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Anna Carvalho - Actress, Director, Producer, Screenwriter |
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Anna Carvalho loves vampires and monsters, she was cast as a demon, but
instead became an angel, she has been a prostitute more than once, on
film! She was in a monster tale.
Those things are not nearly as intimidating as when we briefly
summarize her career CV for you. Anna Carvalho is an accomplished
screenwriter, a good actress, director, producer and model. Born in
Portugal, now making her home in Austin, Texas, she is one of those rare
jewels you find in any walk of life, incredibly talented, always with a
smile on her face and laughter punctuating her conversation, she has
this knack of making one feel like she is someone you have known for
years, rather than someone you are beginning your first conversation
with.
Seeming to have several projects on the go all at once, we decided to
ask her about two of them.
“One of them is a series that we started in 2023 and it is a horror
series. It is (comprised of) Portuguese tales that were in a book that
was launched in 2023. At that time, we realized in Portugal there were
not a lot of women working in horror. In Portugal horror is stigmatized
a little bit. One of the women (working in horror) was me. I was the
producer and director. My collaborators are Isabel Pina and Sandra
Henriques.
We thought let’s adapt some of these tales and create the monster, kind
of based on Frankenstein. It was working all of these tales and finding
out what they have in common,” she says and nodding yes when we ask,
“You were in the play about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, correct.”
She directed three of the tales, produced, acted and adapted three of
the tales into screenplays. Of course she did that all of that. Was
there ever any doubt? One gets the impression that the busier Anna
Carvalho is the happier she is and the faster she goes.
So, before we talk about one of your other projects in post-production,
what is it like for Anna the director to direct Anna the actress?
“Oh wow! It is a lot. You are not only directing you, but you are
directing the others. I like to collaborate with all of my teams. I
don’t like to think, I like what I have and I am just going to stay with
it. I like the input of someone telling me,
hey, it is fine. I will do that with my DP (Director of
Photography) or if I have an actor rehearsing, I am totally open to
accepting the view of the other actor. If I am directing him and telling
him my vision, I would be like, hey do you think this will work out?
I like to work with them and to discover the characters and again
collaborate. I want to discover their input and how they can add to the
moment and to the characters. Sometimes they will bring something and I
will think oh wow!
As an example in my movie, Death Is the Place on Earth, the end
was not what I had written. When we were there in the moment, something
happened, that I prefer not to disclose, because it is kind of personal
for one of the actors and because of that we had to build another
ending. That person was the one who came up with the idea of what we
could do. I think the end is much better now than it was before.
We collaborate collaborating and let the other actors bring their ideas
and we put them on the table, talk about them and see what is best for
the character. Even sometimes when we are shooting other things come up.
We are working in the moment, something doesn’t fit and we adjust. I
think being open to collaboration is very good, except if you have a
very specific idea,” she explains.
Our conversation segues back to talking about another post-production
project, Expatriate.
“The director is
Renato Lucas, and we invited him to also direct Fragmentos de Um
Corpo.
We wanted different directors for different projects. He said okay, but
then he said, but I want you as my actress, so I was the lead actress on
a tale. I agreed and we did it. I started discipling myself when I was
directing. When I was shooting and directing, I did not want it to
extend to a lot of takes, so for me it was having the rehearsals and
talking and if something came up, cool we could change and do another
take. I think I was doing maximum five or six takes and it was done.”
We got a bit ahead of ourselves, so take us back to where this all
began.
“I was born in Lisbon and raised there. It was a middle-class family. My
parents don’t have anything to do in this area (the arts). My
grandfather always loved history. He always talked about kings and
queens. I would ask him about the kings, not only of Portugal, but all
over the world. He was a very educated person. His brother was a teacher
at university and wrote books. My grandfather also taught me French and
he helped me with math. He was that kind of person. He was a storyteller
of the truth, not of fiction. He (her grandfather) would research and he
would write. He wrote a lot of documents about the kings and queens, but
he never wrote a book. I could try to put them together as a book. He
did a lot of research about Portuguese history.
None of my family were artists. My father would sing really well. He was
a great singer and he would sing everywhere. He was at home and he would
be singing. When my mom was younger, she told me she was supposed to be
the lead for a play. She couldn’t do it, because her father wouldn’t
allow it. For some families it was bad to be an actress. Her godmother
ended up taking her to see the play without her father knowing (she
laughs). At that time families were really strict.
