Brazilian actress receives her first Oscar nomination for her powerful performance in 'I'm Still Here,' a true story about a woman who fought for justice against Brazil's military dictatorship. The film also received a surprise Best Picture nomination.
The Brazilian actress has taken the awards race by storm, landing her first Oscar nomination for her powerful performance in ' I'm Still Here ,' which also scored a surprise Best Picture nod.
The actress and author, 59, is a big star in her native Brazil — a country that has put an enormous amount of support behind her performance in Walter Salles'The movie centers on the true story of Eunice Paiva, whose husband Rubens (Selton Mello), a former congressman in Brazil, disappears at the hands of the country's military dictatorship in the early 1970s. Eunice is imprisoned and tortured (as is one of her daughters, but Eunice — and the audience — don't know for how long at first) as interrogators try to get information out of her — information that she legitimately doesn't have. Once released, Eunice dedicates her life to learning the truth about her husband's fate and becoming a human rights advocate and attorney — all the while still raising her five children.in January, an achievement made all the more personal by the fact that her mother, celebrated actress Fernanda Montenegro, was a Golden Globe and Oscar nominee 25 years ago for Walter Salles', the 'long marathon' that is the road to the Oscars, how she's navigated the 'old-fashioned campaign' for the movie, whether she was nervous to portray such an important figure in Brazil's history, filming those interrogation scenes, and more.We knew what had happened with this family, but we didn't know the details. You had the headlines that the dictatorship had killed and tortured one of the members, and that the body has never been returned, and that this woman has been left alone with five children, but we didn't have the . Then in the '80s, the youngest son became a very famous writer because he lost the movements of his body in a very silly accident. And what was amazing was that this beautiful boy lost his movements and he wrote this book about his recovery that was so alive, so incredible — there was no self-pity, nothing close to that, that we all fell in with Marcelo. I knew Eunice first as the widow of Rubens and then as the mother of Marcelo, but we didn't have any idea of this woman. She never wanted to be recognized for anything. And then years ago, Marcelo wrote the book,, where he tells the whole story about the disappearance of Rubens, his father, in the '70s and also in his adulthood, how he discovered that the great heroine of the family, was his mother. She went back to university at the age of 46 after becoming a widow with five children, and she became this great human rights lawyer, and she participated in the Constitution of Brazil, the new one that brought democracy back to Brazil. She defended indigenous rights; she is responsible for indigenous reserves in Brazil — the forest is still there because of her. So it's an immense human being. And then as she had Alzheimer's, Marcelo thought that her memory would be erased... and at the same time that the country was losing its memory about the dictatorship. So it's the story of a family, but it's also the story of a country, and it's also the story of the world because I think they were victims not of a dictatorship that happened in Brazil but of the Cold War. The Cold War sponsored all the dictatorships in South America. So it's also the story of all of us. Once you came to know all of that about her and then Walter Sallas, the producers, whoever it might've been, come to you with this role, were you thrilled at the chance to play her or intimidated? I felt the responsibility to do a movie and to do work that would be faithful to her because, you see, she's a woman that refused to be portrayed as a victim. So me and Walter, we talked with each other about not making a melodrama out of this story. It's a tragic story, but it's not sad. She was able to raise those five children, and they endured. Sometimes I think that even the book and the film now, with this great success and recognition, is still a job of Eunice even after death. very civilized woman in a very uncivilized moment of history who pursued justice knowing that even if it would take four decades, she would win at the end. So the film, I think, is part of this resistance because this is very important in her — she was never a victim in the public square. She used her smile and her civility as a weapon. She's a great guide for nowadays.You mentioned the four decades, 40 years later, her story finally being told, and I think there is something to say about the timing of when stories like this finally make their way to all of us, because there is something, unfortunately, to be learned right now from her story and all of the things that she fought for. Totally. Actually, I think it's five decades now. The Cold War was a very dystopic time, and a time of fear. I remember I was afraid of the Red Button; as a child, I hought the world was going to come to an en
Oscar Nomination Brazilian Actress I'm Still Here Walter Salles Eunice Paiva Military Dictatorship Human Rights Advocate
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