Paolla Oliveira: Queen of Carnival says it is necessary to raise flags

Saturday, ten in the morning. While many were still sleeping on the lazy post-Carnival Saturday, Paolla Oliveira had already memorized 24 scenes of the new seven o’clock soap opera, “Cara e Coragem”, which premieres at the end of the month. The day would still have recordings until 9 pm, before she started getting ready for Sapucaí.

It was the preparation for the actress to do a repeat of the show from the previous week, when she evolved on the dance floor in a lascivious pomba-gira costume, opening the way for the ten-point drums of Grande Rio.

The school became champion of the Rio Especial Group with an unprecedented victory, breaking a 34-year fast. “It was historic”, says, categorically, the actress, who is in a splendor phase both in her career and in her personal life. Paolla is about to star in the plot that will replace “When More Life, Better!”.

He will add another strong and independent character to his resume, such as the influencer Vivi Guedes, from “A Dona do Pedaço” (2019), and the fighter Jeiza, from “A Força do Querer” (2017). In the new plot, she will play Pat, a mother of the family who goes out every morning “to blow up cars, flip over, jump off buildings”.

Typical stunt work. “It’s fun to do, in addition to having a theme that I really like: she’s a mother, works, struggles to pay the bills. It has a lot to do with real-life characters, that pleases me, I think it creates a connection with the audience”, it says.

In personal life… well, in personal life, their courtship full of explicit — and reciprocal — demonstrations of the passion they’ve been living with sambista Diogo Nogueira has already placed them in the select group of couples that it’s nice to see. “I’m in love,” she announced at Carnival, for whom she hadn’t realized yet.

At 40, Paolla says she is more free and proud of herself today than she was decades ago. In career, in affective issues and in the face of criticism. “Maturity has to bring that, it lets us live a lighter life. It’s great to look back and see that I’m different, that I feel better.” Read interview below.

What assessment do you make of this title won in the first post-isolation Carnival?

I find it difficult to make a balance with just my vision… But it was historic! Historic for being the first Carnival after this unimaginable break, historic for being the first title for a school —the first always has a special flavor—, historic for the plot [sobre o orixá Exu]. Schools look for controversial plots or ones that raise debates, but this one is very special in this moment of restrictions. It had a different feeling, and I can speak because I’ve been there before. Really, the balance is this: historic!

In your commemoration, you mentioned two wishes of birthday. One of them would be accomplished (the victory with Grande Rio), but he did not say which one would be the other.

(Laughter) Yep, Twitter is booming! Just as the victory of a school needs unity for things to happen, it doesn’t just depend on me, it doesn’t just depend on the drums, it depends on everyone. I believe that my other wish is a work in the same direction.

How so?

Making a parallel, everyone who has some desire for change has to unite. Talking with those who are on the side, exposing, taking the voter registration, in the case of the youngest, we have to move so that this moment takes shape and we can achieve this desire, which is from better times than this .

You are the protagonist of the new seven o’clock soap opera, which opens at the end of the month. Are you anxious?

I am very excited. Pat, my character, is a stunt double for an actress and I have a stunt double. So sometimes it’s three people in the same outfit. It’s fun, besides having a theme that I really like: she’s a mother of a family, works, struggles to pay the bills, has to go out in the morning to blow up cars, roll over, jump off buildings. It has a lot to do with our real-life character, which I like, I think it creates a connection with the audience. I always look for that in the characters.

Carnival is also often require extra work in terms of food, exercise and even psychological work to keep up with the pace of rehearsals and the avenue itself. How was this effort for you?

Wow, I’ve done that a lot… I tried going without food, working out every day, and it was great at the time, but really too much effort. Now, because of the work, which did not stop even on the day of the official parade, it became very difficult. But I also don’t think you need to, you know? I’m very active in my day, so I don’t need that extra effort. But I worked out, it’s not that I didn’t do anything, otherwise it becomes hypocritical: ‘ah, I didn’t do anything’. I tried to take it easy a week before, we want to be okay, because my costume, let’s face it, wasn’t very big (laughs). But I also gave myself that freedom. I’m entering the avenue at 40, I’m happy with it, I’m proud, so it’s not worth focusing on what I should have done more.

