“I want to tell stories all over the world”, says Carol Duarte, from La Chimera

Carol Duarte debuted on Brazilian television with all the spotlight on her. In 2017, at the age of 25, she participated in The Strength of Wantnovel by Gloria Perezas Ivanwho discovered he was a transgender man and went through his transition during prime time on Globo, one of the most popular open TV channels in the country, making the whole of Brazil show solidarity with his story.

Two years later, Carol was at the Cannes Festival, one of the most prestigious cinema events, to receive the main prize at the Un Certain Regard show for The Invisible Lifelong Karim Aïnouz inspired by the debut novel by Martha Batalha, The invisible life of Eurídice Gusmão.

The production, which also features names such as Fernanda Montenegro (Central Brazil), Julia Stockler (The kitchen) It is Gregory Duvivier (Don’t worry, nothing will work out), was also pre-nominated for an Oscar and, despite not being among the finalists for the biggest cinema award, it burst the bubble of national productions and ended up on the lips of Brazilians.

Now, Carol returns to theaters with his second film, La Chimera, which is already showing in Brazil. The production, which marks the actress’ debut in an international production, competed for the Palme d’Or in Cannes last year and, despite losing to the Oscar winner Anatomy of a Fallopened new doors for Carolwhich is committed to telling good stories, whether in Brazil or abroad.

“I want to produce things all over the world, but that are interesting, that challenge me in some way, with which I can dialogue and, with my work, contribute to these stories”declared in conversation with the Rolling Stone Brazil. Check out the full conversation below:

Rolling Stone Brasil: How did you end up in the cast of La Chimera?

Carol Duarte: The photography director of La Chimera, [Hélène Louvart]is the same director of photography from my first film, which was The Invisible Lifeof Karim [Aïnouz]and the Alice [Rohrwacher, diretora de La Chimera] saw the film and I think the bridge between Hélène happened and she sent a message asking if I wanted to audition for the film. [Perguntou] If I spoke little Italian, I said I would take the test, that I would love it. I already knew the cinematography of Alice, I already admired it a lot. I think that, currently, she is one of the most original, original directors, and I was super happy. Afterwards, it was very quick. After ten days, I was in Italy to start work.

RS: In the film, you are inserted in a culture different from yours, with different people, different places and, especially, a different language. Was it a difficult adaptation?

CD: Yes. Mostly because, at the time, when we were recording, there was still the whole pandemic thing, so there were problems even going to Italy, Brazilians going to Italy, it was still a little tense. It was the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, and when I got there I still spent ten days in quarantine in Rome. It was super crazy to see Rome deserted, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, all half empty, so it took a long time [para] find the Alice. I didn’t know her personally, it took us a while to meet. It had all of that. Besides the fact that it’s my first international film, so it’s another language, another place. And for me, watching the films Alice and after getting to know it, it was very important to understand the place. We filmed there near Lazio, Bolsena, in regions not so close to the capital, and I think that Alice’s cinema is very linked to the land, to Italy, to the landscape, so this was important for me to understand, experience and live a little that place, for the construction of my character, for the understanding of the universe that Alice composes, because the Alice She is not only the director of her films, but also the screenwriter. The universe that permeates Alice it was quite important to me.

RS: Your character is called Italy and, at first, I thought she was Italian, but that’s not the case. Was it always like that from the beginning or did you end up influencing the construction of the character?

CD: A Alice I was looking for an actress to play this character, I couldn’t find one, it was actually in the second half, in the final seconds, that I auditioned, so it was very quick. I think she still had some doubts about Italy, about my character, but no, she wasn’t, in principle, Brazilian. She [Alice] I wasn’t looking for Brazilian actresses or even Portuguese-speaking actresses. She was looking for an actress. And when she chose me, I think the Portuguese came into play. She climbed the Julia [Vella]an Italian-Brazilian actress, who plays my daughter, and the choice for me to speak a little Portuguese came from her.

RS: Your character has a very strong chemistry with Josh O’Connor’s character, which is very important to the story. How was this relationship with Josh on the film set?

CD: O Josh He is a very incredible actor. I already knew his work, I had seen it in The Crown, I thought it was phenomenal. His work is very sensitive and precise. O Josh He’s British and I’ve always been very curious about the British school, so I was already very interested in his work, but I never imagined that we would be in a film together. It’s a very long distance and it’s not just the ocean.

