I was a fagot child, I suffered a lot of rejection, but I won, says Milton Cunha

It’s that funny voice on TV that responds, without rushing, to the 12 questions sent by the report.

Even though they are in audio messages —and not over the phone, in a direct conversation—, it is still fun to hear Milton Cunha speak, with the intimacy of someone who addresses interviewers and interviewees as “sister” or “beloved”, using and abusing slang and absolute superlatives (“Divinérrimo, chiquérrimo”) to tell their stories.

Former carnival artist from Rio schools such as Beija-Flor, União da Ilha, Unidos da Tijuca, São Clemente and Viradouro, and from São Paulo Leandro de Itaquera, Cunha, 62, has been a Globo Carnival commentator for 11 years and also does pre- parades with characters from the world of samba.

He goes, literally, where the news is — just the other day, he did an entire interview hugging a cashew tree, in Rio’s Botanical Garden. The topic was cashew, the theme of the samba-plot of Mocidade Independente by Padre Miguel, and also the subject of a chat with Marcos Ferreira, the school’s carnival worker.

With a degree in psychology, a master’s degree and a doctorate in literature and in his third post-doctorate, Cunha says that being “loud and happy” is one of the secrets to his success, as well as his persistence. He seems proud to say that he didn’t give up on his career even after Daniel Filho and Roberto Talma denied him a chance on TV decades ago. The alleged reason for the door in the face of both of the network’s former medallions, according to Cunha: excessive fuss.

It wasn’t the only time. “There was a director at TV Educativa who said to me: ‘If you weren’t so openly gay, I would give you a program’.” From Pará, Belém, Milton says he was a “fag child” and, therefore, suffered a lot during his childhood. “My parents didn’t love me the way I was, they didn’t love me”, emphasizes the commentator, who moved “poorly, poorly” to Rio, at the age of 19. He came, saw and conquered.

Nowadays he receives a standing ovation when he appears at Rio’s Sambadrome and says, laughing, that he can’t even shop with peace of mind, such is the number of people asking for a photo with him. “This is the hell I always wanted”, admits the commentator (or should I say post-doctor?), one of the stars, albeit involuntary, of the series “Vale o Escrito”, about the behind-the-scenes of the Jogo do Bicho in Rio. Read the interview below:

You have worked for more than a decade as a Globo Carnival commentator and are gaining more and more space on TV. What do you have that others don’t have? Look, I think I’m unique. Unique in the sense that I’ve spoken this way since I was a child. I’ve always been like this, I’ve never changed. Everyone today imitates my voice, my words, my expressions, the terms I use, but I know that’s why it worked for me. I’m natural.

Do imitators bother you? No! I’m glad they imitate me. That’s great, I’m so happy that great comedians imitate me. It’s easy to imitate my voice, impossible to have my glamour. Their costumes are from the farm, their sequins are from the Sahara [área de comércio popular no Rio de Janeiro]. Imagine, my love, I am Austrian crystal, they don’t come with their grace, no. I lack a lot of power to have my élan.

His statement went viral on documentary “Vale o Escrito”, about the kingpins of the animal game in Rio and the connection between the criminals and carnival. You, who started as a carnival worker in 1994, at Beija-Flor, tell behind-the-scenes stories and say that the bicheiro Maninho, from Salgueiro, was “beautiful and extremely dangerous”. Did you warn anyone of the misdemeanor that you would speak publicly about it? I asked Anísio for permission [Abraão David, bicheiro e presidente de honra da Beija-Flor] and to Guimarães [Capitão Guimarães, bicheiro e patrono da Vila Isabel] to do. They give me. I went there and said what I saw. I spoke the things that are from my heart. I didn’t invent anything, I never saw anyone killing anyone, I saw newspaper reports, but I’m neither a journalist, nor a police officer, nor a lawyer. So, I went there three and a half years ago to say all this, but I didn’t tell any lies.

And did you like the series? So, until today I haven’t seen it, you know? I don’t have the courage to see it, no. And everyone has called me saying how great I am. Xuxa, Bial, Leilane Neubarth, Maria Rita, everyone tells me: ‘You look wonderful’. But watch it, I don’t watch it. I don’t even want to see it, I won’t even go near it. When the commercial starts I take it off and delete it. I don’t want to see myself, no, beloved. I’m happy with the success of “Vale o Escrito” but those who have asses are afraid.

Why? Whatnot. It was funny, it was great, bye. I’m not even the person I was three and a half years ago anymore.

Do you regret recording? No, I would do it all again.

Do you have any regrets in life? I regret having done so little, I should have taken off my clothes easier (laughs). Look, beloved. I do not regret anything. I inherited nothing, I dug every space, so, sister, mistakes were made but in the name of improving, of being free, for a more democratic world. In my career on TV, my regret is not having entered soap operas yet to play a divine character, like Fernanda Montenegro’s chic butler.

You’ve already said that you had a difficult childhood because you were a ‘fag kid’ and your parents didn’t accept you. They didn’t love me the way I was, they didn’t love me. And they said: ‘If you are another way, if you are a man, if you speak like a man, we will love you’. So I didn’t have this place of love.

You are now an LGBTQIA+ reference. What advice would you give so that other children don’t go through what you did? it happened? Advice for fagot kids: keep going, be what you are. Advice for adults, parents, teachers, directors, priests, delegates. Understand that the individual freedom, spirit and body of children belong to them. They will build their stories. They cannot be molds, models that you pull here and there, to do what you want. The child is not here to fulfill the adult schedule. The child is here to be happy, to play, to have a dream, to embark on his or her own destiny. And support has to come from adults. So no more beatings, no more moralistic terror. Enough of wanting to make children this adult project that these people want.

How do you deal with fame? Baby, I don’t feel better than anyone else, I don’t feel, you know, detached from reality, no. It’s the fuzarca, right? When I’m at the hortifruti in Copacabana, it’s shouting, photos. And I was there, saying: ‘Let go of me, let me buy my tomatoes, press the cucumbers’. And then it’s shouting, and goodbye. Bus driver also screams. The truth is that this is the hell I wanted, I got to where I wanted to get, you know, beloved?

The beginning of his career was not easy. I did ‘Sem Censura’ with Leda Nagle, I broadcast Boi de Parintins on Bandeirantes for five years, but the beginning was tough. I had asked Daniel Filho and Roberto Talma for a chance and it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.

Why? Because I was very young, very flashy, and so on. But then Miguel Athayde [diretor da Globo] and Boninho, these modernities, pulled me in, and I think I only entered when I could enter. When political correctness, when the paradigm broke, I joined. Because then black power, gay power, women could come, so I think I am a product of my time, and I knew how to wait, I held on.

Someone else rejected you because of his loud manner, a characteristic today considered one of his assets? There was an educational TV director who said to me: ‘If you weren’t so openly gay, I would give you a program, so many heartthrobs are gay and hide it…’.

And what did you respond? I said, ‘No, honey. I faced my father and mother, I came to Rio to starve because I don’t want to play your hypocritical game, I want to enter as I please, speak as I please’. This has always been non-negotiable.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? In ten years I wouldn’t want to count money to pay my bill anymore, hahaha. I wanted to have enough, so I’m still halfway there, building it, putting it together. I already bought the apartment, I already bought the car, but now the guarantee fund for the length of service of an artist, a self-employed person, is difficult, right? How do I see myself? Rich, in a bathrobe, sitting on a couch. Rich! I want to be rich!