Luiz Fernando Guimarães on the role of a woman: ‘Wearing a skirt is liberating’

“Dentist who is like that, he asks: ‘So, how is life?’, but before you answer, he adds: ‘Open your mouth’.” The comparison is made by Luiz Fernando Guimarães, 72, in the dressing room of the show “Ponto a Ponto – 4,000 Milhas”, which is currently playing in São Paulo.

Moments before, he was trying to respond to the report of the F5 while the makeup artist put lipstick on her lips. It was part of the characterization to play the nonagenarian Vera, protagonist of the show. In the play, she receives a visit from her grandson, played by Bruno Gissoni, and generational differences begin to scream.

The character transformation process takes up to 40 minutes. “Vera is very vain, you know?”, he explains. “She is a very vain lady with all the characteristics that implies.”

Despite having played women before, Luiz Fernando says that this time has been different. In the humorous “Acredita na Peruca” (Multishow), for example, he gave life to the bankrupt socialite Maria Eleonora Monteiro de Alcântara. “It was another type of behavior, it was television, caricatured, more like Pirate TV, so to speak”, he compares. “If the wig fell off, we took advantage.”

This time, the humor has a foot in reality. It comes from more mundane situations, especially from Vera’s grumpiness, who no longer has the patience she used to have. “The older generation has a lot of the younger generation,” she says. “I think the older one is getting more childish.”

To give the elderly woman veracity, he tried to act as naturally as possible. “And the woman becomes more masculine, the man becomes more feminine… I may not be right, but it is a knowledge that I acquired with the play, in the search for characters, for people closest to me who inspired me in this construction. “

Luiz Fernando says he has always had a strong relationship with the women in the family, like his mother and grandmother, so he has no difficulty putting on a show as someone of the opposite sex. On top of that, it’s also been a cathartic experience for the actor. “I’m enjoying wearing skirts,” he says. “Wearing a skirt is a liberation for a man. It’s very good! Now it’s bad to have to wear a bra, that’s really the only thing I didn’t like.”

The result has been worth it, with the play filling audiences. “I think the theme is universal, everyone identifies in some way, regardless of age, because everyone has someone in the family”, he evaluates. “I had a very interesting experience with a little lady there in Rio who wanted to know about my makeup and commented on her annoying sister. It made me want to hug her immensely. , you know? They wait there to take a picture, talk about it. It’s really good.”

The theme of the show is also very dear to Luiz Fernando himself, who says he still has difficulty seeing himself as a senior citizen. “I think for a 72-year-old guy I’m doing really well and life has smiled on me, I have nothing to complain about,” he says.

“It wasn’t something like that that I was thinking… ‘Oh, I’m going to be 70’, ‘I’m going to be 68’…. It was something that happened”, he recalls. He says he only noticed the passage of time when a friend told him that he would no longer have to queue or pay for a bus ticket. “I was devastated at that time,” he says. “It wasn’t how I felt, I was like, ‘Well, if I’m going to cut a line, people will insult me ​​or think it’s a prank.”

On the other hand, maturity brought him other benefits. “As I got older, I started to celebrate my life,” he says. Among other things, he started having birthday parties, something he didn’t like before. “I’m a party guy and I wasn’t, I was too shy for that. I think age makes you celebrate things, achievements more. It was something I maybe didn’t value as much as I do now.”

It was also only recently that Luiz Fernando began to share more of his personal life with the public. In 2018, he made public his relationship with businessman Adriano Medeiros, whom he married the following year, after two decades together. The couple adopted siblings Olivia and Dante in 2020.

“It was a total change in my life”, he confesses. “Being a father is beautiful, I’ve enjoyed this experience a lot. I was already a father, the only thing missing was the son. Because I’ve always been very caring for others, you know? So when they came, I just threw them out.”

He says that the two children have already seen him at the show, and that Olivia, in particular, loves it when he puts on makeup. “She thinks it’s beautiful,” he says proudly. The character Vera, by the way, has almost become a new grandmother for the duo. “They only have one younger grandmother [mãe de Adriano]which is not so oxygenated (laughs)”, he jokes. “Dante, for example, loves playing games, so when he comes to Vera tells him he can play, but only a little (laughs).”