Alice Braga stars in the series ‘Dark Matter’ and talks about ‘opening doors’ for Brazilians in Hollywood: ‘We never walk alone’ | Pop & Art

Almost 20 years after starting her international career, there is no denying that Alice Braga is part of a vanguard of the current generation of Brazilian actors, actresses and directors who have recently ventured into Hollywood.

When starring in the science fiction series “Matéria Escura”, an adaptation of the best seller of the same name by Blake Crouch that premieres this Wednesday (8) on the Apple TV+ video platform, she still thinks about the importance of representation on TV and in cinema Americans.

“Being able to be part of this is really cool,” says the 41-year-old Brazilian actress in a video call interview with g1.

“And the more I can help and open doors and support and produce things for new people to come (I’ll do it). I think it’s important. We never walk alone.”

Watch the trailer for ‘Dark Matter’

In the conversation, she comments on the movement of recent years, which also included Wagner Moura, Bruna Marquezine and even Fernando Meirelles, director of “City of God” (2002), which kicked off Braga’s foray into the United States.

“It’s very beautiful to see how this transformation has happened. It’s a struggle that continues, but it’s a struggle for representation and I think Brazilians are taking part more precisely because of this openness of point of view. We are well represented.”

She also talks about the new nine-part series she stars in alongside Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby”) and Jennifer Connelly (“Top Gun: Maverick”), which puts a college physics professor in the middle of a major plot for the multiverse.

Interestingly, the rare case of an adaptation led (in the Hollywood role of “showrunner”) by the book’s author.

G1 – “Dark Matter” brings together two elements that are super hot in the Zeitgeist: multiverse, something that no one can escape from lately, and something a little smaller which is the question of “what if?” – a discussion that took place a lot mainly in “Past lives” (2023). What attracted you most to this series, between these two factors?

Alice Braga – I found it very interesting that Blake Crouch, who wrote the book, is the showrunner/creator of the series. It’s something that’s very rare, right? So, it was a huge honor to be able to work with him and be able to participate in this adaptation together with him.

But what I found very interesting about his work, when I read the first two scripts and then I read the book, is that Blake writes science fiction in a very human way, very connected with human feelings, with the characters, with issues that we all live. Be it love, be it regret, be it be life.

And I found this very beautiful, because it takes a genre that is super classic, but instead of the focus being on the material side, the scientific side, it goes to the human side.

As an actress, it seemed like a very interesting project to me, because it deals with issues, as you said, that are very common to all of us.

At some point, we think: “What if I had done that? I hadn’t done that? What if I had decided to do this instead?”

I think the issue of regret is something that permeates our society a lot. Even more so these days with so much information, technology, social media.

It’s one of the things the character says – in the book and in the series too. He asks, “Are you happy with your life?” And I think this is a question that we end up asking ourselves.

It seemed like an interesting challenge to me. From facing a place of connecting with the public by questioning and debating issues that are common to all of us. Apart from the amount of action and things the character goes through. (laughter)

G1 – I was even going to ask about that. It’s really very rare for the author of the work to be the showrunner, as happened with Blake. I remember few cases, as was the case with Neil Gaiman, in “Good omens” (“Beautiful curses”). What is the advantage of a project like this?

Alice Braga – It’s very interesting to adapt a work that is already a great success as a literary work for television or cinema, because there is already a very large community of fans, right?

There is already an audience that is devoted to that creation, but, in a book, people create their own universe – even more so science fiction – in their heads. They have a very personal, very intimate connection with that work.

I think this is something I’ve been to a few times, right? I did it with “Blindness Essay” (2008). I did it with “Eduardo e Mônica” (2022) – even though it wasn’t a book, it was a song, you’re playing with the imagination.

I think Blake puts himself in a challenging position. Himself, as creator. But at the same time it also gives you the possibility of creating together with someone who had this original idea. And that is very magical.

When you adapt a book, some changes will have to be made, because it is very amplified, right? Enlarged.

So, Amanda, for example, who is my character. He needed to create some specific things in her story to develop her arc that he didn’t have in the book.

There are small adaptations that are made, because it is another type of art being made, right? It’s not just someone reading the book and creating it in their head, so the fact of having Blake with us is very wonderful, because it’s the creator recreating his own creation instead of a third person adapting it. I think it triangulates more with the fans.

I’m very curious to see how the fans will react and to see people get to know Blake’s work and start reading his books because they saw his work.

