I met with the Brazilian starlet Rafaela Raposo to talk about her transition from Brazil to New York as well as from stage to screen.

 

Q: What has the transition been like for you moving from Brazil to New York City?

A: To be honest it wasn’t easy. Living in New York is something I’ve always wanted, but I had no idea what it would be like. I came by myself. My whole family stayed back in Brazil. It was the first time I spent so much time away from them, and I still miss them everyday. Despite all that, I felt like luckiest person alive for having the people I met here. We were our little NY family and an amazing support team for each other. After I met them and really got to know them, even English wasn’t such a big challenge anymore. I still have to practice my accent all the time and work hard, but everything is better when you have people to share the experience with. I know I have them here by my side and my family cheering for me from Brazil.

 

Q: What has been your favorite character to play and why?

A: That’s really hard to say… I’ve had the opportunity to play a broad variety of characters, and that’s such a good thing! Each character challenged me in a different way and the more challenging it is, the more excited about it I get. I end up learning more about the craft, about the character and about myself. It’s extremely rewarding.

 

Q: What do you consider the ultimate message that you would like to give to the world?

A: Be kind and believe in yourself. I think we should be proud of our accomplishments, no matter how small we think they are, and we should strive to achieve new goals everyday. We have to believe we can do it, even though sometimes the world tries to convince us we can’t. Having said that, I think kindness is extremely important. We have to treat each other with respect, no matter our differences. Only then will we be able to actually learn from one another, and that’s such a valuable experience! After all, everyone knows about something or how to do something better than you do.

 

Q: What has been your favorite New York moment?

A: On the same day I won the lottery to watch Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close, Ian McKellan bumped into me and I saw Matthew Perry on the subway. That’s what I love about this city. Everything is happening here! You can watch so many shows, go to so many expositions, concerts, operas or ballet. The cultural life is vibrant and my schedule is always busy. I love that!

 

Q: You have done a lot of work both onstage and on screen. How do the two mediums differ from one another?

A: I started in theater, so I definitely had to adjust my acting when I started film. At first it was a bit difficult for me because in theater, you do the entire scene once, so you’re really engaged and in tune with your scene partner from the beginning. It’s your only chance. That means that we make any possible mistakes part of the show. On screen we have to cut a lot and most of the time we don’t even shoot the whole scene in the right order because of the cameras; it’ll be edited later anyway. So it was a bit harder to engage on the same level with my scene partner at first, but if there are any mistakes, you usually get to do it again and the scene will turn out as planned in the first place. They’re both very unique and they’re both great!

For more information: http://rafaelaraposo.com