Text Estefania Lima
Photo: Rafael Peixoto
Actress Naruna Costa opened, this Monday (06), the 17th edition of the International Academy of Cinema (AIC) Orientation Week. The event, which has not taken place in person since 2020, due to Covid-19, received the protagonist of the series Brotherhood (Netflix) for a chat about his career in audiovisual.
The night started with the showing of the first episode of Brotherhood and soon after, Vanessa Prieto, AIC’s academic coordinator, led a chat between Naruna and the students. The actress began her speech extolling the diversity of the audience present and drew attention to the absence of black and peripheral people in schools and training content in her generation, in the 2000s.
From Taboão da Serra, on the outskirts of São Paulo, Naruna studied at the USP School of Dramatic Arts (EAD) and told how the experience at the institution forged her as an artist. At the time, her class, with five black students, was the peak of diversity at the school, which already had 56 years of existence. The experience marked her trajectory through access to artistic training, but also through the strangeness of feeling like she didn’t belong, “I didn’t see myself there, I didn’t recognize myself, and that automatically made all my productions become political.”, She said. .
Still on his role in the arts, Naruna spoke about how black bodies on screen are always political and have the power to question and mess up the imaginary constructed by the audiovisual itself, which, most of the time, does not represent the Brazilian population, not even numerically.
When asked about her character Lila for the amendment All Flowers (Globoplay) which has many erotic scenes, the actress said that although it is very difficult to say no, since the audiovisual is her livelihood, she always rejected roles that reinforced stereotypes of hypersexualization. Still, she accepted the role of Lila, because it deviates from the established pattern. “She is rich, a black lady, it is rare that you see a black lady in a soap opera.”
In a second moment, questioned about the difference in interpretation for cinema, series and TV, the protagonist of Brotherhood, commented that for each audiovisual language a different type of approach and preparation is required. However, he revealed that her relationships with all of her characters were first and foremost established by the text. “There are several possible strategies, it depends on the scriptwriters, on the direction, but I try to respect the words, what is contained in the script.”, he revealed.
Appreciation for the text that Naruna inherited from her career in the theater, the actress started at UTT (União Teatral Taboão), founded Espaço Clariô de Teatro, in Taboão da Serra (SP), and stood out playing Elza Soares in the musical Garrincha, directed by American director Bob Wilson. About the experience, Naruna says it was an honor, but quite specific, since the director’s proposal for the play was almost cinematic language, and a little too technical for a “hot” person like the singer.
Theater director, when asked about her interest in directing audiovisual productions, Naruna, who has a lot of baggage in front of the cameras, replied that, despite missing black women in this position, she believes that the time is not yet. “I have been summoned a lot to the place of direction, but I think there is an absurd difference in the languages, I still need to study.”, She said. To which Vanessa Prieto promptly replied: “Come and study at AIC”, prompting laughter from everyone present.