Fernanda Montenegro: “This Isn’t for You”

Time was generous to Fernanda Montenegro – thankfully she paid no heed to her family, who did not want her on the stage. Time allowed the actress to garner recognition, admiration, and a reputation from both audiences and critics, earning accolades, biographies, commendations, awards, and exposure over eight decades.

Her consistency, ethics, and talent placed her on a kind of altar of Brazilian cultural heritage. The Brazilian Academy of Letters granted her immortality. But she was already saintly.

However, the actress only took part in the staging of ‘Beijo no Asfalto.’ In this play, the character Selminha was the wife of Arandir, who kissed a stranger on the brink of death after being hit by a streetcar. A devoted wife, she rejected the idea that her husband was homosexual.

Fernanda’s career was always pioneering, a superlative approach that marked not only the difference between her and her daughter, the actress Fernanda Torres, but the technical and poetic refinement that permeated her journey.

She was the first Brazilian nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for her captivating performance as Dora in the drama ‘Central Station’ (1998) by Walter Salles, which had already won her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 48th Berlin Film Festival.

And she elicited laughs by introducing herself as “an old girl from Ipanema” (an allusion to Tom Jobim’s classic ‘The Girl from Ipanema’) and assessing her slim chances of winning the statuette: “I’m the underdog.”

Indeed, she didn’t win, but that matters little to someone who has already gained over 90 awards, 119 nominations, and 11 national and international honors and commendations, like the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit.

Her husband Fernando Torres passed away from lung cancer in 2008.

Although the theater was her home, it was on TV and in movies, which she entered later in life, that Fernanda’s face gained recognition both domestically and internationally. She joined the Cinema Novo movement with ‘A Falecida’ (1964) by Leon Hirszman, based once again on a work by Nelson Rodrigues.

The character of Romana, a woman of the people married to a union leader (played by Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, who also wrote the play of the same name), was one of her cinematic high points. “With Guarnieri, there was rapport in the scene; we formed a very beautiful, human connection,” she reflected.

The scene in which Romana, with her head down, silently gathers beans at the kitchen table, is one of the most poignant in Brazilian cinema. She also portrayed Eurídice Gusmão in the movie ‘Invisible Life’ (2019) by Karim Aïnouz, screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

“It was the university education I never formally had.” During this time, she began attending an amateur theater group. Her family protested: “This isn’t for you, this isn’t for us. What kind of world is this?” is how she recalls their reaction.

She won the Best New Actress award from the Brazilian Association of Theater Critics in 1952 for ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley and ‘Loucuras do Imperador’ by Paulo Magalhães.

She always stood with artists and creators who broke with tradition and conservatism, even though in her private life she married her stage colleague Fernando Torres as a virgin, wearing a wedding dress borrowed from her friend Eva Todor, in 1953.

Although she never politically aligned with any party, she was invited to be the Minister of Culture by presidents José Sarney and Itamar Franco. She declined both invitations. Her place was on the stage, she explained.

They went to the police station with the bullet in hand. “The police didn’t even take any notice.” Censorship was the biggest enemy, cutting parts of plays and prohibiting others from being staged.

At her first TV job on Tupi, from 1963 to 1965, she participated in about 80 plays and programs, including the soap operas "Amor Não é Amor" and "A Morta sem Espelho," both by Nelson Rodrigues.

She acted with her daughter Fernanda and was also directed by her husband, her son, and sons-in-law Gerald Thomas and Andrucha Waddington in works such as "A Mulher de Todos Nós", "As Lágrimas Amargas de Petra von Kant", "Dona Doida, Um Interlúdio", "The Flash and Crash Days", and "Redentor".

She also worked with the Excelsior, TV Rio, Bandeirantes, Tupi-SP, and Globo networks.

With the latter, owned by the Marinho family, she had a long collaboration involving soap operas, miniseries, and specials. She appeared soap operas such as "Baila Comigo" by Manoel Carlos and "Brilhante" by Gilberto Braga. She starred in "Guerra dos Sexos" by Silvio de Abreu, alongside her friend Paulo Autran.

In ‘Babilônia’ (2015) by Gilberto Braga, Ricardo Linhares, and João Ximenes Braga, her character Teresa, an elderly lesbian, caused controversy when she kissed Estela (Nathalia Timberg) on the mouth.

The Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro organized an exhibition to celebrate her 50-year career. At 90, she was chosen as the Personality of 2018 by the Faz Diferença Award, promoted by the newspaper O Globo.

Grandmother to Davi (son of the director Cláudio Torres) and Joaquim and Antônio (sons of Fernanda Torres), that same year she published "Fernanda Montenegro: Itinerário Fotobiográfico". In 2019, the actress published her memoirs: "Prólogo, Ato, Epílogo". 

The matriarch, her daughter Fernanda, grandson Joaquim Waddington, and son-in-law, director Andrucha Waddington, set out to produce and record a fictional series from home. Thus ‘Amor e Sorte’ was born.