Giovanni Venturini says why he loved playing the ‘asshole’ character in his Globo debut

Globo’s debutant in “Justiça 2”, Giovanni Venturini, 32, celebrates the prestige he gained with the series. The character, described by him as an “asshole”, represented for the actor more than just any role, but rather an escape from the stereotype attributed to people with disabilities in dramaturgy.

In the plot, Elias is the cousin of Carolina (Alice Wegmann), who denounces her uncle Jayme (Murilo Benício) for sexual abuse. When his uncle is released from jail, Elias becomes Jayme’s ally, providing support to him, even after the break with the family.

“It is very important to be seen as a human being. Normally, people with disabilities within dramaturgy, within art in general, are seen as poor things, as victims, as immaculate beings, who suffer, who are examples of overcoming”, evaluates Giovanni. “This character is just another jerk like so many others.”

Born in São Paulo, the actor, who has a degree in tourism, began dedicating himself to the arts in 2012, when he was invited to participate in “Família Imperial”, a series by Cao Hamburger shown on Futura and Disney Channel Brasil. Previously, he was involved in theater as a clown in a social project that carried out visits to orphanages, nursing homes and children’s hospitals.

At SBT, he was part of the cast of the remake of “Chiquititas” and “Cúmplices de um Resgate”. He also won the best actor award at the 2022 Brasília Film Festival for the short film “Big Bang”. At Globo, he had been trying out roles for some time, until he was invited to “Justiça 2”.

“Several casting productions said: ‘Wow, there’s a character that’s just like you; your test was very good; the director is here, fascinated with your work’, but they always hit the nail on the head”, he says. “There was always something that happened and they called someone else.

This time, when Manuela Dias saw her work, presented by the casting production, she didn’t hesitate to call Giovanni. “They called me because of my work, it has nothing to do with the issue of disability”, he celebrates.

“I think there are many places that we still need to occupy, we have not yet been seen in many places within dramaturgy, and I think that this was one of the places that we needed to occupy too”, he says about the role of villain .

In his personal life, Giovanni is in a relationship with dancer Lívea Castro. After publishing stories saying that he had never dated people with dwarfism, a website reported that he had said that he would not date someone with the disability, which he counters: “Do you think that I, as a person with dwarfism, would be prejudiced against other people with dwarfism? That doesn’t make sense.”

“They took a completely decontextualized phrase, put it in another way. It was a video I made, one of those with question boxes”, he says. “I’m very happy in my relationship, my partner doesn’t have dwarfism, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. And I end the video by saying this: I’m exclusively interested in people, regardless of their physical condition,” he added.