Érika Januza celebrates 10 years on TV and says that fame reduces racism, but does not end it

This November, it’s been a decade since Érika Januza, 37, from Minas Gerais, changed her job as a secretary at a school in Contagem, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, for the opportunity to debut as an actress in the series “Suburbia” (Globo). Since then, she has not stopped adding works on television, cinema, streaming and theater.

“I passed the test [para ‘Subúrbia’] and I was very afraid, because I had to give up my job”, he recalls in an interview with F5🇧🇷 “I had never done this before and I was completely inexperienced. I said, ‘God is this going to work?’.”

Over time, she transformed the initial insecurity into a driving force to conquer more space in the profession. Érika says that she needed to honor the opportunity she received and started to dedicate herself even more to her career. She started asking colleagues in the profession for tips, studying hard and having speech therapist sessions to lose her Minas Gerais accent.

Her dedication to the roles is so great that she often ends up liking the skills she learns for fiction, such as the violin lessons she took for the soap opera “Em Família” (2014, Globo) and tennis lessons for the character Marina in telenovela “Amor de Mãe” (2019, Globo). “I learned to play tennis, it became the sport of my life”, says the actress, who ended up giving up the musical instrument. “At the end of the day, I only carried the violin (laughs). It’s difficult.”

Today, she is proud of the wonderful roles that she was not always able to choose, but was lucky enough to play. Érika says she knows that not all black actors have had the same opportunities and points out that there is still a lack of diversity on television.

Despite this, he points out that blacks are gaining more prominent roles, even if belatedly and not as much as proportionally the largest portion of the Brazilian population should have. The actress mentioned the series “Archangel Renegado” (Globoplay), whose third season she just finished recording, which has two-thirds of a black cast, and the soap opera “Todas as Flores”, with a group of black people and others in a prominent position. “I’m really happy because it’s always been more than half white, so it’s okay to have more than half black.”

It also celebrates Disney’s new version of the classic “The Little Mermaid”, which will have a black protagonist. According to her, this brings the hope of putting an end to the thought of a minority that blacks can only be in certain places. “It’s good that, little by little, it’s changing. And I’m not just talking about the black population, I’m also talking about the stereotype of bodies and genders.”

About racism, Érika said that, like every black person in Brazil, she has gone through countless episodes of prejudice before becoming famous, which left marks. She still remembers the way she was received at modeling agencies with people looking her up and down. “It was like: ‘Are you wanting to be a model?’ Today, I face this and I can identify much better [o preconceito]🇧🇷

She admits that fame has somewhat reduced situations of racism and that she notices people changing their behavior when they recognize her. “Sometimes people receive me one way and when they understand who I am, they change. That’s a clear thing that has happened,” she said. “We have to face racism, and I encourage everyone to do this, because putting your head down will never stop.”

The actress, who doesn’t usually talk about politics, also says she expects changes in the area of ​​culture with the change of president in Brazil, starting in January. In her opinion, democracy has to be ahead of any rivalry. “People have to understand that the candidate has already been elected and made a choice by the largest portion of the country’s population,” she said. “I think people have to conform and hope, everyone hope and be attentive, keeping an eye out.”