The first-time Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres is offering up an apology after a sketch in which she was done up in blackface nearly two decades ago recently resurfaced.
The 59-year-old Brazilian actress, who shocked awards prognosticators when she was nominated for the Academy Award for best lead actress last week for her performance in I’m Still Here, made the offensive display when she was featured in a segment on the Brazilian TV show Fantástico 17 years earlier.
Torres starred as multiple characters in the sketch, including one whom she portrayed using blackface.
‘Almost twenty years ago, I appeared in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV show,’ Torres said in a statement to Deadline on Sunday. ‘I am very sorry for this. I’m making this statement as it is important for me to address this swiftly to avoid further pain and confusion’
‘At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil,’ said Torres, who became the first Brazilian to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
‘Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it’s very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable,’ she continued.
First-time Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres, 59, apologized for wearing blackface 17 years ago in a sketch on Brazilian television in a statement to Deadline on Sunday
Torres became the first Brazilian, Latin American and Portuguese-speaking actor nominated for the best actress Oscar last week after starring in the acclaimed film I’m Still Here (pictured)
Torres plays multiple characters in the sketch from Fantástico, including a housekeeper that she used blackface for
‘This is an important conversation we must continue to have with one another in order to prevent the normalization of racist practices then and now,’ Torres concluded. ‘As an artist and global citizen, and from my open heart, I remain attentive and committed to the pursuit of vital changes needed to live in a world free from inequality and racism.’
Torres broke several other barriers with her Golden Globe win, which was the first in that category for a Latin American and Portuguese-speaking actor.
She’s also in rare company after earning her Oscar nomination, as only one other Brazilian actress has been previously nominated — her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, 95, for the 1998 film Central Station.
The show that featured Torres’ blackface display, Fantástico, still airs weekly on Sunday nights.
It originated in 1973 as a black-and-white variety series with a mix of musical performances, dance numbers, dramatic scenes and comedy sketches, along with news broadcasts.
After 15 years, the show transitioned from a pre-taped affair to a live broadcast, and in 1993 it was reimagined as a TV newsmagazine, but it continues to feature entertainment segments.
Torres’ offending sketch was reportedly titled The Opposite Sex: The Family (Father Vs. Mother), and it featured her and a male actor.
According to Deadline, Torres and her costar both addressed the camera directly as multiple characters as the sketch humorously interpreted whether mothers or fathers were more important to families.
Torres played an overworked mother who wanted a housekeeper to help her cope. As the housekeeper, she acted in an exaggerated manner and cracked a whip
Torres told Deadline she was ‘very sorry’ and said, ‘At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil’; seen January 5
In one scene, Torres’ mother character Solange reportedly says she wants to separate after her busy daily routine is detailed, but her husband Luis Carlos claims she’s just exhausted, so he suggests they get a housekeeper to lighten her load.
Torres also played the housekeeper while wearing a heavy layer of dark makeup all over her visible skin.
According to Deadline, the housekeeper says that she has the same problems as the mother — she also has children, a house that needs cleaned and a husband she has to ‘satisfy’ — so she can’t help her.
But then Solange decides to separate from her husband and gives half of all she has to the housekeeper, which seems to improve her life dramatically.
‘I became the man of the house,’ she says.
A clip from the episode circulating online appears to show Torres acting in an offensively exaggerated manner when playing the housekeeper in blackface.
The housekeeper also appeared to be wearing padding over her stomach, though it wasn’t clear if that was mean to make her look pregnant, or just heavier.
She complains about Solange’s ex-husband visiting her house every weekend, and she cracks a whip loudly before tossing a bag of hamburgers at him.
‘Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it’s very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable,’ she continued
Torres stars in I’m Still Here as the real-life wife of a politician who was abducted and murdered by Brazil’s former military dictatorship in 1971; still from I’m Still Here
She was a surprise Golden Globe winner, and she is now just the second Brazilian nominated for best lead actress at the Oscars — after her mother was nominated for the same award for 1998’s Central Station, which was directed by the same filmmaker
Several posters complained about Torres’ blackface performance and compared it to an editorial she wrote that was critical of Amber Heard amid her legal battle against ex-husband Johnny Depp
Some also reminded their followers that Zoe Saldaña — who is nominated for best supporting actress at the Oscars — had also worn blackface for the 2016 film Nina, in which she darkened her skin to play the singer Nina Simone
One user, who appeared to have an account centered around posting about Torres’ blackface scandal, highlighted the snubbed Hard Truths actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Some users noted that some of the account most vociferously criticizing her appeared to be so-called stan accounts who obsessively follow and promote other stars, so there criticisms may have been intended to help the Oscar chances of other nominees
‘My problem now is that Dr. Luis Carlos spends every weekend at this house and leaves everything in a mess! Hey, Dr. Luiz Carlos, go to hell! Here is your hamburger!’ the housekeeper says, according to Deadline.
‘Damn it, Dalva, Don’t you know I hate ketchup and pickles? Are you kidding me,’ the husband replies at the end of the clip.
On X (formerly Twitter), users were largely critical of Torres and the use of blackface in the sketch.
Several posters complained about Torres’ blackface performance and compared it to an editorial she wrote that was critical of Amber Heard amid her legal battle against ex-husband Johnny Depp
One user, who appeared to have an account centered around posting about Torres’ blackface scandal, highlighted the snubbed Hard Truths actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Some also reminded their followers that Zoe Saldaña — who is nominated for best supporting actress at the Oscars — had also worn blackface for the 2016 film Nina, in which she darkened her skin to play the singer Nina Simone.
Although Torres appeared to have few full-throated defenders, some users noted that some of the account most vociferously criticizing her appeared to be so-called stan accounts who obsessively follow and promote other stars, so there criticisms may have been intended to help the Oscar chances of other nominees.
Torres’ film I’m Still Here — directed by the acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, who also directed the film that earned her mother an Oscar nomination — is based on the struggles of Eunice Paiva, the wife of the Brazilian politician Rubens Paiva, who was tortured by Brazil’s former military dictatorship and murdered by the regime in 1971.
After making inquiries into her husband’s abduction in a military raid, she was arrested and tortured for nearly two weeks before being released.
She later graduated from law school and spend the rest of her life advocating both for humans rights and the rights of indigenous people.
