Sitting on a beautiful rooftop overlooking a wide street in Taormina, Italy, Oscar-nominated Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres still can’t believe she’s finally arrived in Sicily. Torres, who is in town to receive the Taormina Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, told Variety that it had been her “long-time dream” to visit the region.
“My family is of Italian descent, so I’m very touched,” he continued, recalling when his mother, Brazil’s leading actor Fernanda Montenegro, won the award in the same town in 1978. “Ever since then, I’ve always wanted to visit. I have friends who have been to the festival, but it’s always been a dream. I’ve never been to Sicily, so it was surreal to be able to pay my respects here.”
Almost two years after I’m Still Here made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Torres is still reaping the benefits of starring in Walter Salles’ Oscar-winning drama, which also plays at the festival. “I got this recognition because of “I’m Still Here,” where I played Eunice Paiva, also a woman of Italian descent,” she says.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Torres continues. “At a time when immigration is such a big issue in the world, Eunice and I both represent this migration movement that has changed Brazil so much, and now in a way we are both recognized here in Italy. I think this is a very beautiful thing.”
Torres said such sustained momentum is “very rare” in the industry. “We spend our whole lives making films like this. Walter hasn’t made a film in 10 years, so we’re thrilled that he’s come back to film for Eunice and made a film that reflects the history of this amazing woman in such a powerful way. This film is so special because it brought together a divided Brazil over human rights and justice. It’s a rare film.”
“I’m Still Here” (Courtesy of Globoplay)
Credit: Alile Dara Onawale – Globoplay
Yesterday, Brett Goldstein released a new episode of his podcast “Films to Be Buried With” featuring his “Office Romance” co-star Jennifer Lopez. During the episode, Lopez broke down in tears as she talked about watching I’m Still Here with her family during her breakup with Ben Affleck. When asked by Goldstein, “What movie changed your perspective on something or made you see the world in a new way?”, the multihyphenate chose “I’m Still Here.”
Lopez said she came to the film at a time when she was “going through a divorce and thinking about my kids a lot.” She added that watching the film with her family over Christmas “healed a part of me that needed healing.”
Variety showed Torres footage of Lopez in action. The actor became visibly emotional while watching it. When the video reached its end, Torres took a deep breath and simply said, “Wow, that really touched me.”
“This reaction speaks deeply to Walter’s work,” she added. “It’s a political film, but it’s also a film about family. It’s an old-fashioned story about a mother left alone raising five children. It’s a Greek tragedy that transcends any political stance or ideology. No matter where you come from, anyone can understand the basic idea of family. That’s the sensitivity characteristic of Walter’s work. It’s a human issue.”
The actor remembers feeling similar emotions when he first saw the film. “It’s hard to explain this aspect of memory. This movie shows so beautifully how these images shot in Super 8 that you initially believe are real, then turn into fragments. Movies have this ability to preserve and protect memories.”
“It’s great that a woman like Eunice can express this to people,” she says of Lopez’s reaction. “It’s such an honor to play her and see this continued impact. It’s very emotional for me.”
As for future plans, Torres has two projects lined up. One is Andrucha Waddington’s “Os Corretores,” which she also wrote, and the other is Barbara Paz’s “Cuddle,” in which she co-stars with Willem Dafoe.
As for what kind of projects he’s drawn to after the “I’m Still Here” craze, Torres says it took him a full year to recover from a “hectic” festival run and touring to promote the film. “‘The Brokers’ was a project that had been sitting in my creative drawer for a while, and then I decided to do it. I’m just thrilled about Barbara’s film, because I think her documentary about Hector Babenco (‘Babenco: Tell Me When I Die’) was very memorable.”
“[Paz]invited me to do this interesting story with Willem Dafoe, an artist I really admire, and I happen to live in Italy, so now everything feels like it’s come full circle a little bit,” she says. “I feel very happy. I have to confess, it took me a while to get over the ‘I’m still here’ phenomenon, but I feel that way now.”
