The actress was removed from the plot after refusing to film scenes in the hospital
In 1968, Susana Vieira faced problems behind the scenes of the soap opera A Última Testemunha, on Record, written by Benedito Ruy Barbosa. At the time, the veteran was in a car accident with actress Teresa Campos and her son, Rodrigo. Director Walter Avancini forced her to record the scenes even after the accident, but after refusing to continue working while hospitalized, she ended up being cut from the cast.
The artist was married to Régis Cardoso and traveled between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to visit her husband. Upon returning home, she crashed her car and was thrown from the vehicle. Susana Vieira suffered flattening and fracture of two vertebrae, lung perforation and two blood clots in her head.
“I asked to call Avancini because I had recording the next day. My last scene had been with Agnaldo Rayol, who played my partner in the story. The chapter ended with me arriving at his house, but the viewer didn’t know who had played the bell. Avancini didn’t have the next chapter ready”, he recalled in the biography Susana Vieira: Senhora do Meu Destino, published by Globo Livros.
“The day after the accident, I was already hospitalized when a Record camera arrived. Avancini wanted to record me in that state to include the scene in the soap opera. My character had suffered an accident, like ‘art imitates life'”, he added .
After opposing the director’s idea, the actress thought she would continue with her role in the plot, but remained under medical care for three months. When she was still hospitalized, she learned that she had been cut from the production and was not informed about her artistic decision: “Days later, when I was watching the soap opera in the hospital, I saw the character Mina (Helena Ignez) say: ‘Maria Tereza died’. Or In other words, they created a scene in which my character also had an accident and died. And I only found out about this by watching the soap opera.
*Text by Júlia Wasko
Júlia Wasko is a Journalism student and enchanted by news, entertainment and communication. Follow Júlia Wasko on Instagram: @juwasko
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