EXCLUSIVE: After scoring a Best Actress Oscar nomination after winning the Golden Globe for Best Performance By An Actress in a Film Drama for her portrayal of a mother searching for her disappeared politician husband in I’m Still Here, Fernanda Torres tonight is making an apology for a decades-old skit on the Brazilian TV show Fantastico that is beginning to resurface. She played multiple characters in the skit, one of them in blackface.
“Almost twenty years ago, I appeared in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV show,” Torres said in a statement. “I am very sorry for this. I’m making this statement as it is important for me to address this swiftly to avoid further pain and confusion.
“At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil. Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it’s very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable.
“This is an important conversation we must continue to have with one another in order to prevent the normalization of racist practices then and now. As an artist and global citizen, and from my open heart, I remain attentive and committed to the pursuit of vital changes needed to live in a world free from inequality and racism,” she said.
Deadline is always protective of films and artists in the midst of awards races when things from the past surface, organically or deliberately, because we believe the biggest awards in Hollywood ought to be bestowed for the nominated work and nothing else. The clip from the Globo-produced Fantastico has nothing to do with Torres’ lauded performance. Torres became only the second Brazilian actress nominated for the Oscar, the first being her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated in 1988 for her performance in Central Station.
The comedy sketch series originally aired 17 years ago on the primetime weekly show Fantastico, a three-hour popular program that has aired Sundays for the last 50 years. The sketch in question – The Opposite Sex: The Family (Father Vs. Mother) — mixes scenes, sketches, and testimonies from two actors playing multiple roles (Fernanda Torres and a male actor) directly addressing the camera with additional information and facts complementing the narrative. The episode’s theme questions humorously who is more important: the mother or the father?
In the single specific scene in question, the Mother details her busy routine, which includes waking up early, working out, taking care of the children, working, eating well to take care of her appearance, facing sexism from coworkers, studying for a master’s degree and after she gets home, she has to take care of the children again and prepare dinner for the husband who just returned from a happy hour. The Father says that the woman worries a lot.
The Mother, named Solange and played by Torres, says she wants to separate, and Father (Luis Carlos) says Solange is just tired and needs a housekeeper to help with the house work. The housekeeper (Dalva) [Torres in character with blackface] appears, saying that all the problems Solange has, she also has – children, a house to take care of, and a husband to “satisfy”. And that at this point, she couldn’t help the employer.
Solange returns and says that she separated from Luis Carlos and had made an agreement with Dalva, giving her half of everything she has. Now she has a tidy house, ready meals, and the children in line. Solange says, “I became the man of the house.” Dalva appears, irritated, with a whip in hand and a bag with hamburgers, complaining about Luis Carlos’ presence at the house every weekend. She opens his room door to deliver the food, and the man complains that he doesn’t like ketchup with pickles. Dalva leaves, grumbling.
Says Dalva: ‘My problem now is that Dr. Luis Carlos spends every weekend at this house and leaves everything in a mess! Hey Dr. Luiz Carlos, go to hell! Here is your hamburger!’
To which Luis Carlos replies: ‘Damn it, Dalva, Don’t you know I hate ketchup and pickles? Are you kidding me…”