(As a child) I would get distracted more easily and I was fascinated by
my thoughts and creating these worlds and stories. Maybe it was just my
imagination. I remember my father would say hey let’s go out and I would
say no I don’t want to go out, I want to stay here in my room and keep
creating. I think that reflected in what I wanted to do. For a while I
thought I wanted to be a journalist.
When I came from London (where she had studied acting, as well as in
Italy and Portugal), I was invited by a friend to be the head of the
theater department’s newspaper. This is how I started, because they
didn’t have anybody on that newspaper to write about theater. He said
you can be the head of the department and select whoever you want and
write about it (theater). It was more than that it was (also) about
cinema and culture.
I took a course in the press, and got compliments from my teachers, but
I never followed that route, because I wanted to become an actress or a
director or a writer and create stories.
I always thought it would be fascinating to be a reporter and to go to
places that people do not go to often or to war zones. It is not for
everyone, but I have a lot of respect for those people. To be there and
see both sides. You can tell the story of people and you can tell their
point of view and the truth,” Anna Carvalho recalls.
Well just when you thought that was enough excitement for one
conversation Anna Carvalho springs on us, “The thing I always wanted to
be is a detective. I wanted to be a detective or a detective and maybe a
lawyer or an actress, but I didn’t like the idea of having to kiss a lot
of people. I told this to my cousin. I remember telling my cousin if I
become an actress that thing about kissing everyone is blah and super
disgusting. (She breaks out into a full laugh and wide grin). The
detective was always there.
Being a detective in Portugal is complicated and it was not the way I
wanted to be a detective. I wanted to be Agatha Christie. I wanted to be
(Hercule) Poirot. I was so curious and being a detective would be the
best. It was hard to do it in Portugal unless you went into the police
and I thought no it is not really what I want.
One of my friends I was with in high school and then later at university
and then she changed her career and became a part of the secret police
back in Portugal. Then I thought oh, I could have done that. I always
loved women (detectives). I was always into that. Again, I guess that is
because of my mom, because she loved it. I remember she would watch TV
and I would stand up and (look) between the (crack) in the door (as a
child).
I always loved adventure, forget about dolls and Barbies. I had one, but
no (She waves her hand dismissively).
At the same time, I was creating my stories and that is how it started.
The story would come in the moment and was organic. I wrote poetry and
my mom did too. I have so many ideas and sometimes I think I wish I
could connect my head to the computer
All during this time I did plays at school. At the end of high school,
my history teacher divided us into groups and I was in the group for
acting. We had to do a scene from The Name of the Rose. We had to
do the court scene. It went really well.
When we finished our last day of classes (high school), she asked the
class what we thought we should do. When she came to me, she said she
had a message from the (student teachers) and she also agreed. They said
they advised me to pursue acting. They said (her eyes sparkle and she
smiles) you have great potential and we think you should follow
that, because you will be really good. They saw a lot of great potential
in me as an actress. I thought that was interesting, because not a lot
of people get that compliment. They told me I should try and go to the
acting school in Portugal. For me that was huge and I still have in my
head that was the click. It was validation. I also had doubts, because I knew how hard it was if I decided to follow that path, especially because I was not part of the industry. My family did not come from that background.”
The first film that Anna Carvalho appeared in was Bones.
“The director,
Pedro Costa was a good director. Now he doesn’t like commercial
(filmmaking), because he thinks it is all about money. I got a call then
I got a casting and my first experience on screen was that. It was an
amazing experience. I always talk about him. I was lucky, because I
think he is a great director and he is very interested in people.
Bones
is not an easy movie to watch. I watched it again two years ago, because
they did a better version of the movie. It was in a film festival back
in Portugal. I was at the screening for the movie. It was funny to watch
the move after all these years. I remembered the impact it had at that
time and now I appreciate it even more.
It is about a ghetto that was inside of Lisbon and it doesn’t exist now
It is about drugs and surviving. I am one of the prostitutes.
We were supposed to shoot in one day and we didn’t so we ended up
coming back the next day. During that time, you absorb a little bit of
the environment where you are and what is going on.
This neighborhood (where the film was shot) was very deep into the very
poor and immigrant people, so it was just observing the environment and
understanding it a little bit. He is a great director, so he would come
to me and he would tell me, think like this or think like that and he
was giving me little clues. That is why I enjoy working with him so
much. He would say what are you thinking, what are you feeling?
I like to go to the environment or place. I remember being in a role
where (my character) was homeless and I was walking every day to my
house in Lisbon and I would walk and really absorb. Everything was much
more vivid in my mind and observing all the homeless (people) who were
there. That is one of my favorite parts, creating that life and
understanding how she works and how she reacts.
