Football, beach and tragedy: 5 curiosities about actor Paulo Lessa

Protagonist of the soap opera “Cara e Coragem” (Globo), Paulo Lessa, 40, has a 15-year career in TV, but his dream was to be a soccer player. Married to a Cape Verdean and father of little Jade, 1, Lessa worked hard to get where he is. Nothing was easy for this Flamengo fanatic from Rio, who in the last ten years lost his mother and father, the latter being run over. “It was very shocking,” he recalls. Learn more about Lessa by checking out five facts about his life:

PLAYER’S LIFE AND INTERRUPTED DREAM

Paulo wanted to be a football player. More than wanting: it was his dream. When he was 16 years old, he competed for a spot in Rio de Janeiro teams such as Flamengo (the club of the heart), São Cristóvão and Madureira, but failed to pass the sieves. Invited to audition for Barcelona’s Espanyol, he was excited – unlike his family. “My mother didn’t trust me and didn’t let me go, she said I had to study. I discovered myself as an actor, but of course I think about what that audition would have been like.”

TRAGEDY WITH THE FATHER AND DEATH OF THE MOTHER

The actor lost his mother in 2012. Three years ago, it was his turn to say goodbye to his father, brutally: he was run over by a car. At the time, Lessa was in the middle of recording the Record soap opera “Belaventura”. “It was very shocking, the desire was to abandon everything. And that character ended up giving me the strength to move on. Today everything I do is for my parents. I wanted them to see where I am today.”

BEACH AND MUSIC ADDICTION

In his spare time, the actor usually goes to Maracanã to watch Flamengo games and does not dispense with a dip in the sea. Passionate about the beach, Lessa was born and raised in Copacabana, and when he’s on the sand, he doesn’t usually hear the shouts of the sellers of mate and biscuit Globo, two classics from Rio’s beaches, because he’s always listening to music. With headphones so you don’t disturb those around you.

One of his frustrations is that he never learned to play an instrument. But he remembers that even on the recording set, he asked for a special song to be put on to pack some of his romantic scenes with Taís Araújo. His choice was “Baby 95” by Liniker. “I asked the direction to turn the volume up to maximum and we got into the mood.”

SCHOOL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY

Influenced by football and without the possibility of becoming a professional player, Lessa decided to enter the Faculty of Physiotherapy. He was 19 years old and his idea was to work in sports before becoming an actor. “Later I found out that it had nothing to do with me. I stayed for a long time under pressure from my parents, but at the same time I took free theater courses.”

CONTACT WITH TAÍS ARAÚJO BEFORE FAME

The beginning of the carioca actor’s career on TV was acting in the soap opera “Da Cor do Pecado” (2004), starring… Taís Araujo, his current partner in “Cara e Coragem”. “That day I talked to her mother who gave me advice and it was nice,” he recalls.

The first contact with her was when the actress frequented Lessa’s mother’s hairdressing salon in Rio. “In the ‘Face and Courage’ audition I told her that, I said I knew her, and she remembered my mother. It connected us in some way. In the audition, it turned out that the intimacy between us flowed much more naturally”, he recalls. .