He really is a great writer. His work is very beautiful. Not only “Dark Matter”, but “Recursion” and his other books are very famous for this. I think he writes very connected to human feelings, you know, which are common to everyone.

I interviewed him at the Book Biennial. He went last year and it was beautiful to see the number of Brazilian fans he has, the connection he has with them and how much he enjoyed the Biennale.

He was passionate, because he said it was an event that he didn’t see happening around the world. They are normally made for publishers, right?

G1 – Jacquelyn (Ben-Zekry), who is one of the screenwriters and is Blake’s editor and his wife, said that you took the character in a different direction than the book. What direction was this and why did this happen?

Alice Braga – From the moment Blake made small changes to the journey before she entered this madness that is – when people watch it, they will understand – this box universe, which is the possibility of traveling to the multiverse.

Not a multiverse, but multiple possibilities for life.

I think it changes her intention from what was in the book. In the book, we didn’t have much information about her personality. A very important thing that was created is that in the series she had a relationship and emotional involvement with the other version of Jason (Edgerton).

This makes her enter this box and this universe in a much more emotional way and much more involved with it. Not so cold or not so distant.

So, I think it made sense in the book, but when we started to bring it to the physical body, it ended up going that way.

Almost a journey of a woman who is finding herself again and seeking self-affirmation and internal strength to find her place in the world and know that happiness has to come from her and not from someone else.

She took that direction and went with them. It was a lot through what Blake and she brought and what I said. We created a lot of hands like this, because when you change a little thing, the character’s entire journey can take a different path.

So, I think it was kind of like that. It was an action and reaction.

G1- In one of those doors there would be a series in which Amanda would not be involved with Jason, it would be more faithful to the book.

Alice Braga – (laughs) Exactly, then.

G1 – Speaking of which, and avoiding spoilers, if you were in this box that serves as a portal to different parallel realities, which world would you try to visit?

Alice Braga – It’s so funny – because I can’t give spoilers – but it ended up that, when I read this script, I was very impressed, because it was very much the kind of world I would like to visit.

It’s a kind of world that’s a dream really. It is the most equal world, the world where we are aware that the climate crisis exists, it is pulsating.

Where we don’t have so much political disagreement, polarization doesn’t exist, so we can hope for a future. I think that in the world we can have equal rights more than anything and without hunger, where people don’t die of hunger.

So, it’s funny, because this ends up happening in the series at a certain point and, when I read the script, I was very impressed and said: “Wow, I would dream too.”

I don’t know if I was suddenly the one who inspired Blake with our conversations, but Blake also has this dream. A more empathetic world.

Alice Braga – It has definitely decreased. It is a struggle for representation that has existed for many years with Latinos and we are Latin Americans. We, Brazilians, are part of this community and it is such a huge audience in the United States that this representation was more than urgent – ​​necessary – for people to recognize that they have their own voice, their own point of view.

This is a transformation that has to happen in front of the cameras and behind the cameras in decision-making places. In executives’ chairs, directors’ chairs and scriptwriters’ chairs, as well as characters who are in front of the cameras.

It is very beautiful to see how this transformation has happened. It’s a fight that continues, but it’s a fight for representation and I think Brazilians are taking part more precisely because of this openness of point of view. We are well represented.

And we Brazilians are Latin Americans. I think we have to embrace this more and more. Including watching Latin American content. Including feeling like part of the Latino community.

I agree with Wagner. I think nowadays it’s completely different. Amanda, for example, in the book is not Latina. The one who is Latino is Daniela (Connelly). Regardless of whether I was Latina or not, I auditioned and they chose me. From that point on, Blake wanted to transform her into a Brazilian.

I was super happy. We have a scene that speaks in Portuguese. I bring this Latin American, Ibero-American Brazilian representation to the series. She is not a stereotypical character as, for many years, even I myself did. Drug dealer, the criminal, the maid.

I feel this transformation happening and I’m very happy to have done “The Queen of the South”, because it was a character that actually transformed the stereotype. She was a woman in a chair of power and, for many years, it was the only series with a Latina woman on prime time pay television in the United States.

I feel like this is it. It’s a fight that has been going on for many years, but the public is very thirsty. That’s why you see Fernando Meirelles directing “Sugar”. You see so many Latin American directors with an incredible space for representation here. (Alejandro González) Iñárritu, (Alfonso) Cuarón, Diego Luna, Gael (García Bernal).

Being able to be part of this is really cool. And the more I can help and open doors and support and produce things for new people to come (I will). I think it’s important. We never walk alone.