Bárbara Reis is the third black protagonist of prime time: ‘Place I conquered’

As of Monday night, May 8th, Barbara Reis can be seen daily in the skin of the fierce Aline, in “Terra e Paixão”. The character is full of important and relevant characteristics. One of them carries with it a range of others: she is the actress’s first protagonist.

Bárbara, 33 years old, a black woman, raised in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Méier – where she still lives today – debuted on TV in 2016, and now, seven years later, she embodies the heroine of the new telenovela de Walcyr Carrasco. And with the same passion and determination as her first role, a brief participation as the Weasel in “Velho Chico”.

REPRESENTATIVITY MATTERS

Aline is the third black protagonist in prime time, the main one on Brazilian TV. Before her, she fell to the Taís Araújo the role of Helena, the main character of “Viver a Vida”, a soap opera by Manoel Carlos, shown on Globo in 2009. And, until last week, Lucy AlvesBrisa, from “Travessia”.

Read more: Taís Araújo faced rejection when starring in soap opera

It is noteworthy that, currently, there are still Sheron Menezzesat 6 pm, like Sol, from “Vai na Fé”.

“Taís is a reference for me. Firstly, for being a black actress who was the protagonist of a 9 o’clock soap opera. She started writing this story. And now I, together with Sheron, with Lucy, are helping to write. It is a story of change, of recognition that we are occupying a space. Being in a place of protagonism is something that must remain and be natural”, he said. Barbarian to GShow.

Considering that over the 70 years of TV, Globo has produced more than 300 soap operas… there is something wrong with having only four black women as protagonists! Aline is fully aware of this. Just like the author of Terra e Paixão”.

“We used to falsify people’s origins. A few years ago, I went to give a lecture and Sônia Guajajara (current Minister of Indigenous Peoples) took the microphone and said that it was no use just talking about indigenous peoples, but bodies have to be present. That stuck in my head and it goes for Asians, blacks. I wanted a black protagonist and I did,” he said.

WHO IS BARBARA REIS

Born in Tijuca and raised in Méier, curiously the same neighborhood where Taís Araújo, Barbara Reis worked as a groomer at the family pet shop and worked as a model until she was called to join the supporting cast of the miniseries “Dois Irmãos” (2017). Before, she was in some chapters of “Velho Chico”.

In order to represent a fragile student during the military dictatorship, in “Os Dias Eram Assim”, she lost 13 kilos. The artist had a quick passage through Record, in “Jesus”; at Fox she acted in the two seasons of the series “Impuros” and, back at Globo, she soon amended in “Éramos Seis” (2019). In the soap opera, she played Shirley, a woman who got pregnant with her mother’s employer’s son and was kicked out of his house for being black and poor.

Currently on air in “Todas as Flores”, on Globoplay, like Débora, the actress points out that, like her character in “Terra e Paixão”, who from a math teacher becomes an agricultural producer after the murder of her husband , she is and constant learning.

“Bárbara walks along with Aline, we are learning this world together”.