So, the exchange with him was wonderful, he is a fantastic scene partner. We built together and found together the relationship Arthur [personagem de Josh] and from Italyvery much on the baton of Alice, which is not a Hollywood romance, with a happy or sad ending. I think the Alice it creates another universe, a fantastic realism, a universe that all those characters pass through, which is not so obvious, has a lot of mystery, so we built this relationship together. And working with him was wonderful. He is a very, very dear friend, on and off the scene.

RS: You are a young actress, both in terms of career and age. And, if I’m not mistaken, this is your second film and it’s also the second film that goes to Cannes. Are these achievements easy to assimilate?

CD: I know it’s a really cool feat, that it’s the festival that everyone wants to go to, a huge festival, with big artists, those who are producing very relevant things. I think the year of La ChimeraO [mesmo] year of Anatomy of a Falla year of films, Monster, Zone of Interest… I mean, we were in competition with the greats. For me, it is very honorable, I am very happy.

But it’s funny, [porque] If I’m going to tell you how things happened, there’s a mixture of luck and, of course, I won’t deny that there’s my work as an actress, my studies and also my choices. Why [para] O [filme] The Invisible Life, I did the test. O Karim tested, at the time, several actresses, several indeed, and I don’t know why the Eurydice [personagem de Carol] came to me. It wasn’t really my choice. As it was a test, Karim chose me and we developed a very beautiful work together.

And also the La Chimera. I took a test too. There were no scripts that were presented to me. This, in our world, is something that develops over time, when you already have denser cinematography and directors can understand what kind of actress you are, they come to you with the desire for you to do it, but the my first two films were tests and, luckily, with two great filmmakers, who are the Alice and the Karim.

They are two filmmakers with great authority, they have a very striking type of cinema, both Karim as for Alice, and I think that my work, somewhere, dialogues with these two filmmakers. And there’s something about me, which I think about a lot, which I work on a lot, which is creating with these two directors and being a little at the service of their language, the script and the story. I think that the actor, especially in cinema, is part of a whole and I, as part of a whole, always want to understand who these filmmakers are, that is, I want to know the references of the Karimthe references of the Alice. And to have these two films on display (…), I feel lucky. (…) It’s crazy.

RS: We see many artists performing internationally, such as Alice Braga, Sônia Braga, Wagner Moura. Is your participation in La Chimera the beginning of an international career or is it not necessarily your focus?

CD: I’m not going to tell you that I take my career and take it out of Brazil. I’m not doing that. It’s funny to think because my first film was with Karimwho is a director who has lived outside Brazil for some time, produces a lot of films here – like Destination Motel, which is the film that is now at the Cannes Festival, and he filmed it here – but he is a director who is highly regarded internationally and produces a lot abroad. It was also no coincidence that The Invisible Life pulled me into an Italian film.

As we are entering major festivals, this ends up being a showcase for all the artists who are producing cinema here. I think we have been producing international cinema for some time now and our cinema is very important. We can talk about Glauber Rocha and list a bunch [de artistas] who received standing ovations at major festivals. We still resist several speed bumps, government cuts, and we try to manage this cinema. Imagine if we had policies really focused on national production, where could we be?

I can’t say I’m going abroad to Hollywood at this point. I even have proposals outside of Brazil, which might happen and I think they could be incredible, but I always say that I want cool projects to come to me.

I didn’t arrive at Alice because she is from outside Brazil. I want to make movies with people who are doing cool things and coming up with cool characters and cool stories. If you’re outside Brazil, it’s great, because it’s also a delightful experience to be abroad, speaking another language. I want to produce things all over the world, but that are interesting, that challenge me in some way, with which I can dialogue and, with my work, contribute to these stories.

What has been the best film of 2024 so far? Vote for your favorite!

• Wish: The Power of Wishes
• The Snow Society
• Mean Girls: The Musical
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Everyone But You
• Poor Creatures
• Madame Teia
• Zone of Interest
• The Boy and the Crane
• American Fiction
• Dune: Part 2
• All of Us Strangers
• Godzilla and Kong: The New Empire
• A happy family
• Ghostbusters: Ice Apocalypse
• Civil war
• Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scar Marker
• Rivals
• La Chimera
• Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2