with the

Palm Door the film didn't succeed and or I should move and try a life abroad or I should stay in Brazil and work and Brazil That's funny because in Brazil you know I you can reach things I mean nowadays I I I write in the main newspaper I can uh publish books I can do plays I can do Cinema I can write scripts I have so many options as a producer uh and once in a while a film like valter's movie appears and then you go and the other possibility and and I have friends who

did it and a very successful is to move but then you have to move and I never never had a reason to move because my life was so incredible there that I never had this necessity of living Brazil so really beautiful thing to have and after we published uh the interview that we did at Tiff I was just watching the comment section get flooded with people who were so excited to see you on collider because what you've done for Cinema there has meant so much to them so yeah you'll see really a really beautiful thing

to have established but Brazil is a strange country because we are surrounded by ocean and Spanish speaking countries so we feel isolated but we are 200 million people and uh we consume our own culture so it's uh you feel isolated and once in a while something that you do go internationally and we are so proud of it but most of the time we live in this Greenland of Portuguese uh people and creative people is there anything unique to making a film in Brazil that that you really appreciated and maybe wish that more Industries across the

world were aware of because maybe adopting that practice could help them for the better the practice I don't know I what what we feel for instance I've read European literature American literature Asian not so much uh but for us like that you don't know who Nelson Rodriguez is that you don't know who mashad justes Claris Spectre now is starting to be known and mashad bit it's like oao who is a Portuguese genius uh I'm sure all the cultures has this I mean when you know the canons of literature or Cinema but you don't know some

films uh how can I translate it you cannot so it's okay but uh I don't know if that was the question but uh it's not only in cinema but culturally you see oh no it's music no music uh travels more Brazilian music is something that travels but literature uh it's like my mother when Central Station was out and she was recognized with the the talent and the power that she has abroad was like we knew it this kind of Pride you see you're going to feel so much of that yourself like now and in the

coming months turn turning that idea towards you specifically again I was just like really Blown Away by how excited people were to see you know us highlighting I'm still here and in particular your work do you remember the very first time that you yourself recognized what your work as an actor could do for other people perhaps like a fan encounter that really struck you and made you realize like the work I do matters ah many times now I I don't know I have this monologue that I've been doing by this great great Brazilian author and

and and it's the life the sex life of this woman that she's 70 years old I started doing this monologue I was 35 and I have been doing then I stop I come back to it and I'm I don't have her age yet one day I'll reach her age and I hope to do a movie about her and it's so amazing I mean and the way she speaks about sex is and in a way the story of sex in the 20th century in Brazil uh it's wonderful I mean and I know I changed a lot

of thing with with this and the sitcom was the first sitcom in Brazil that was really and was about this uh their fiances it's they look normal but they were punks inside so the the new Behavior uh the new relationship that they provoked in Brazil was so important and now with I'm still here I'm still here open in Brazil and I mean brought people back to the cinemas it's totally full totally full with people like applauding and and hugging each other people like a mess I don't know this is so beautiful so beautiful and foreign

land that I did with vter and so many moments now because I mean I've lived for a while and I've been around for a while and you've been filling us up with all this wonderful content ever since I'm so excited to see the response that this movie in particular is getting I mean you already know I I think so so highly of it and the work all of you deliver in it to start to tiptoe into making I'm so here now can you tell me something about your approach to your work that stays the same

from film to film to film but then also something about this one that called for something different I think I always work as a co-author and also I'm very faithful to my directors and my crew I think I'm a good person to work with I mean uh I know how to work in group how to create create a good a good uh place to be and where everybody can uh can be creative and to do it happily so I think I'm able to create it everyone should have the quality in this industry no no but

this is a very important quality oh my God you know because we're not of course we're always selfish everybody's selfish I am selfish too but you also are able to to create a a good good team to working team and to be faithful to your director I mean uh to do not destroy his presence to to be able to listen so I think I have this humble quality and in this film H this film has so many different things that happened I mean to it was profound I mean even when I think about Oni that

stayed with me for almost a year this woman that doesn't show her emotions that feels so much that has such a uh a feeling of Injustice and anger and fear and has to control herself in order to take care of five children and to be rational and at the the same time sweet to smile this her smile is something that when I was like watching the her interviews I said what's this smile about and a lot of times vter would come to me and say in my ear listen it's perfect but don't forget to smile

because that was a key thing to this character and I never felt what I felt with her never I never did tragedy I never did a Greek tragedy on stage or whatever but she has this quality and to make a character that has to abandon naivity her utopian life of a perfect perfect housewife from the 50s and reinvent herself as a lawyer as a defender of Human Rights this is such a big gap and it teaches us so much and to do it like smiling it's a lot it's it's amazing I mean it's amazing I

have so many things to follow up on the the first thing because you you brought up the the kids I did want to talk about your collaboration with the young Ensemble and I I have two questions about working with them because they're phenomenal and I know in some cases this was a first feature for some so being an acting veteran what is something that you know someone more experienced than number one on the call sheet did for you in the past that you appreciated and now wanted to give to this young Ensemble here so many

actors did so many things I mean selton is the same selton my partner he he started as a kid so we remember old old actors in Brazil that we have we worked with I I don't know if you have ever seen by glob give me all the homework I want so many things to watch today so many great actors and they all gave us so many things that I cannot even tell you but my experience in this film because I had the older daughter she's a professional already I call her Greta Garo because she's beautiful

she's talented and she reminded me of myself more beautiful than I was but already in the job then you had Barbara and Louisa and Louisa she had and that's why she was so good to the character she had this a certain kind of insecurity that gave her this uh and I I I felt so much for her because I remember the they were doing the ice cream scene where y he knows that he's dead finally and it's only her with the children and the two girls look at each other and realize that something had happened

