Even in the worst aesthetic circumstances—perched precariously on the edge of her bed, self-lit, wired headphones in her ears, and coming off the back of “working like a mad dog”—Fernanda Torres lights up her Zoom window.
Her eyes are deeply swimmable as she calls in from Lisbon (“my Shangri-la”), and her rather intoxicating mix of composure and enthusiasm is palpable through the pixels. The 59-year-old actor is a household name in her Brazilian motherland—she lives in Rio de Janeiro, where she was born. Rather late to the party, Hollywood is finally waking up to Torres’s nuanced, softly powerful screen presence, thanks to her Golden Globe-winning turn as Eunice Paiva in Walter Salles’s biographical drama I’m Still Here.
The film, which has also earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role, charts the 1971 obliteration of the Paiva family’s bustling, beach-adjacent domestic bliss in Rio. (It’s based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir of the same name.) Torres’s character, a mother to five children, unravels under the totalitarian tactics of Brazil’s dictatorship as her former-congressman husband is disappeared by the military government.
Over the course of the film, she transforms from a serene housewife into a fearless human rights activist and lawyer. “[Eunice] was the great woman behind the great man, the Betty to his Don Draper,” Torres says. But after her husband dies tragically and violently and she endures 12 days of interrogation for questioning his fate, her life takes a new shape. (The real Eunice graduated from law school at 48.) “She never fell to pieces,” Torres reflects. “Her smile was her weapon.”
To play Eunice, Torres mined her own memories of ’70s Rio and crafted a private playlist of Ella Fitzgerald’s love songs to anchor herself in her character’s past. It’s this meticulous foundation—half ritual, half art—that compassionately grounds I’m Still Here’s staggering tragedy and propels us through Eunice’s story.
Torres’s subtle embodiment of her character has landed her squarely in the international spotlight. She seems both ready for this moment and somewhat bemused by the attention. “It’s always good when the dark horse wins,” she says, grinning like she’s just pulled off a heist whilst knowing she is altogether deserving.
Did she expect to take home the Golden Globe statuette in a category stacked with such English-language stars as Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, and Nicole Kidman? “I don’t like to have expectations. Every time I prepare for the worst, good things happen,” she says. Was she intimidated by the others in her category? “We do the same job—they are actors like me.”
After all, Torres is only a dark horse in this hemisphere. She was born into Brazilian acting royalty: Her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was the first Brazilian nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Torres was raised in Monty Python-esque youth theater under the quiet pressure of her mother’s legacy. “I always knew I’d never be as big as her,” she admits. “She’s a workaholic in a way no one can match.” But Torres has found her own route to accomplishment, navigating the industry with a refusal to leapfrog, to be rushed.
That patience has paid off. I’m Still Here became Brazil’s highest-grossing post-pandemic film. Now that she’s on the Oscar-campaign juggernaut, stopping for a beat might feel perilous. But Torres doesn’t worry about losing momentum. “The best things happened when I was just being idle,” she says.
In a world of Hollywoodian platitudes, Torres feels refreshingly like the real deal—a performer who prepares methodically, works stealthily, and leaves audiences reeling. She’s no stranger to accolades (she won Best Actress at Cannes as a 20-something), but her Golden Globe acceptance speech, delivered with unshowy humility, cut to the heart of her appeal. “My god,” she told the audience, emanating impeccable elegance and emotion in a black floor-length gown. “I didn’t prepare anything because I was glad already.”
Pre-order a copy of the Art + Film issue with Fernanda Torres here.
Hair by Shin Arima
Makeup by Mark Carasquillo
Production by Dionne Cochrane
Styling Assistance by Briah Artemis Taubman
Production Assistance by Brittany Thompson and Sasha Fyffe
Special Thanks to WSA
