12+ Times The Audience Was Toasted By Relatives Playing Side By Side

Some people just don’t enjoy working as a family, while others do very well working side by side with their relatives. This also happens in the world of acting, when parents play with children, brothers with brothers and even great-grandfathers with great-grandchildren. But does this family partnership help or hinder on film sets?

O awesome.club recalls the national and international actors who had the opportunity to play with family members, and how kinship affected their work.

The remake of the telenovela Pantanal has been a true gathering of old friends and family members. The actor who played the farmhand Quim in the second phase, Renato Teixeira, is the father of Chico Teixeira, who played the young Quim. Renato also has another daughter in the soap opera’s cast, Isabel Teixeira, in the role of Maria Bruaca. Isabel is a veteran of the small screen and theater, while her father and brother are primarily musicians and have played together on numerous occasions.

When we said that Pantanal is a great reunion, we weren’t exaggerating. In the first version of the telenovela, Almir Sater acted as the guitarist Trindade. In the 2022 remake, his own son, Gabriel Sater, inherited the role, while Almir gained a new character, the chalana driver Eugênio. Father and son, both musicians, came to act together, playing the guitar in homage to the character José Leôncio, played by Marcos Palmeira.

Think of a family that seems to have cinema DNA. This is the Cusack family, whose best known names are the brothers John and Joan. They have acted in several films together, since the 1980s, when they started with minor characters, until they reached stardom and landed leading roles. A good example is the film Ensinando a Viver (2007), in which John plays a bachelor who decides to adopt a boy he imagines to come from Mars. Joan plays her sister and supporter.

But the Cusack brothers don’t always live brothers on the big screen. This is the case of Alta Fidelidade (2000), in which Joan plays a friend that John’s character has in common with his ex-girlfriend. In addition to these two, the family still has other names in the film industry. Their father, Dick Cusack, was an actor, filmmaker and documentarian. They even have another actress sister, Ann Cusack.

But it’s not just in the gringa that we find generations of artists in the same family. Here in Brazil, we have the Duarte family, which met in 2022 for the telenovela Além da Ilusion. Lima Duarte, an old acquaintance of Brazilians, plays Afonso Camargo, Heloísa’s father. This, in turn, is interpreted by Lima’s granddaughter, Paloma Duarte, in the adult phase. And her daughter, Clara Duarte, plays Heloísa in her younger version.

Paloma did not hide her happiness with this opportunity. “Sharing a character with my daughter and acting with my grandfather… We always try, but this is the first time we act together. It’s forever. It was too tasty, it was very special, ”she said.

Like Pantanal, the telenovela Além da Ilusion also bet on the selection of relatives for its cast. Even if only in a brief participation, João Vitti acted as the father of the magician Davi, played by his eldest son, Rafael Vitti. The patriarch accepted the invitation with pleasure and could even hear the team praise his son: “I sat down to lunch with the team and everyone came to praise Rafa, saying how nice he is to work with. It made me very proud.”

Despite being well known to the general public for their work in acting, Ben Affleck and his brother Casey also made a name for themselves as screenwriters and directors. The brothers were together as actors in Good Will Hunting, a 1997 hit that put Ben and Matt Damon in the spotlight. However, in this film, Casey had a more secondary role. Even so, we can mention Fear of the Truth (2007), which had Casey as the protagonist and his brother Ben debuting in the director’s chair.

Who does not know Didi Mocó Sonrisal Colesterol Novalgino Mufumbo? Interpreting his greatest character, Renato Aragão started to have his own daughter, Lívian, as his acting partner. The girl debuted in cinema at the age of 8 months, as the daughter of Adriana Esteves in the film O Trapalhão e a Luz Azul (1999). After that, she never stopped, appearing alongside her father both on TV, with A Turma do Didi, and in other films, such as O Cavaleiro Didi e a Princesa Lili (2006).

Not that Renato doesn’t like having his daughter follow in his footsteps, but he admits that he’d prefer her to go the other way. “I wanted her to have a completely different career, so she wouldn’t have to go through what I went through”, he confesses. Lívian is also pursuing a career away from her father in other soap operas, such as Flor do Caribe, Malhação and Tempo de Amar, but says that Renato follows her work closely: “He watches the soap opera every day. I come back from the recording and tell you everything that happened”.

Reginaldo Faria is one of the veterans operating in Brazil and his son Marcelo follows in the same footsteps. The first time that father and son collaborated was in a 1984 miniseries, A Máfia do Brasil. More recently, they were together in Beleza Pura. For Reginaldo, working at the same time with an actor he admires and with a person with whom he has complicity is a privilege: “My father on stage gives me confidence: with the look we already understand what the other is thinking or feeling ”.

Jonas Brothers, the musical group formed by brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick in 2005 (yes, we’re old), also starred in their own Disney Channel series called Jonas LA. The idea came after they made a guest appearance on the Hannah Montana series, by another musical star, Miley Cyrus. In their own series, the brothers had a musical band (why not?), but they were also secret agents with missions to save the world. Unfortunately for fans, the series lasted just over a year.

Brothers Rodrigo Simas and Felipe Simas appeared for the first time in the telenovela Salve-se Quem Puder, playing Alejandro and Téo, respectively. Despite the union behind the cameras, in the plot they disputed the attention of the same woman, Luna, played by Juliana Paiva. Felipe stated that “it was an incredible experience and we were all very comfortable”, in addition to stating that this made them want to repeat the partnership. “Rivals in fiction and brothers at heart”, added Rodrigo.

In addition to locking tongues, Xuxa and Sasha have already made some partnerships in cinema and TV, such as, for example, in the film Xuxa em O Mistério da Feiurinha (2009). The film adapts a children’s book by author Pedro Bandeira and features Xuxa as Cinderella, Sasha as Feiurinha and even the girl’s father, Luciano Szafir as Cinderella’s Prince. Sasha was only 11 at the time, and a contest was held to choose who would play the prince who would pair her.

In the movie Donnie Darko, Jake Gyllenhaal and his older sister Maggie play siblings Donnie and Elizabeth Darko. It was only the second major role of Maggie’s career, but she was nominated by her own brother for being great in the theater. However, according to the director, she almost didn’t make it to the film because, in a very altruistic way, he thought that she was only being invited because she was Jake’s sister and tried to convince him to look for someone more experienced. Still, the director insisted and she ended up accepting.

Veteran meme star Renata Sorrah is Deborah Evelyn’s aunt and godmother, and they have previously stated that they love acting together. In addition to acting on the theater stage, they have already been together in the soap opera Páginas da Vida, from 2006, in which they were neighbors — Renata as Tereza and Deborah as Anna Maria. In 2001, they had already appeared in Um Anjo Caiu do Céu, playing mother and daughter, Naná and Virgínia.

In 1996, the brothers Andrew, Owen and Luke Wilson acted together for the first time in the film Pure Adrenalina and, again, in The Royal Tenenbaums, from 2001, both directed by Wes Anderson. Another example of collaboration was in Ladrão que Engana Ladrão (2005), in which the eldest son, Andrew, directs his two brothers. The three are talented and are always supportive of each other, for example making sure to sit in the front row when one of them opens a movie.

Apparently, in the world of dramaturgy, the complicity between family members only helps in acting. Now, we want to know your side: have you ever had to work with a relative? How was the experience?