Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day!


Even though it is technically not Father's Day in Portugal, (Father's Day is actually celebrated on St. Joseph's Day, March 19th, in Portugal) I still wanted to wish Diogo a very Happy Father's Day as we in the US celebrate it today.  And I also wanted to use "Father's Day" as the theme for today's "Clip of the Day."  So, today's clip comes from a 2010 interview with Diogo on the SIC Mulher show "Mundo das Mulheres," where he discussed being a father -- both onscreen and off.  

Our dynamic duo Liliana and Lou da Gama teamed up once again to translate this special, great interview for us, which can be found below the video/link.  


video courtesy of SIC Mulher)


Click here to watch the video if it does not play automatically.

Ana Rita Clara: So, Diogo Morgado we were talking about being fathers…
DM: I was absorbing that, yes…

(Click the "Read More" link below to read the rest....)

Ana Rita: I talked about this on the perfect day, since you are learning how to be a dad! Is that something you always wanted?
DM: Yes. Always. My brother is younger and we were always so close, great friends, at the same time we were discovering the world together, each one at his own age. Not that I saw my brother as my son, but that love, that relationship of seeking the world and discovering it together, with a son it's elevated to the maximum.
Ana Rita: And are you aware of these things now, did you read books at home like “How to Educate…”
DM: Yes, I do! I do … I do. Look, yesterday I was cuddling him and thought about the bones in our heads, so I picked a book and… I remember I read something about it, but at that moment my curiosity focused on that, so I got the proper book. We are in this kind of study now. 
Ana Rita: And in that unconditional love.
DM: No doubt!
Ana Rita: Anyway, you have felt on TV that unconditional love that became real, in the role you played as a father in a novela. Talk to us a little about that, it was with the actor Afonso Lopes [Diogo's young skating "teacher."] There you portrayed a dad…
DM: Yes. The last two projects I did, I was a father, in different circumstances. In "Vingança" I discovered 10 years later that I was a dad. It’s curious, because it’s the nearest thing to me because suddenly he is a dad, right, of a grown up kid. And that is closer to me, that kind of relationship, than the one in "Podia Acabar o Mundo" in which the character was a dad since the child was born. 
Ana Rita: How was it for you to work with such young actors?
DM: I tried to create what I think a father and son relationship should be. Meaning, it should not be discouraging, must have boundaries, the kid shouldn’t be spoiled, and in that case we’ve gone through the spectrum with Afonso Lopes because he was at school and loved to play like the other kids... some of the time he didn't have his homework done [for the novela] and at that time, the cool guy became less cool so he could understand the limits, and that we are there to work, with a purpose. So making that possible for someone who is still being educated and forming his personality. That is outstanding, being a part of that. In my son’s case I am a direct part of it! 
Ana Rita: Afonso was already part of your life…
DM: I love kids. And you interviewed me when I was doing “Da-lhe Gás” where I had 500 kids every day coming through the door, and kids like to test us, to see the limits, right? As much as you love a kid, or your son, if you do not set limits, that condemns your love for him, and you will feel resentful, as the kid has not yet established his own limits. And it’s with love that we should handle that. With Afonso I sensed at the beginning a type of attitude, and with time things got to a proper way. And if there was something about Afonso, they called me up… 
Ana Rita: Yeah but… Afonso is here now!
DM: Aawwww you bastard!! …. It’s you!! You are here!! He must be thinking: “I don't believe he just said that!” Wasn't it? Wasn't it? Just amazing!! He was where?? In the back?? [laughs] I am sooo clueless!!  And you didn't even blink… Look! I don´t like this! If you knew… I hate surprises! I swear! And people who know me, know that! I just shoot myself up! Something not so good happens to me and I’ll faint here! I am still alive so… It’s okay for this one! 
Ana Rita: Afonso, tell us all, how was it to work with Diogo?
DM: So it’s a lie all that I said, right?? [laughs.]
