Manu Gavassi: the constant search for balance –

Manu Gavassi, with illustration by Anamaria Sabino and photo by (Lorena Dini/)

Manu Gavassi she didn’t remember that this was our second conversation as interviewer and interviewee. Maybe, with a career like hers, with interviews that happen with an absurd frequency, it’s not surprising. But the first time we talked was in 2015, when she played Vicki in the teen soap opera Workout: Dreamsfrom TV Globo.

Since then, a lot has happened. Not only in the world, but in Manu’s life: there were many albums and singles released, many films made, participation in series and soap operas, a reality show… And, by the way, what a reality show!

Manu established himself as an internet phenomenon when he revolutionized the way he used social networks while he was confined in Big Brother Brasil 20, the same one that served as comfort while, outside, everyone was also confined because of the coronavirus pandemic .

So, talking to Manu again was a trip back in time. Much more mature, with a totally different view of how to deal with the internet, a multiple and very well-established career and incredible new projects on the way, Manu has a lot to say — and we, to listen.

“I would never be 100% happy just being a singer” Manu Gavassi by– (Lorena Dini/)

You have a multiple career. Did you always think about going down this path or did it come naturally?

I don’t think it even had that dimension. I see today how my parents always saw that in me, I always really liked many things, but at some point I had to decide for one. And music ended up happening earlier, professionally, although since I was a little girl I always auditioned as an actress. I remember these desires of mine since I was young, but what manifested itself first was the musical part.

But I always “shot everywhere” and, today, I see that I think in a more organized way, I have all these aspects and I try to organize them, but it was never a plan, it was something that happened naturally.

Now it seems like you’re focusing more on acting.

And I think that’s it. I did Malhação, I got to do small parts in films, but it was never something I could give myself the time to dedicate myself to, so people’s perception was “she’s not an actress”, “I think she jokes about doing that sometimes” and now, with these recent works, as Maldives [série da Netflix]people began to understand, “Manu also works on that”, and it goes hand in hand with my singing career.

I feel incomplete without one side. I would never be 100% happy just being a singer, I love inventing, being other people, studying and picking up more challenging characters.

But, of course, it’s impossible to take music out of my life, it’s my essence, the way I communicate and many things started for me through music – even this directing thing, it started a lot through my experiments with my music career. . Today I think I’m in a place where I can work hard.

“I want to make an MTV Acoustic in the future that honors my own discography” Manu Gavassi por– – (Lorena Dini/)

You recently recorded a film with Rafael Infante, ‘Não Tem Volta’. Can you tell us a little about the experience?

I just finished the film, it was a quick shoot, less than two months. It’s a romantic action comedy, it was amazing! The director [Cesar Rodrigues] it gave us a lot of freedom to create based on the text, and create based on this couple, it was really cool. I was really looking forward to making a movie like that.

He wanted a real comedy from these two actors, and a lot of things ended up coming out of that natural way of improvising. It ended up being a real grace. Despite the theme being completely crazy: a guy who hires a company to kill him because he doesn’t have the guts to do it. These moments of this couple turn out to be very real. I think I grew a lot as an actress.

You also recorded an MTV Unplugged tribute to Rita Lee… is she an influence on you?

It always has been, the more I find out about it, the more it is! I found out that she had a show on MTV, she was one of the first VJs, and that was beyond her singing career. I kept finding things in Rita’s career and saying “damn, we look alike”.

She also always really liked acting, fashion, in a way that she was extremely inventive in the way she built her career, since Os Mutantes… I think Rita is very creative, she goes out of all the boxes, she is the female artist more different and she was already a composer at a time when there weren’t many female composers yet. She was always a born feminist and talking about her story, about sex when it was still taboo, I always thought she was very brave, she was always a reference.

When this invitation came up, we had this idea, Felipe Simas and I, we thought “Why not make this a tribute?”. I think I still have a lot to do in my music career and I want to do an MTV Acoustic in the future that pays homage to my own discography, but why not take this opportunity, over my favorite Rita record? They were other people’s compositions, I felt freer, I took some of the weight off. For me, it was something that I saw as a tribute from someone who loves this album and wants to celebrate this album… that was the magic, it was a very beautiful project and in the end it was a hybrid of what is my universe and what is from Rita. I used clothes that I used in Gracinha too, recycling clothes that I had already used in other moments, I called a 100% female band…

“With the BBB, everything has increased. But, as a person, I remain exactly the same” Manu Gavassi by–– (Lorena Dini/)

Manu, you were already a public person before the BBB, but with reality… it seems that your presence on the internet has exploded! What changed after the program?

