Entrevista com o ator David Rasche

Abaixo reproduzimos o post de uma "gringa", como se auto define, Rachel Glickhouse, que hoje vive em Nova York e é casada com um brasileiro, mas também já morou no Rio de Janeiro e mantém em seu blog uma coleção de post relacionados ao Brasil e a sua experiência por aqui.

O post trata-se de uma entrevista. Rachel conversou com o nosso ator David Rasche sobre o filme Olhos Azuis e a sua primeira viagem ao Brasil. Confiram:

Do Blog: Adventures of a Gringa, por Rachel Glickhouse (Clique aqui para a versão traduzida pelo Google Tradutor)

An Interview with David Rasche

When I first got to talking to the PR person about the Olhos Azuis film, I mentioned it would be fun to interview the American star. I was really excited when she agreed, and I spoke to David by phone last week to ask about his experience with the film and his first trip to Brazil.

David Rasche is one of those imposing actors, one you'd expect to be really intimidating. Before I interviewed him, I imagined him as Cal Hartley from Ugly Betty. Apparently, I wasn't alone; David told me that he had quite an impression on the film production staff when he first arrived in Brazil, who expected him to be something like his angry, cruel character he plays in Olhos Azuis. All of us were pleasantly surprised to find that David is a very affable, forthcoming guy, and I was really happy to have the opportunity to discover that he, just like every other gringo I know that visits Brazil for the first time, had fallen in love with the country.

Though David claims he knew very little about Brazil before making the movie, he told me that not only did he love his experience, but now he follows Brazil closely in the news and has become very interested in Brazilian culture. He grew very fond of his Brazilian colleagues, who he says he hopes will be his friends for life. He learned about the food and the culture, Carnival, the beaches and the geography. He also learned about history ("I didn't know about the Dutch in Brazil," he admitted), exploring Olinda and old Recife. He quickly realized that Brazilians are insulted by the lack of knowledge gringos have about Brazil, since Brazilians tend to know much more about American culture and the US. In turn, he decided to learn as much as he possibly could about Brazil, and said he intends to have "a life-long relationship with Brazil," a place he finds "endlessly fascinating."

The film was shot in the interior of Pernambuco, as well as a few scenes in Rio. While in Pernambuco, the cast and crew stayed in Petrolina and filmed in a tiny village on the Rio São Francisco. He was taken aback by how primitive it was in the small town, where there are real cowboys, where women wash clothes on rocks in the river and where kids eat mangoes fallen from the trees. While Rio seemed to leave him starry-eyed with its beauty, he also confesses that he was "disappointed by the hard times" there. Nevertheless, he was struck by the stunning natural beauty and especially liked the intricate tile sidewalks.

In both cities, David was determined to try new experiences, like eating a real cashew fruit for the first time. He tried every new type of food and drink he could, and especially loved guaraná, feijoada, and farofa (which by the way, he pronounced beautifully). He also made an effort to learn Portuguese and picked up new vocabulary from his Brazilian acquaintances. During his learning experience, like many gringos who really open their eyes in Brazil, David realized that Brazilians have a love/hate relationship with the US. "There's lots of resentment toward Americans," he pointed out, especially toward the type of person he plays in the film. He noticed how deep national pride is in Brazil, and how it helps contribute to that "push-pull relationship with the US."

Luckily, David won over his fellow actors and colleagues, proving he's not like his awful character. In the film, David plays an angry, xenophobic border patrol agent with absolutely no regard for human decency. To prepare for his role, David got in touch with the immigration authorities in the US, and he visited an airport here along with one of the other American actors. Contrary to the film, the real officers were very friendly and accommodating, and using what they learned, the actors applied their knowledge during their scenes, even helped tweak the set design. Though it was easy to imitate the immigration procedures, one of the challenges of the film was the language barrier. On the set, all of the actors spoke different languages, making filming a bit tricky. Luckily, the director spoke Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and sometimes had to repeat his instructions three times for all of the actors to understand.

The heart of the film's plot, David says, is based on the idea that Brazilians couldn't come to terms with why the US would have a problem admitting an intelligent, employed, middle class man into the country. The man in question is the character Nonato, whose experience is based on a true story. David told me that both protagonists represent their countries in a way: a Brazilian speaking for Brazil, and an American speaking for the US, albeit from a very anti-immigrant perspective. David really liked the symbolism of the blue eyes versus brown eyes to represent the film's central conflict. "The days are numbered for blue eyes," he said. "It's the brown eyes' turn."

Photos courtesy of Coevos Films

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Leia também: Uma americana fala sobre o filme Olhos Azuis.