Ana Rita: Did you like meeting Diogo?
Afonso: I loved him! He is like a second dad to me! 
DM: Heyyyyy don´t say that… don’t say that [gets emotional.]
Afonso: It’s true! 
Ana Rita: That's so beautiful and strong… How did you feel that?
Afonso: I was with him almost every day. And always called him “dad,” never Diogo, always dad!
DM: It’s true…
Ana Rita: What do you love the most about Diogo? He is big, but sensitive, right?
DM: It’s wrestling, right?? It’s wrestling… we used to fight on the set’s couch. It complained a lot! We used to fight there many times, right?!
Afonso: Diogo rode on my back! 
Ana Rita: Nahhhh...
DM: He did, he did! This small amount of person is strong! He said: "I can do it, I can do it!" And I saw his will, so I rode his back!! 
Ana Rita: Instead of working you were having fun!! Right?
DM: That is part of the job. Even as adults, if we don’t have a little fun, things wont have the same glow. And it’s too violent for a child – not a child, a boy – from Afonso’s age, the hours of work to fulfill the discipline… It can be saturating. So I took refuge in him and him in me, and things got along!
Ana Rita: What did you learn with Diogo, as an actor and as a young man?!
Afosno: Learned how to act. 
DM: You didn’t learn… You knew it already!
Afonso: Noo.
DM: You became a little more conscious.
Afonso: Exactly. 
Ana Rita: What were the first words?
Afonso: At the beginning I was a little bit abusive. Then he teaches me the hard way! 
DM: He is a natural born actor. And there are many young actors who started and then got lost along the way… because they did not have the notion of what they were doing. Acting is about what they feel, but not just that… and that beginning to evolve from who they are to the character it’s the start of a profession. He was very authentic and spontaneous, and that is not wrong. They just should understand why they are doing that, why is it fun or well done. There is a purpose to that, and Afonso needed to get it. And he did it all by himself! 
Ana Rita: So you won a friend for life and a second dad as you said!?
DM: No it is not…
Ana Rita: Soo, you love tattoos? But have none… or do you?
DM: No I don't… 
Ana Rita: Are you thinking about getting one?
DM: No… eh pá
Ana Rita: Now that Santiago is born…
DM: Noo. I would like to get one. But as I see my job with respect and discipline I know that on the day I get one, even if it was on the top of my head, if so, that wouldn't work for the character…
Ana Rita: So you will stay like a blank canvas…
DM: In my 70’s or 80’s when I get to pack my boots and leave this job, I will get one! 
Ana Rita: But this let's us continue the conversation regarding impressions [in life] and also about special people who follow you. Was "Vingança" also something very special to you?
DM: it was… It was… It was. It was because, I think for me it was the first character in which I could “stretch the string” [means… pushing a situation to its limit] a little bit. It was a character that was a hero. He had the whole story making him a hero. And I searched for some attitude… that he wouldn’t be the conventional hero, that the audience at home questioned the attitude of that character. In that sense, it’s a risk because you’re playing against the tide. But I felt that, somehow, it was the right path. It was an unstable character, unconventional. And it is difficult for a young actor to do a character with a dramatic charge in a series, where every day you are shooting and you have to keep that. In this regard, it was something I myself set out to do, difficult, and I felt satisfied with the result. And still today, I meet people who really liked the series. And so, I feel proud of that.
Ana Rita: How did you do the research to build a character like that? How do you prepare for a character like that?
DM: My method is a bit like that – I see a lot of things. I see a lot of movies. I see photographs. I listen to songs. For example, in "Vingança," there were situations in which I chose a song that touched me in some place, which I thought it was through that way that the scene should be executed, and I would listen to it before doing the scene. 
Ana Rita: Very well, to inspire yourself.
DM: Yes. I function a bit like that. Each actor has his/her method.
Ana Rita: We are now seeing images of this series that we are talking about, fantastic. So, you said that you have songs that inspire you, that connect you to places, that move you before you go to a stage, in this case to a scene.
