
BRAZILIAN ACTRESS CHANGING THE GAME
I’ve met Barbara’s work at the premier of the short-film “Phone Tales” in April 2018. My friend was one of the producers and dragged me to see his new project. Barbara was not there, though I deeply wish she was - I was completely in awe by her performance and kept wondering — Who is this human? Where does she live? What does she do?! When I got home and looked up her name I learned about her brave work with the Evoé Collective, an all female theatre collective based in NYC and all the other projects she has been involved. Barbara (or Bárbara for those who can roll their R’s) is a Brazilian actress living in New York who likes to describe her self as an artivist — and I could not agree more! She is been fighting to tell stories that are not often told, and gave me a little interview in which we spoke about her life, career and plant-based diet!
Me: Why leave Brazil and come to New York?
Eliodoirio: Why not? (laughs) I’ve always been a gypsy at heart. At 16 I moved to Tennessee to be an exchange student and after that I’ve been traveling everywhere on my own. I ended up in New York by accident to do a summer course at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, never had any plans of staying but I really found myself in that school and decided to take a chance..
Me: Do you feel like New York is the perfect place for you?
Eliodorio: I don’t think about WHERE am going to be living as much as I think about what I’m going to be doing. I have tons of projects in New York and all of them excite me so much because there is so much soul and so much collaboration involved. That’s what I’m attracted to: telling stories that I know will have have a huge impact on me as an artist and a human being and hopefully have the audience have that same experience.
M: Was it hard to find an audience for Evoé’s first projects?
Eliodorio: Not at all! I don’t know if we are lucky, popular or if our stories are really good (laughs) But we were actually surprised, our first show was sold out and there were people seating on the floor — and we were lucky enough to have all sorts of people in the audience, there were artists, doctors and people who thought Brazil’s capital was Buenos Aires (laughs) — but they were all so engaged! And that’s when we were like, ok, our voice really resonates here.
M: And that’s when Female Voices ( her last theatre project at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in New York) came along..
Eliodorio: Well, Female Voices from Brazil was already a living thing back them. Frank Hentshcker, Martin E. Segal Theatre’s artistic director heard about us and invited us to be part of the season, so we were producing Female Voices and The Seven Kittens at the same time which was crazy but immensely worth it!
Me: This is a tricky one but I have to ask : What’s like being an immigrant in America, today?
Eliodorio: A privilege and a responsibility- specially being an artist. First immigration is probably the most complicated subject in America today, and to be a working-actor-immigrant holds some sort of weight because like it or not, I represent a lot of people who currently are seen as a burden so my work , my voice, my accent and even the way I look represent so many whose voices are not being heard — and I as an artist cannot run away from this reality. Therefore, every time I am on a stage or on a screen is an opportunity for someone who may have some sort of feeling about immigrants to develop empathy and open their hearts and their minds a bit more about the subject, and that drives me! I feel this calling right now to show that what unites us is much bigger than what set us apart and is only through the removal of this “emotional” walls that we can start talking about other sorts os walls…

Me: Love that! What would you say to someone that has the dream of being an actor?
Eliodorio: Be an actor! (laughs) One of my great influences is Fernanda Montenegro, the only Brazilian actress to be nominated to an Academy- award. She tells young actors to give up and go do something else and then, if your heart keeps asking for the stage, the screen or the chance of being in someone else’s skin then , this is the right profession for you and you will be able to surf through all the ups and downs of it with love and grace.
Me: Feel like that is true for any profession!
Eliodorio: For sure. Giving up is not necessarily a bad thing!
Me: When did you learn you’d like to tell stories of the “underdogs”?
Eliodorio: I moved to New York and met Nicole Sousa, actress and writer — her grandfather fought for the independence of Angola and she is such a human rights fighter! She really opened my eyes to the duties we have by being an artist, and meanwhile my experience as an Immigrant and consequently a “minority” enticed this inside of me. was all enticed by the fact that in the United States I’m an immigrant and by consequence a “minority” — really made me raise my awareness to the undeniable fact that artists are mirrors of their current society and time , and that of course means showing ALL saids of human experiences specially the ones constantly being shut down.
Me: I saw your work on “Phone Tales” and then again in “ We Speak New York”— you are extremely lovely and visceral at the same time, how do you do that?
Eliodorio: Thank you! I think what we see is always a reflection of ourselves, so there is def a lot of you in that comment (laughs) I don’t know, when I was younger I pushed extra hard to get to the place “where I thought the scene/ my character should be” but that never works and I had brilliant mentors that always put me back on tracks. I am a vessel of something much bigger than me; which is the story plus something else that I like to call the ineffable. All I have to do is just be and by that I attempt to decode the human behavior, that’s all. Everything is in us if we allow ourselves to find it an live it, and that’s my job as an actor — hopefully it will always be incredibly nuanced cause that’s how humans are.
And is funny you call me lovely because I know I have an extremely lovely persona and that always pop in my characters but that is a “comfort zone”- the visceral is close but really far away for me because we are not raised to stay there and really delve in this place — so is a lot more work and a lot more surrender to get there.
Me: Can you tell me about your upcoming projects?
Eliodorio : Of course! I am in Brazil right now and about to start a project called “Peba” it will be a devised piece of work so the actors will work together with the screenwriter. The film has two parts one will be filmed in Brazil and the second one in Los Angeles next winter, so I’m really excited about that, specially cause the project envolves working with so many talented people!
Me: What about Evoé?
Elidorio: Evoé will have a blasting 2019 (laughs) we are doing the New York premier of the play FLUXORAMA written by Jô Bilac and will share the stage with Mayana Neiva, which is in my opinion one of Brazil’s greatest living actresses. That will happen in the spring and meanwhile we might be might filming a tv-pilot, but that’s still “ on the talks”.
Me: I saw on your social media that you follow a plant based diet, would you share a bit about that and how do you manage that with acting?
Eliodorio : Plant-based diet was the best thing that ever occurred to me! I am lactose intolerant with a small gluten allergy,- and for years I did not know any of this so I’d get bloated and feel tired all the time. But in 2016 I became a vegetarian and really started to study my body and mind what I ate — I saw that somethings really weren’t for me, and by trial and error I found a diet that suits me 100%, 80% of my meals come straight from nature and I eat as much raw things as I can — and that is the best way for me to live, I have so much more energy and I’m almost never sick. The impact that food has in my and probably on everyone honestly is huge and eating as healthy as I can really allows me to live in “peak performance” all times — so this how I manage to live my dreams without hurting my health.
Me: LASTLY — what is your biggest dream?
Eliodorio: I dream to live in a world ruled by peace and empathy — where everyone can live their dreams.

Photos: Matheus Dias
