FERNANDA TORRES:We knew what had happened with this family, but we didn’t know the details.
She never wanted to be recognized for anything.
So it’s an immense human being.
Fernanda Torres in ‘I’m Still Here’.Adrian Teijido/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
So it’s also the story of all of us.
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.
Natalia Agatte
She was able to raise those five children, and they endured.
She used her smile and her civility as a weapon.
She’s a great guide for nowadays.
Selton Mello and Fernanda Torres in ‘I’m Still Here’.Alile Onawale/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Actually, I think it’s five decades now.
The Cold War was a very dystopic time, and a time of fear.
And again, now, for other reasons and also because of the Red Button we are afraid.
Fernanda Torres at the 2025 Golden Globes.CBS
We are all afraid.
So again, we are living in dystopic times.
And I think that’s what she teaches her son.
Fernanda Torres and director Walter Salles on the set of ‘I’m Still Here’.Sofia Paciullo/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
And it’s been like this.
I’m in the last month of my marathon, and it’s quite a marathon.
Nowadays, I respect all those actors who do international movies because it’s a hell of a work.
Fernanda Torres in ‘I’m Still Here’.Adrian Teijido/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
I’m really impressed with this.
There’s been a fire brewing underneath this film.
What do you attribute to that emerging love and support?
Fernanda Montenegro (center) in ‘I’m Still Here’.Adrian Teijido/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
That’s because we were working before the film came to be noticed.
We did a very old-fashioned campaign.
It’s not a film that had lots of money to be released.
And a film in Portuguese.
A lot of folks had started saying to watch out for you to get in for Best Actress.
But the one that I think really took everyone by surprise was the Best Picture nomination.
Searchlight Pictures; MUBI
Oh, you broke the news.
I broke the news.
I said, “And Best Film, Walter!
Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’.A24
It was nominated!”
And he said, “Really?!
For Best Film?!”
Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, and director Sean Baker on the set of ‘Anora’.Neon /Courtesy Everett
Because for him, the international and the nomination for actress were the main goals for us.
And then he didn’t hear it.
And a lot of people have problems with subtitles, especially in America.
Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’.Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures
So it’s really a miracle.
I’m curious what your thoughts are on that and how you’ve been able to navigate that yourself.
You have to think about what you have to say.
Zoe Saldaña in ‘Emilia Pérez’.PAGE 114 - WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS - PATHÉ FILMS - FRANCE 2 CINÉMA
Things can be taken out of context in ways that we don’t always like.
And it’s very terrifying, the size of the Oscar campaign.
I was afraid because it’s a huge responsibility.
‘The Wild Robot’.Dreamworks Animation
it’s possible for you to lose yourself thinking that it’s about you.
It can become a vein thing that you are campaigning for yourself.
So she’s another great guide.
She’s the guide.
She is the reason why we are here, and especially I am here.
Eunice a. and her daughter are taken to jail for questioning about their husband and father.
Eunice keeps track of the days by etching on the wall.
She doesn’t know if her daughter’s alive.
She doesn’t know if her husband’s alive.
What was at the heart of all of that for you?
What was top of mind as you were going through those two weeks of imprisonment?
First of all, we shot chronologically.
Frances McDormand at the 2018 Oscars.Oscars/YouTube
So that helped us to really dive in parallel with the character.
No, he has chosen a very, very intelligent actor.
So he is a very, very skilled actor, and he was terrifying.
And in that scene, she has so many levels of worries.
So he didn’t tell her things and…
For good reason he didn’t want her to know.
And it was not like he had anything to do with guns or war.
He was just sending letters to people who were in exile.
But she didn’t know that.
So of course she’s angry with him.
So she discovers so many terrifying things that it’s such a rich scene.
And this characters is all about this: Move on, don’t go back.
Isn’t that so true?
“And he said, “I always think about it, who she would have become.”
Because she was raised to be this great woman behind a great man.
So at the same time, this film is a feminist tale without the feminist agenda.
It’s different, you see?
Have you ever had the chance to do all of that in one character before?
I never did a character that restrains emotions the way she does.
That’s the key thing about her.
And this I’ve never done before in such a deep way.
As an actor, normally you are trained to show emotions.
Oh, look how well I cry.
If you cry, you are happy because you cried.
If you scream, if you do a scene in high pitch, then you are a good actress.
But Eunice was all about hiding emotions.
yo, do something.”
You won’t tell the children.
When is she going to tell the children what happened?
And then she doesn’t.
And that’s the power I think this movie has in the audience.
The audience is part of the process because the audience stays with this family feeling for them.
It’s all about self-control, and that I’ve never done before.
I could see Walter discovering what kind of director he was on that film,Foreign Land.
One, it’s like compared to the popularity ofSeinfeldhere, and the other one likeFriends.
What did not just your Golden Globe win, but your Oscar nomination mean to her?
It’s an incredible tale that she was nominated for the Oscars 25 years ago.
And now I’m the other Brazilian actress who is nominated for the Oscars with the same director.
And Brazil now is in a state of a great patriotic feeling because we are very loved there.
Brazil is very proud that we had this recognition abroad.
And she is inI’m Still Here.
No, because we are not together.
I visited, but they had shot the scene already and then we just had lunch.
But then she asked to see some scenes, edited scenes, to see what I was doing.
And then when she saw me doing it, she said, “I won’t do it.
Because I have to be younger.
She has to be older she is wonderful, she will do it.”
So it was funny, but then that whole part was cut out from the movie.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Listen to our full interviews with this year’s contenders onThe Awardistpodcast, below.
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15 Writers Guild of America AwardsFEB.
22 Independent Spirit AwardsFEB.
22 NAACP Image AwardsFEB.
That left us with a couple of different scenarios to choose from.
That’s a extremely tough statistic to squander.
Looks likeAnorawas on top all along, and everything else was just noise.
I have two words to leave with you tonight: Ladies and gentlemen, inclusion rider.
“FRANCES McDORMAND | BEST ACTRESS, 2018 |THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