DM: it could be a stage.
Ana Rita: But is this one of your rituals? Listening to a song? Or each work has its own inspiration?
DM: It depends. Each work has its own inspiration. The more distant the character is from me, the more  the need to search for things that are not your everyday, that help you find new things, and new sensations that move you away from yourself, in search of a purpose to which you proposed yourself. And so, in that measure, it depends on the character, it depends a lot on the work. Now, I have to tell you that often things happen only in our mind, and that’s why I am so self-critical. I like few things of what I do. Because often, we project something in our mind and do the scene with a purpose, and with an entire world in our head, and then to the exterior, only a little bit passes, only a tiny fraction passes, which, sometimes, is good, because it’s that extra, that little glow that gives the identity of the character. But, sometimes, it doesn’t come in the quantities that I would like. So, all this is a constant search that we have as actors. That’s why I like to be an actor, it’s learning every day the new means to transpose what goes inside me.
Ana Rita: Do you define yourself more as an emotional or a rational actor?
DM: Rational.
Ana Rita: Rational?
DM: Yes. I rationalize emotion. I do not let it… Sometimes, it happens. With Afonso, it happened. I had situations in which I didn’t want to get emotional, but it happened. We are humans, aren't we? But essentially, I rationalize and think before. I do not let myself go.
Ana Rita: Let’s now see images with someone also very special in your life, Lúcia Moniz. Let’s see those images.
Ana Rita: Diogo, these scenes are indeed the most difficult? When you have to cry?
DM: Ah! 
Ana Rita: Which are the most difficult scenes to shoot?
DM: Eh pá! I don’t know. I don’t know. I think these scenes are not difficult. The hard thing is to do them well. I think a love scene is not difficult. The hard thing is to do it well. To cry, just because… yes, because a tear falls? Tells me nothing if that doesn’t have truly a context in which people, when the tears fall, understand that there is no other way but to cry. I think it’s what comes before the crying or other things.
Ana Rita: All that leads to it.
DM: It is all that leads to it that is difficult. Even the physically violent scenes where someone hits whoever, and whatever, are not easy scenes, but they are disciplined, choreographed scenes.
Ana Rita: Scenes that demand that preparation. But I wonder if it’s not also more comfortable to do a scene with someone who’s your friend.  Lúcia [Moniz] was also with you in so many situations.
 DM: Of course it does. Of course it does. Lúcia is someone special for me. She was in the first series I did, and I've said before, it wasn’t easy for me to do it. And Lúcia… even then… at that time, we were both nobody. Well, Lúcia already was, because she had won “O Festival da Canção” [Song Festival]. But, I remember a day where I was very sad because I had been humiliated doing a scene … (he looks to the camera)… because they happen… bad things! And Lúcia approached me and encouraged me and said to me, “you’re good. Don’t give up”, and these words are things that stay with us forever.
Ana Rita: She’s also here to give you a kiss. 
(Lúcia Moniz enters.)
DM: Ohhhhhh no!!! Ehhh! Wow! Ehhh! Wow! 
(They hug.)
DM: Ehhh! Wow! You’re not nice [to me].
Ana Rita: I swear I felt your breath, Diogo.
Lúcia: What “saudade”! [Portuguese word whose meaning has no direct translation in any other language, it "describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or deeply melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves" -- Wikipedia.] Congratulations.
DM: Wow! You shouldn’t do this [to me] pá (he gets emotional again). Fonix [a soft word for “fuck."]
Ana Rita: You see? Pampering and surprises for you.
(Diogo and Lúcia hug again.)
DM: Ohhh! 
Ana Rita: You haven’t seen one another in a while?
Lúcia: A long time! 
DM: A long time! 
Ana Rita: Since the series (Vingança)?
DM: No. No. No. 
Lúcia: No. Not long ago 
DM: We exchanged messages.
Lúcia: We exchanged messages -- “We have to meet up. It has to be, but when? It has to be now because then I am going wherever”… and that’s it.
DM: It was. It was. Ehh! So cool pá!!!
Ana Rita: You were not waiting for this? For someone who doesn’t like surprises…
Lúcia: You were saying you didn’t like surprises and I was like “And now???”