Uma americana fala sobre o filme "Olhos Azuis"

O blog Rio Gringa, ou "Adventures of a Gringa", é escrito por Rachel Glickhouse, americana de Nova York que quando veio morar no Rio de Janeiro, onde trabalhou como professora de inglés e balé, criou um blog para registrar suas impressões sobre a cidade e as pessoas. Com o tempo, Rachel passou a colecionar uma série de curiosas observações sobre os cariocas, o Brasil e as nossas manias. Seu blog - escrito predominantemente em inglês - acabou ajudando muitos estrangeiros que queriam viajar para o Brasil a conhecer um pouco mais sobre a terrinha e, principalmente, sobre o Rio.

Rachel, que fala muito bem o portugês e, confessadamente, adora o Brasil, teria sido nossa convidada para a sessão de pré-estreia de "Olhos Azuis", uma vez que a temática do filme dialoga muito com suas experiências de vida, porém, quando escrevemos para ela, Rachel já estava de volta aos EUA. Uma pena, pois assim não poderia conferir nas telonas do cinema nacional a história que cruza as vidas de Marshall (David Rasche), Nonato (Irandhir Santos) e Bia (Cristina Lago). Triste, mas não muito! Demos um jeito de apresentar o filme para ela. E vejam só no que deu: 

Olhos Azuis (Clique aqui para ler a tradução do post do Google Translator)

I get quite a few email requests for PR and special posts, but last week one caught my eye and turned into much more than I expected. Thanks to one fantastic PR person and some incredibly kind and hard-working people over at the film company, I not only got a ton of info about a new Brazilian movie, but was actually able to see it and interview the star. When you see what the movie involves, you'll see why I was so excited about it.

Olhos Azuis, or Blue Eyes in English, is a labor of love about some of the most pressing issues in the US today: immigration, xenophobia, and our relationship with Latin America. It was filmed in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, and takes place in both New York and Brazil.

The film, which stars American, Brazilian, and Latin American actors, is based on a true story about a Brazilian living legally in the US who was detained going through immigration in the US and was inexplicably deported to Brazil. The movie follows the experiences of not only the Brazilian, but also the American immigration agent who detains him.

While I had somewhat low expectations before seeing the film, I was extremely impressed by how the story unfolded and how drawn I was to each of the characters. In fact, I wished they had spent some more time focusing on the other characters, including a Honduran martial arts team, a Cuban ballerina, and two Argentine poets, who could have even held the movie in their own right.

But the stars are really the heart of the film, including American David Rasche, who plays the immigration agent, Cristina Lago, who plays a charming prostitute who speaks amazing English, and Irandhir Santos, who plays the Brazilian living in the US. While there are plenty of stereotypes to be had -- the obnoxious, racist American and the free-spirited Brazilian prostitute -- the balance prevents the movie from becoming wholly anti-American or a Brazilian cliche. I was impressed by each of their performances, since I'd known Rasche as the manipulative millionaire from Ugly Betty and Lago as the star of Maré: A Historia da Nossa Amor, and both were completely different and extremely fun to watch in this movie.

The movie takes a back and forth approach to the story, flipping between the past and present to keep you curious about what comes next. The sense of humiliation, dread, and terrible discomfort that come with being harassed at immigration pervade the whole movie, giving anyone who has never encountered it a taste of what it's like, and anyone who has a painful reminder of their experience. It is this sense of dread and constrangimento that really keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The truth is that Latin Americans are often targeted by immigration at American and European airports, and are sometimes subjected to humiliating and traumatic treatment (just this last week, this issue was featured on an American comedy). When Eli was traveling in Europe, he was treated similarly to Nonato, the Brazilian character, and was always flagged and interrogated by immigration officers in every country he went to. Luckily, his experience in the US has been just fine, and I pray that anytime we travel, it will continue to be fine, but you never know.

There are too many stories about families torn apart because of the whim of immigration agents, judges, and others in power, and I think this movie serves as an important reminder to the governments of developed countries that people are paying attention and that the stories of those who have been wronged will not be silenced. I imagine that many Latin Americans will be able to relate to this movie, and
will feel a sense of satisfaction that someone has finally decided to tell their story, a story not about drugs or crime, but about regular, hard-working, legal immigrants and visitors who deserve to have their rights respected and to be treated like human beings.

The film recently was shown in Chicago and Paris, and premieres in Brazil on May 28th. I'm hoping that it will be shown at MoMa's Brazilian film festival this summer, so those of you in the New York area will be able to see it. For more information on the movie, please check out the movie's excellent blog, and stay tuned for my exclusive interview with David Rasche later this week!

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Muito bom ter este feedback de quem, tão de perto, conhece a política de imigração americana. Aguardamos a publicação da entrevista de Rachel com o nosso ator protagonista, David Rasche, a ser publicada em breve.