Fernanda Torres, photographed by Tom Barreto in a dress by Dior. What a moment. I have so many questions for you. How do you become such an independent artist in this Hollywood? This is so amazing. But I really am just blown away by you and your career. This was because of the film, really. I think I understood her, and I made a huge effort not to betray herβ.
I felt the burden when Walter [Salles] invited me. He pursued realism, I think. He was a great director to not allow it to happen. Did you win your Cannes awardβ. You were talking about realism, and how you want to avoid fakery.
I know about your mother [the actress Fernanda Montenegro], and I want to get to all of that later. But first, can you talk to me about hearing about your Oscar nomination? Because I know what a big moment that is. Walter was doing films abroad, but then he came back to Brazil to do a personal story. I wanted him to like it, to do something special there. I believe so much that when you do something really local, you go universal. I was talking about my childhood. I lived in a house just like that.
My mother reminded me a lot of Euniceβthe intelligence, a kind of woman that is down-to-earth and courageous. It has so much to do with my childhood that I think it became universal because of that. There are many things happening at once. It was a very violent time in the world, and again now, but there is a difference, I think. Art at that time was more powerful than it is today. In Brazil, music, theater, cinema, it really had more powerβ.
If you think of the s, though, that was not great for women. Women, there are much more places for us to be. I cannot stand it. If you make the women powerful, then the men are idiots. When I see a movie where the man is an idiot, I get pissed. Because that creates tension, right?