DM: No, no! No, no! I don’t like them because… there is… when you were asking, and Lúcia knows this, I’m rational. I like things to be in a parameter that I know I can control. So, this is bad for my health.
Ana Rita: Look! But isn’t it also good to lose control and have special moments here?
DM: It’s good but… if I had any expectation that this could happen, I wouldn’t set foot here. Seriously! Seriously! Of course now I am here and it’s very good. It’s very good. 
Ana Rita: It’s part of our personality!
DM: But it is such a huge shock; it’s such a shakeup. I wasn’t expecting it. These people have their lives, don't they? And all of a sudden they are here!
Lúcia: You are part of our lives!
(They hug again.)
Ana Rita: You are part of our lives! Exactly! He’s been part of your life for a long time?
Lúcia: A long time. In fact, Diogo just mentioned… when we met was in the series "Terra Mãe," where he made his debut. So, he has already told the story. 
Ana Rita: How was he back then?
Lúcia: He was a kid!!! I'm not so much older than him. Attention! But…
Ana Rita: But for you, the image you have of him when you met him. 
Lúcia: I think that the moment he just described when I went to talk to him to encourage him, I think it was a bit because I also felt the same in the previous series, which was when I made my debut. So, "Terra Mãe" was the second series for me.
DM: You did “Grande Aposta,” wasn’t it?
Lúcia: I did “Grande Aposta." I was also young. I was also glanced aside. There were many situations in which I needed that encouragement. So, I understood a bit what was going on. So, from the little I knew and had experienced, I was trying to give [him] more the human side, because experience of series and cameras… I had none.
DM: But you see how lucky I was!
Ana Rita: And from then to here, this fantastic evolution, and now you have your bags packed for Hollywood. We’re just finishing. Anyhow, quickly, I’m going to congratulate you again for being chosen amid so many people… [Note: this interview was done when Diogo was cast as "Joseph" in an American movie called "Mary Mother of Christ," which would have been his American film debut, and was also supposed to star Al Pacino and Peter O'Toole.  The film never came to be.]
DM: Thank you.
Afonso: Congratulations!
Ana Rita: You’re very talented, and I hope that everything goes well. What are your cravings? Tell us. What worries you the most and what cheers you up the most?
DM: It’s very strange; it’s strange because, as Lúcia knows, I never had any yearning to go abroad, and things happened in such a natural way that even now, I didn’t realize quite well how things will develop and are developing. So, I just hope… I'm going to dedicate myself more than ever to what I have to do, and above all… okay, Al Pacino, Peter O’Toole, sacred monsters… but they are people that are doing their best in a project. In that regard, we'll be alike, and I hope everything goes well. 
Ana Rita: It will go well for sure. You know… you’re an actor of Portugal but, now, also of the world, fortunately for all of us. You also take a little bit of Portugal with you.
DM: Essentially of Portugal.
Ana Rita: I hoped you like all these surprises. 
DM: I liked it a lot. I liked it a lot. It was a blow but I liked it a lot. Thank you.
_______

Obrigada Liliana and Lou, for teaming up and doing another translation for us. 

And I sincerely hope Diogo and all the fathers out there have a very Happy Father's Day!  I am a still a proud Daddy's girl to this day!  J

--Sara

6 comments:

  1. This was awesome!!! Just melts my heart to see this side of Diogo!!! Truly never ceases to amaze me in every interview and makes me love him all the more..IF that is possible..lol Thank you so much for this and yes, wishing Diogo a very happy father's day!!!! xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, words fail me, what can I say!!!! He indeed is a very sensitive, humble person. Good job Sara and thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Am new to the Blog! Diogo is a beautiful soul! Thank you Sara for all that you do!

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh. my. gosh. just had a chance to watch and i am blown away. he was so wonderful with afonso!!!! it was like he was his son! and it was like lucia was a sister he hadn't seen in years. what a sweet, sweet man. very loving. THANK YOU, LADIES!!! this was such a treat!

    ReplyDelete