She dedicated the award to Montenegro, a titan of Brazilian stage and screen, now 95.
This is a film that helps us to think how to survive in tough times.
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year before its US release last month.
Photo: Getty Images
Montenegro also appears inIm Still Hereas the senior version of Eunice.
Our whole history was in this film, Torres toldVoguelast week from New York.
It was likeForeign Landfinally meetingCentral Station.
Torres and director Walter Salles on the set ofI’m Still Here.
It all made sense.
The conversation has been edited and condensed.
Vogue: What drew you toIm Still Here?
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Fernanda Torres:I read the script first as a friend of Walters.
But I never thought he would ask me to do it.
Id been doing a lot of TV comedy, so I thought I was lost to Walter.
Torres and her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival.
And Im older than Eunice was; shes 41 when it starts.
But he invited me to do it, and we managed.
Torres and director Walter Salles on the set ofIm Still Here.
Viewers can connect to this story in many ways.
How did you connect to Eunice or her story?
That house felt like mine, and that period was my childhood.
She reminded me a lot of my mother at that age.
But now Im a mother, too, so that feeling was very powerful.
Everybody can relate to this film or to one of the characters.
I knew that with all my heart.
As the title suggests, the film is about surviving a terrible moment.
She did more than keep goingshe became herself after the tragedy.
You are not invading.
I think she wanted to keep their innocence.
There is cowardice, but its also a decision to allow them to smile.
Thats when she decides that she will not play the victim and let the dictatorship win.
Later, this woman goes to law school.
She fought for Indigenous reserves and consulted with those who wrote Brazils constitution in 1988.
She was a woman ahead of her time, and she became herself when her familys father figure died.
Was there a particular detail in your research that you found helpful to unlock her as a character?
I watched them over and over.
She had this mix of great femininitymuch more than I havewith politeness, intelligence, and persuasion.
And she was always smiling, with restrained emotions.
She fought for civility in a country that had lost its civility.
How was this role different from the many others youve done in your career?
I had never done a tragedy.
For me, shes a Greek figure like Hecuba or Penelopesomeone who faces something beyond our comprehension.
But I had someone very real.
I stayed with her under my skin for almost a year.
At a certain point she became like second nature.
This was the closest I got in my life to truly being someone else.
I never felt so deeply that I could access a character.
It rarely happens in cinema, but when it does, its magical for an actor.
We stop thinkingits just play.
Youve been traveling around the world with the film for months.
What are some surprising reactions youve encountered?
The first surprise was that the film becamea blockbuster in Brazil.
I never thought it would happen because its a heavy drama.
But in screenings, people cried and talked to each other after the movie.
I thought it would be a cult movie but never a blockbuster.
The second surprise was to see people in other countries relating to it in the same way.
Its a film that has no frontier.
Thats because its about a family and what it means to live in a moment of fear.
That the dictatorships of South America were not a banana republic matter.
They were part of the macro politics of the time.
People treat the dictatorships in South America like something that happened on that faraway continent.
But its all part of the same story.
Did your mother give you any advice about Oscar campaigning, having done this herself 26 years ago?
Its different now because its much more global.
Academy voters are everywhere.
When she did it, they were mainly American.
I saw what happened with her: She was kidnapped for months in a sense.
Torres and her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival.
Much has been written about the many controversies this awards season.
How have these swirls of controversies affected you?
I have been working so much on the films campaign, its superhuman.
The film never had money for big billboards; it was a man-to-man, guerilla fight.
In the middle of that tragedy, you receive something wonderful, but you move onthere is no time.
Its a new way, with the violence and power of the internet.
Brazil is very, very strong in the internet.
Artists in Brazil had to learn to navigate this wild thing over the last 10 years.
Artists were targets of fake news, of aggressiveness.
Im in shock with what happened.
Its sad, its really shocking.
But Im totally against the hate culture on the internet.
I was a target, and I always fought against it.
What do you plan to do after the Oscars?
I have my life as it always was.
I dont know if its gonna be different.
I dont think so.
Youve had such a rich career.
Is there anything you still want to do that you havent done?
I would love to do it in theater.
Its been a long project, and things keep happening, but I need to do it.
Its unbelievable, one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.