A lot has changed in terms of proportion. [Com o BBB] Everything has increased, there is a greater knowledge of who I am, more job opportunities as a result, the opportunities I have today are greater. But as a person I’m still exactly the same, I’m the same girl who’s always done a little bit of everything, is always a little bit misunderstood!

I’m still very similar, but I think what changed was my scope, I expanded my results, there’s nothing to talk about. It was a very successful plan, but my essence remains the same, I remain this girl woman who remains the same.

It must have been a pretty crazy moment for you too, because you were both in the house when the coronavirus pandemic started…

There’s no way to know. Would the show have been as watched? Would it have had the same weight in people’s lives? It’s crazy to think that it was a very specific period.

“I want my career to reverberate more than my celebrity persona” Manu Gavassi por–– (Lorena Dini/)

I don’t think there was anyone tuned in to the show who didn’t see what you did on social media… After that remarkable moment, how is your relationship with the internet today?

Today I am much more careful than I was. Everything I say, now is times 10. If before I made a little joke, it had a weight, after the BBB it has another weight, it became a flood of news and I remember that it scared me. I thought I would have to learn to protect myself a little more, because if I want my career to reverberate more than my celebrity persona, and if I keep making a big show out of it, people are always going to want more of it.

My online presence is a little smaller so it was something I decided. I already have a distance and it was the best decision, and I’m very happy with the invitations that come to me and the respect I receive, even from the media. I have respect with my attitude and this is how I feel treated. I am very grateful to the internet, it is a platform that I know I will always have new ideas and that I will know how to use regardless of what is happening, but the internet has always helped me a lot to carry out my ideas.

Friends of mine and people I work with tell me: “What do you do on a daily basis? Because for me you stay on top of a castle, combing your hair and meditating and suddenly you go down to work!” I who live my life know how chaotic it is, I have many ideas, questions, I can’t sit still, I need to learn to take moments of rest, because I’m always thinking… so, this zen image is very funny because I don’t I expose.

You started at Capricho, already as a child of the internet, and since then you have established yourself as an artist. How do you feel having grown up in an environment that overvalues ​​appearance? Whether on TV, on the internet or in the music world, this is very demanding, right?

Man, I think it’s phases and phases, it’s a charge that kind of doesn’t change. Now we have more voices, we are moving towards questions, there are voices showing what it means to be different and that this is normal. We have more voices because of the internet, but the charge will always exist because it is a way of controlling.

There have always been obstacles for us to never reach our potential, I see that to this day. Our fight is being seen more and the younger generations already come with information that I didn’t have. As for me, I always felt pressured, but I always had a base, a foot on the ground, not that I didn’t make mistakes, aesthetics that I lived, decisions that weren’t mine… I talked about my silicone explant.

You have to think with your own head, but it’s very complicated to say that, because it’s strange for us to understand what’s good and what’s not, what’s cut by an experience. I think the exercise is trying to decontaminate: what part of me is dissatisfied with my appearance or just insecure with the perception of the other? Am I unhappy with my body or are you telling me that? I think, nowadays, older, I question myself. Maybe younger I was more impulsive. Why can’t I try it out? And I continue to discover myself, because we continue to experience this pressure, it is constant.

“What part of me is dissatisfied with how I look or just insecure about how others perceive me?” Manu Gavassi by–– (Lorena Dini/)

And how is your beauty care routine?

I take care of my skin a lot, it was the biggest liberation when I understood that, if I took care of my skin, I could feel beautiful without makeup, I wouldn’t be a hostage to an artifice… when I was younger I needed it, I wanted to hide my skin , I didn’t feel pretty, grown up, a woman, I wore a lot more. Today, it’s very rare for me to wear makeup in my day to day life, I like to use it to go out, but taking care of my skin has given me the freedom to accept myself more, I like myself the way I am.

My hair thing too. I practically shaved my head back when I…