Brazil is in love with a 79-year-old lady who until just days ago was basically an unknown. In the past few months, Tânia Maria has become an unlikely celebrity: her magnificent performance in "The Secret Agent" has raised her to unbelievable heights. The little old lady from the interior of Rio Grande do Norte left her modest home to become the face of giant franchises and, as part of the film's cast, is a contender for an Oscar.
Anyone who saw the film knows perfectly well why she shot to fame out of nowhere like that. The character she plays in the movie, Sebastiana, is one of the feature's great charms. Wise, funny, forthright, with perfect timing, she steals every scene, even with people of Wagner Moura's caliber on set. The little old lady is a powerhouse.
The important question here, however, is: how did someone with that talent go unnoticed for nearly eight decades? Or, in fact, perhaps the question that really unsettles me is: how many other Tânias Marias are out there, scattered across Brazil, who will never be discovered, neither early nor late, neither in adolescence nor nearing eighty?
The actress’s discovery was completely accidental. She had no training in the dramatic arts, no agent looking for roles, nothing of the sort. What happened was that, during the filming of "Bacurau," Kléber Mendonça Filho's previous feature, they knocked on Tânia Maria's door looking for extras. She did handicrafts and asked how much they paid for that service. She figured the R$50 daily rate was more than she would normally earn and agreed.
The rest is history. From a bit part in "Bacurau" she became one of the stars of "The Secret Agent." Now she even has a star on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Seriously. And she’s only not going to the Oscars due to health issues. Or, as she says, "because someone has to stay behind to shine here."
But the question, as I said, is about the other Tânias Marias. And the only thing that occurs to me to say is that this is one of the misfortunes of such an unequal country. I remember reading somewhere that the filmmaker Luis Buñuel once asked someone: how many Shakespeares might have been born in Paraguay without anyone ever finding out? Could be... Why not?
There's another case I love, that of the boy Domingos dos Santos Neto. A resident of Açailância, in the interior of Maranhão, he won the world over with his wonderful science videos, which he posts on social media. He’s the McGiver of the scientific world: with three marbles and a hair tie the guy can teach you Quantum Physics, in a way anyone can understand.
If people had equal opportunities, how many more fantastic actresses would we discover? How many painters? Writers. Engineers. Managers. Singers. Journalists. But today these talents are underutilized. It’s possible that in the backlands of Cariri there is a filmmaker capable of bringing us an Oscar, that in the middle of the forest in Acre there is a scientist capable of earning us a Nobel, of discovering the cure for cancer. But today that person works 10 hours a day as a domestic worker, or doing manual labor.
I’m not going to say I know how to solve this. It’s not easy. But maybe some frail boy in the Jequitinhonha Valley has that answer.
