10 Brazilian Artists Who Had to Change Drastically to Play a New Role

Being an actor is not always about showing something glamorous, because — depending on the choice of role — giving life to a character requires going through radical changes of look and giving up the beautiful appearance. Some shave their heads, gain weight or lose weight dramatically. Others receive a new characterization that even makes it difficult for us to recognize them. But that’s the beauty of the profession!

O awesome.club features a selection of Brazilian actors who have completely transformed themselves to live a character. And we still bring a bonus, showing that saying no to change in appearance can also happen. Can you guess who we’re talking about? Come find out!

To reveal the true age of her character Marocas, in the soap opera O Tempo Não Para, actress Juliana Paiva had to go through about four hours of preparation for the aging scenes, in addition, the prostheses used in the characterization, took almost a month to get ready. And the recording process, together with the visual effects team, took 10 to 12 days.

In 2017, Vivianne Pasmanter had to completely abandon vanity to play Germana in Novo Mundo. Living the funny owner of the pension was so successful that, in 2021, the actress returned with an older version of the same character in the soap opera Nos Tempos do Imperador. “It was a gift, a great joy to be able to return,” she said. The process of characterizing the aged version of Germana takes about four hours, including painting to mark the wrinkles and prostheses in the nose, mouth and chin.

When it comes to radically changing the look, Rodrigo Santoro pulls it off. Throughout his national and international works, the actor has transformed himself into several characters. In addition to the characterization, which took about three hours, to play Dom Chico Chicote in Hoje é Dia de Maria, Rodrigo also needed to lose 12 kilos, to appear more fragile in the performance.

While the other actresses in the telenovela Bela, a Feia dressed up to look prettier, Giselle Itié took about 40 minutes to transform herself into the clumsy girl with braces on her teeth and who didn’t do her eyebrows. “I really like Bela’s body language. It’s good because you can walk relaxed while acting with actresses who have to look beautiful and powerful 24 hours a day, ”she revealed. Her size 38 model was changed to size 44, even without having to put on weight, because, for that, it was necessary to have the help of fillers, giving her that protruding tummy when she sat down.

At just six years old, Isabelle Drummond gave life to the most famous rag doll in Brazil. According to the actress, all you had to do was put on the wig and you felt like Emília, like a magic trick. Until then, the character had only been played by adult actresses, so Isabelle had to go through an adaptation with the characterization, clothes and even the scenario in which the doll would record. The actress came to revive the character years later, for a scene in the soap opera Verão 90.

To record the concentration camp scenes in the film Olga, actress Camila Morgado had to shave her head and lose seven kilos. The result was box office success in the first weeks of exhibition, surpassing other Brazilian productions.

To play Chiquinha Gonzaga at the age of 87, it took about five hours to get dressed, because it was necessary to place a special gel, based on silicone, over a mold of the actress’s face, which, when solidified, turned into a skin. wrinkled and placed in stages on Regina Duarte’s face.

In addition to the oil-based makeup with a kind of soot that Klebber Toledo used to characterize himself, when Leonardo lived on the street, the actor also saw a speech therapist. “I needed to better understand the rhythm of this character’s speech, what type of breathing he has, what and how he thinks, how he would react in those situations”, he says. The actor also says that he would have liked to have had time and lost more weight, as well as for a greater dedication to this moment of his character, in the telenovela Império.

After 21 years without acting in soap operas, Selton Mello returns to the small screen to play Dom Pedro II, in Nos Tempos do Imperador. In addition to wearing blue contact lenses, representing the last years of his character’s life, the actor will also wear a fake beard and lots of makeup, becoming almost unrecognizable.

We still remember the appearance of Nando Rodrigues when acting in Haja Coração, but to live body and soul the priest Radamés, in the soap opera Genesis, the actor underwent a radical transformation. In addition to completely shaving his head, his Egyptian character’s costume and makeup helped make Nando unrecognizable.

But what to do when an actor refuses to change something about his body in favor of a character? Owner of envy-inducing red hair, actress Marina Ruy Barbosa found herself involved in a controversy when she refused to shave her head to play Nicole, in Amor à Vida. Moral of the story: the author Walcyr Carrasco decided to kill the character, making her just a ghost in the course of the plot, precisely because of the actress’s hair.

For you, which of these transformations was the most drastic? Tell us in the comments and don’t forget to share with that friend who also admires the actors’ commitment to their characters!