After Bones I did some small parts and one of them was also a
prostitute. I went to class and I said oh my god, they are giving me all
of the prostitutes. My teacher was well-known and she said (Anna
recalls while smiling) I would love to do a prostitute. (now she
is laughing). I said I can give you one of mine. Not Bones, I
liked that, but the other ones. I started as an actress, but I did
extras work as well. That is how you get inside the environment and you
understand how productions work.”
Now it was time to find out how Anna Carvalho went from being a demo to
an angel.
She seems to take great delight in telling of this story, “You don’t
know about this one, but I was cast as a demon. Originally for that show
I auditioned for a demon. This was right at the beginning with a
different director. When they got the new director, they rewrote the
story. The main character was the angel and there were still demons, but
they were secondary. They asked me if I wanted to be an angel. I said
yeah, sure.
The writer and the director knew what they wanted for this angel. This
was an angel who comes to earth to be with her friends. She had a few
fetishes, for instance she loves clothes. That is why when you watch the
episodes you see that I am changing my clothes, one time I am in
a yellow dress and the next time in a red dress.
That is really precise. You have an angel that is, oh I love this dress.
I love my clothes. That starts giving you a bit of a vibe for this
character. She is an angel, but not a common angel. She is not an angel
with wings and a typical angel. Her voice was even quirky. I was hoping
that if they had developed the series that they would take her to a
different level and you would see her changing a little bit also. She is
inside the human body she is using, but she is having fun.
I think as an angel you can take different directions, so I wanted to
have a very quirky and fun side, but very assertive. If you watch the
show there is a moment when they arrive at a house they say we don’t
know if this is the place. She looks at her clothes, as she gets out of
the car and she doesn’t even look at them and she says oh yeah, this is
the place. She knows this is the place.
I got some inspiration at that time from watching American Gods,
and it was about angels and gods and all of this. It had this dark
humor. It was fun and mine was the most fun character.”
There simply was
not time to talk about all the films and series that Anna Carvalho has
performed in, so we more or less cherry picked some of them and the last
one we asked her about is
Stiltsville Sisters,
which readers can stream on YouTube. The film which is 22:09 in length,
was shot off the south Florida coast, in Stiltsville, a water community
where the houses as you might guess from the name are on stilts in the
ocean. The characters speak
French and the film was directed by Adam Walters.
Anna Carvalho talks about the films “My character, Inés (travels) to be
with her sister Marine. She has not been with her for a while and she
misses her. To be honest when she goes to see her sister her objective
is to bring her back to France. They were always very connected from
their childhood until she (Marine) left to go to America. She is now
also going through certain things with her family and her relationship,
so she really needs her sister with her. They discover that they have to
move on with their lives.
Sometimes you need to move on with your life. The things in your past
you sometimes do not resolve. Some of the reviews said there is not a
lot of juice, because there are just the two sisters going around and
rediscovering each other. For a while they are just hanging out and
doing silly things, until you have the serious moment of hey what is
going on in your life. Hey come here.
I thought it was interesting, because we went to all of these different
houses. It was fun, because we could discover all of the houses and talk
a little bit about them.
The two sisters are discovering each other after all these years. They
have been separated and now they discover they are different people and
they have to move on. The houses are dying and something needs to be
done. They are beautiful houses in the water, but if they disappear,
they have a past and unless somebody does something they will not have a
future.”
You can follow
Anna Carvalho on
Instagram
here.
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Continuing
Anna Carvalho says, “Frankenstein is something I always wanted to do. I
love monsters, vampires and all of these types of things (You are
scaring us!). I thought it was really interesting, because I love
that kind of story. Being a part of the play, I got the part, so it was
fascinating for me. It was like candy for me, like a kid (she has a
big smile) woo hoo! It was like MacBeth (which she was also in) I
didn’t care who the company was, I just cared that it was MacBeth. It
was incredible. Again, with Frankenstein we had so much fun. Now
creating Fragments of a Body (Fragmentos de Um Corpo), which is
the name of the project. We called him a kind of Frankenstein, because
they are different tales and if you read the tales, they all have parts
of the body and even if it is parts of your mind, it doesn’t matter.
That is why we called it that, because we felt this was a big monster we
were creating. If we wanted a feature film, we would have to find out
how to build this monster. That is when we thought maybe this should be
a series. We already have a bunch of the tales shot. We have a huge team
that we put together quickly and now we are in post-production trying to
find some financial (investors). We are talking to people and we are
trying to finish the project.”