Suzana Pires focuses on an international career and says Lula will recover culture

Since the beginning of the year, actress and writer Suzana Pires, 46, has been splitting between Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles after signing a contract with an international studio to write the script for a series in English about women. Interestingly, the series was previously presented as a soap opera for Globo, which turned down the project.

The actress and screenwriter says that her last two years at Globo were very difficult and that she did not understand why so many “no” to the projects she presented. She claims that she even doubted her ability as a writer – Suzana collaborated with Walther Negrão on the text of the soap opera “Flor do Caribe” and, after he got sick, she practically carried the serial “Sol Nascente” on her back.

After much therapy, she decided to end this difficult period, during which she developed anxiety. At the end of 2019, she spoke with the broadcaster and made the decision not to renew her contract after 15 years. “My departure from Globo inaugurated a new personal moment of self-respect”, she evaluates.

At that time, she was already writing texts about her experiences as a woman —in the job market and in life— which later became the book “Dona de Si” and an institute with the same name. She says that the idea for the institute came about after receiving emails from her readers with the same complaints as her: “They were exhausted and skating their career”.

To raise funds to kick-start the institute, in 2018, she sold 11 of the 12 designer handbags she owned. “I transformed Chanel bags into sorority”, comments the actress, who says she has impacted 2,000 women through courses in her social project. “I never felt alone again, I never doubted my abilities again. I never let myself get overwhelmed again.”

Outside Globo, in 2021, luck knocked on his door. Studio Avalon, which produces series for the BBC and the US market, was looking for Latin American female talent with experience in telenovela storytelling. Suzana’s name was suggested to them by the CEO of a company she had worked with. “In the first virtual Zoom meeting, we understood each other very well in terms of what they wanted,” she recalls.

She says that she sent them a project in English and, 20 days later, they were already talking about the terms of the contract, which took seven months to be signed due to different laws in the two countries. “In January 2022, I started the project and went to Los Angeles.”

In parallel with her writing career, Suzana continues to work as an actress. She recorded the children’s series “The Magic of Aruna” (Disney +), in which she plays a villain. She says that today she dedicates 60% of her time to writing and 40% to her acting career – where she draws energy for everything else. “It’s the energy of an actress that moves in me the speed and lack of shame and to propose things that I take with me as an author”, she says.

On politics, Suzana says she believes that president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will regain respect for the artistic class and culture that, in her opinion, reached rock bottom during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). “I do not tolerate being called a ‘feeding bottle’ of the Rouanet Law. Every time they called me I called my lawyers.”

The actress praises the names chosen by Lula for the transition team in the culture portfolio, such as Lucélia Santos and Juca Ferreira. But she regrets that Alexandre Frota gave up participating in the team after a flood of criticism from artists and intellectuals. According to her, the actor is honest and knows a lot about production in all vehicles. “He has already produced everything you can imagine, I didn’t like us losing Frota because I think the union [da classe artística] It’s going to be important,” he says.

She also says that she was not disappointed with the artists involved in coup acts that question the outcome of the elections — among them Cássia Kis and Victor Fasano. “So-and-so, so-and-so, all those crazy people who are hugging the flag never deceived me. I never raised the subject”, she says.