​Talking about this dictatorship of beauty, you still feel charged?

I am uncomfortable with some questions, but I think we have to talk about this. There are people who are still stuck in an old format. Yesterday, I had a person older than me by my side and we were talking about it and she said: ‘no, you younger people are free to talk about the body, I was already hiding at your age’. That warmed me up, I said: ‘she’s right, things are better’. Pressures exist, in relation to age, the body, to lose weight, to have children. But I don’t cling to them anymore, I don’t suffer from them anymore, I do what I can, I focus on what makes me good, what I think makes me beautiful and how I want to age. Maturity has to bring that, it lets us live a lighter life.

But it was a learning process to achieve this…

Yes. I’ve fallen into all the traps. Of being sad about the internet, of getting depressed about a job that you didn’t like, of asking myself: ‘Should I do this?’, ‘Am I going too far?’, ‘Should I get married?’, ‘ did I laugh too much in one place?’ I fell for all the traps, but it’s so good to look back and see that I’m different, that I feel better and those things are no longer important to me.

At the Carnival, you declared that you are “in love”. What is it like to have a relationship as exposed as yours?

The pressure is from society and if we have to face an entire society, I face it, no problem. But we are great! I remain discreet, people may not have this notion, but I remain discreet. I expose what I can’t hide, Diogo is a public person too, so there’s no way. But that [essa exposição] it is also a result of the freedom I gained. I always showed myself as a sociable woman, with commitments, very familiar, but I never allowed myself to show that I can be happy as a woman, live a relationship, exchange affection. Now I allow myself.

The agendas always crowded with both is a problem?

I will say that when we have good will and are really in love, we find a little time, and any little time is too good. When I leave the recordings, we go to dinner, talk, when I’m a little calmer on the weekends, which is when he works, I go to the shows — people might even ask themselves ‘wow, she goes to all the shows ?’, but it’s a moment we have to be together. But we are so happy… We are together, glued together when possible. There is a lot of work, but then we make an appointment in the agenda to meet, but it’s so good. At this point, I say that nothing is missing. We joined families, now we are one family, so that’s the most important thing.

​Have you had time to watch series, movies, read?

Look, I like to do everything together. I start reading a book, I watch series, sometimes I watch it in three stages. But the Oscar was the last thing I could see before this Carnival event. I’ve seen all the Oscar movies, except for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. Right now, I’m a little behind, but I’ve seen the Oscar films, because I think they talk a lot about what’s happening in the world as art, there are foreigners, there’s animation, what the world is seeing as good art, so I think I’m keep an eye on these things.

And which were your favorites?

I really liked ‘The Lost Daughter’, it was a film that touched me a lot. He is uncomfortable and talks about something very old, but that is not really talked about, which is this situation of motherhood, how not to feel guilty about some things that happen during this period. I’m suspicious because there’s also ‘Mãe Paralelas’, which is by Almodóvar, which I’m a fan. But ‘Rhythm of the Heart’ was especially good for me. He is easy, palatable, but at the same time, for those who have a look, he is very sensitive, speaks without saying literally about that family adapting to the barriers of life. I cried, it was horrible. I watch movies and cry, I can be a spectator, I go to the theater and cry, I don’t question myself, I can really surrender, travel, enjoy, I have a very normal opinion.

We are in an election year. How do you see the importance of the artistic class taking a stand and talking openly about politics?

It is extremely important! I think it’s time for us to lose the restrictions and expose ourselves, because those who stand still are consenting and this is a great pain. At that moment, we no longer have the right to be silent, because in silence we are consenting. Each one in their group, each one with its importance, we have to talk. Keeping silent has always been a right, but now it’s an obligation for us to leave this place.