Selton Mello talks about the most difficult scene in ‘I’m Still Here’

Selton Mello stated that the most difficult scene he has ever done in his life was in “I’m Still Here”, a Brazilian film about a family’s struggle during the dictatorship and which has already brought more than two million Brazilians to the cinemas.

The passage in question is when the character is taken by army soldiers to give a statement — and never returns. He talks to one of his daughters while tying his tie. The actor plays Rubens Paiva, a deputy tortured and murdered in the harshest years of the dictatorship.

“Very difficult because I knew what was happening, but he didn’t. The dramatic burden is huge, but I couldn’t be depressed,” he said on Ana Maria Braga’s program.

The film is based on the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, which tells the struggle of the writer’s mother, Eunice Paiva, after the disappearance of her husband.

Therefore, the artist said that he took the opposite path to the normal way for a creation process and remained distracted so as not to get emotional.

“Before recording, I was making fun, watching memes, talking about football, chatting. I had to be calm to give peace of mind to the family”, he recalled.

The production was recorded in chronological order and the last scene he made was precisely the scene saying goodbye to his wife. For the role, he said he gained 20 kilos.

“When I looked at Nanda [Fernanda Torres, intérprete de Eunice]smiles. It wasn’t agreed, no one rehearsed it. I left the film and filming, I never went back to the set.”