so they did my side with tons of extras and the crew and the camera and the noise and the whole thing I did it because now I know how to protect myself how to concentrate among that mess and then the camera moved towards Louisa and Louisa felt terrified she she was frozen and she looked at me and I understood everything and I said it's stuff isn't it when the camera moves towards you and you have to deliver something and I felt so like compelled by her I understood everything and the children they were picked up

in the school and said do you want to do a test for a movie and the little one the girl genius she said and now I'm here and they one day they told us you know now when I watch a movie I I know now oh it's a closeup now they're doing long shot now it's whatever and they never read the whole script so they didn't know one day they came and they said the dog is going to die they were like and he is an Nector I mean G he's a nectar in life and

they brought us freshness they were and we shot chronologically that is an incredible thing that made the whole difference because at a certain point we are not acting anymore we are just being to be or not to be the famous problem you see to do not pretend to feel and this film has this strange quality we are acting of course we're acting but there is something beyond that there's like a real like a like a texture to it and like a depth to everybody even though you know we're only spending a little over two hours

with them and everyone feels like a fully like realized person and like someone we've come to know over the course of the film that family exists and even when the the photographs came at the end you don't feel like oh so these are the real characters there was there is a similarity it's you you don't feel like I saw the fake version and that's the real version no they are all the same so true it's so profound I have to ask a question about working with Walter again and I feel like I can ask a

million questions here's the one that I'll choose can you give me an example of a Time on set when maybe he gave you a thought or a note as an actor's director that helped you crack a scene and that thought or note just speaks to how one-of-a-kind he is as a filmmaker so many times this is beautiful in the beginning I did it and he said nand less and I did it and then he said Les trust me and I said I trust you totally VA and the way he comes and he says something in

your ear this is from C uh foreign lands and very gently and that changes the mood of the scene but uh I remember these two things don't forget the smile everything's perfect and and the feeling that when you do a good thing scene vter is he's so grateful to you and at the s the same time I remember this is funny was the first scene we shot of foreign lands mhm and it was in Lisbon morning and the actor was like on my lap they shot him and then they had to shoot me and was

upshot who was awful for actors in the morning I was like this and I didn't like the lines so I I was not good at the end of the day vter was not talking to me and then next day was like vter he want regrets so it created in me a thing with vter that it's I have to be 100% there that's what he asks from from whoever works with him oh that's a beautiful example you you bringing up the idea of Les at the beginning of that answer is making my mind go down this

path now so you know a lot of this performance is about is about strength and is about her her smiling and and being who her children need at that point but there are a couple of moments in the movie where we do see that composure crack what was it like I guess justifying in your own mind why those particular moments in the script were the right moments for for her to break and and show her true emotion War I think the ice cream scene that for me I remember because at that time I had passed

already I had been in prison I had go back to the house and we've done a lot of the bathroom scene where she she takes that bath I mean we have been for a lot we have been through a lot of things but then we had the ice cream day and I remember that I I arrived I put my wardrobe in wardrobe no my my costume very strange I could feel that she was with me it's not a spiritual I mean the character then I crossed the the square to the ice cream and this heavy

burden it's something really strange when you are so long with the characters suddenly you access it and That Was Then I did the scene and I had to restrain restrain restrain which is the and at the end I I went out of the the set and cried for I don't know 10 minutes and then I could go home and even now when I think about it I mean what a strange thing it is to to to get an emotion right to see to have it mhm and the ritual of putting your costume of becoming someone

else of assessing this kind of emotion and after how you get rid of it and go back home that day was like special day for me I am in awe of how you all put so much of yourselves into these characters and tough situations this is why I sit in this seat cuz I can't do that kind of hard work so I am I am in awe of anyone who can when you were explaining that one other scene really popped in my mindz she you brought you brought up the bathroom scene and I'm just I'm

endlessly fascinated by something like a reaction shot or a dialog L shot where I could see the wheels in her head turning and I specifically think of the shot of you looking at yourself in the mirror because there like there is a multitude of complex emotions in that one shot that you have to capture so I guess how does your process change when you know you have to say all of that without saying anything at all that was like you begged that the way you look to yourself This film is really strange to see because

what is acting in that scene what can you do besides feeling something or understanding deeply an emotion because when you look at yourself what do you do like you will you can't do anything and you hope that there is something there and was one of the scenes when I when I saw the film done alone in the editing room that I said I felt so much for that woman that was not me anymore and that look in the mirror was one of those moments where I didn't do anything I just had the feeling such a

beautiful performance beat I have to wrap with you so we have hit the very last question of ladies night every single ladies night ends with this particular question so in this industry and film and television we give each other Awards and I think that is super cool I think we should always do that I find that nobody tells themselves good job as much as they should so I want to know is something you accomplish making this movie that you know you'll always be able to look back on and say I am so proud of what

I did there I think those two scenes that we talked about but it's more than that to see an actor each character that you do comedy drama whatever you learn with it that's it's like a piano that gets better with the musics you play on that uh keyboard and that's why for instance my mother at the end is so shocking because my mother she's the reunion of all the characters she has done and she has done a lot she can access she understands oh it's m Drama Oh it's comedy she she had felt it so

when you see her face blanked by now timer it's so shocking and so I'm [Music] surei teached me and tuned my instrument which is my soul and my body in a way that it this piano here has never been played before so I think I have now this new keyboard you see this new tune in my soul to exess hearing that beautiful answer I'm going to say huge congratulations on this film thank you so much for being on ladies night it was so nice to get to sit down and have a longer conversation I appreciate

all of the homework I have to do because clearly I need to be exposed more to Brazilian Cinema and you have inspired that in me this year some must SE [Music]