I can’t find the post now, but a few days ago, an awards-season analyst remarked that Oscar campaigns no longer involve studios leaking damaging information about “opposing films” or waging actual whisper campaigns against their competition. It’s unnecessary, because the online fans do the work for free. Although, let’s be real, I’m sure many studio publicists are on their burner accounts, pushing those “whisper campaigns.” I bring this up because many were surprised that Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres edged out “bigger name” actresses for a Best Actress Oscar nomination this year. Torres won a Golden Globe for her performance in I’m Still Here, but her Oscar nom was still considered shocking.
Torres comes from a famous Brazilian acting pedigree – her mother is Fernanda Montenegro, one of the most famous Brazilian actresses of all time. My point is that Torres and her mom are well-known to Brazilians and lovers of international cinema, but many in America are still learning who Torres is. And someone must have been waiting to drop this piece of news during the Oscar voting period: Torres once did blackface on Brazilian television. Apparently, the clip has been circulating (I haven’t seen it and I went looking for it), and Torres has now issued a statement about it. IT HAPPENED IN 2008!!! She was in her 40s at the time!
Fernanda Torres has apologized after a 2008 clip of her in blackface resurfaced ahead of the 97th Academy Awards. The I’m Still Here star, 59, who received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Actress category earlier in January, spoke out about her resurfaced appearance on the Brazilian television show Fantastico in a statement to Deadline.
“Almost twenty years ago, I appeared in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV show. I am very sorry for this,” the statement read.
Torres said she was speaking out because it was “important for me to address this swiftly to avoid further pain and confusion.”
Deadline reports that the clip in question was a sketch titled “The Opposite Sex: The Family (Father Vs. Mother).” It was meant to be a humorous examination of gender roles, and Torres played a mother named Solange and appeared in blackface as a maid named Dalva.
Torres said that at the time, the “awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil.”
“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 added. Torres ended her statement by stating that she was continuing the “important conversation” to prevent “the normalization of racist practices then and now.”
“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,” her statement said.
PEOPLE has reached out to Torres’ representative for comment.
For what it’s worth, CB told me that there are some European TV shows/channels which had no issue with blackface well into the ’00s. I don’t find it hard to believe that there were South American TV shows which also had no issue with blackface well into the 21st century. Now, was Torres f–king old enough to know AT THE TIME that it was wrong? For sure. She wasn’t a dumb kid, for goodness sake. Anyway, it’s not for me to say whether or not her apology should be accepted or what should happen. I’ll happily follow the conversation, because I’m genuinely curious how the intersectionality of this issue will play out. Also: is, uh, Oscar nominee Zoe Saldana going to issue a statement about what she did in that Nina Simone movie?
So, I still haven’t seen the clip, but this screencap from the NY Post… wow.
‘I’m Still Here’ Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres apologizes for wearing blackface in resurfaced comedy sketch https://t.co/lgZfcXzWzv pic.twitter.com/kiwe9UaqVb
— New York Post (@nypost) January 27, 2025
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
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- Paris, FRANCE – Celebrities at the Chanel Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Pictured: Fernanda Torres BACKGRID USA 28 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Paris, FRANCE – Celebrities at the Chanel Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Pictured: Fernanda Torres BACKGRID USA 28 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Winners celebrate in the Press Room of the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards Featuring: Fernanda Torres Where: Beverly Hills, California, United States When: 05 Jan 2025 Credit: Jennifer Bloc/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
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- Celebrities at the Chanel Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2025 fashion show as part of Paris Couture Fashion Week held at The Grand Palais in Paris, France Featuring: Fernanda Torres Where: Paris, France When: 28 Jan 2025 Credit: Franck Castel/Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Ah, so now that she wants an Oscar she feels the need to apologize? Sure, that feels very genuine *eyeroll*
No thanks.
I’m sure the #oscarssowhite voters won’t care at all though. It’ll probably make her more appealing to them and more likely to win.
That’s what I was thinking. Torres knew she was wrong when she did it, but she also knew it would be a popular sketch. Same with the Academy. They know it’s wrong-headed, but they don’t mind. The #ocscarssowhite crowd will pay some lip service to how gauche her blackface was, but I don’t believe there’ll be any genuine disapproval. Like you, I think she’ll be more appealing to some Oscar voters.
Blackface was a staple in the US entertainment industry from morning and only fell into mild disrepute after the 1980’s. I tend to think her blackface performance will bring no real consequences to Torres.
Watching Torres trying to salvage her Oscar campaign is laughable. She apologizes after the video surfaces. The Academy doesn’t care. It’s still a pretty racist group considering they’re heaping all sorts of praise onto the equally offensive film Emilia Perez.
They still do it on Hungarian prime time television. I saw some snippets from a singing competition for local celebrities where they rutinely did blackface to impersonate black artists like Whitney Houston or CeeLo Green. The judges of the show even had a great time joking about the costumes and makeup. Most people I know here in rural Hungary don’t even know why that’s an issue. I presume the same is true all over Hungary because as I said it was prime time television on a major channel.
Yeah that’s not a good look. Yikes. People are idiots. And racist. But thanks for the apology I guess?
She wants that Oscar so she’s apologizing for it now huh? This was in 2009, she’s 59 years old now, so she was 43 years old when she painted her face and part of her body to look like a Black person. What would these racists do without us huh?
Gonzalez slathered on some makeup in blackface back in the day too. Gross. The lot of them.
When I used to bartend in the.aughts, I’d open the bar and our team of porters would have Telemundo or Univision on. I saw blackface sketches a few times on those stations Though I’d criticize them for watching such messed up despicable depictions of black people, it didn’t land with them that blackface was wrong.
We know in many cultures, there is colorism along with many strains of prejudice and racism. It feels like it will never end
As an African American woman, this is beyond racist and offensive. Im not surprised at all and I hope everyone in the Hollywood community comes for her. She absolutely knows better and doesn’t give a f_ _ _. I’m tired of it.
Just the fact that she’s playing the maid in a comedy skit, tells me all I need to know. And looking at how dark that blackface is, come on, she grew up in a multi racial culture with a history of black slavery, she knew what she was doing was wrong.
I don’t think, Oscar voters would care. Their best actress winners are all white women excluding Halle Berry and Michelle Yeoh in their 95 years history. It is the same as Grammys. They don’t like to give the most prestigious award to a woman of color.
She’s apologizing. NOW! Awesome (eye roll)! Sixteen years AFTER the fact. Why did she think it was OK to do it in the first place? Why no apology in 2010? Or 2011? Or 2012, 2013, 2014…..etc… Wrong in 2009 was still wrong in all the proceeding years. No excuses. She knew better. We see her. She’s just thirsty for Oscar.
Honestly, blackface it’s not a huge issue in brasil. Nobody here cares and this is probably the first time she is facing backlash for this sketch.
Well on the subject of oscar campaigns being derailed there’s also the issue of adiren Brody and Karla Sofia Gascon having ai used to enhance their performances. With Brody it was to make him sound more Hungarian for those dialect sciences and for Gascon it was to enhance her singing. As for blackface of course she knew it was wrong. Imagine sitting down and applying or letting someone apply blackface to you – so many steps involved but then again the Canadian ex prime minister did it twice and Jimmy Fallon also did it in around 2000 and still has his show now. I think Fernanda will be fine as for Zoe I think she said something about it later and she was heavily critiqued at the time.
Zoe Saldana is actually Black, though. She darkened her features and wore a kinky wig, which was offensive because there are plenty of Black actresses who could have played that role without resorting to those measures. Still, that was not the same as Fernanda, Trudeau and the others mentioned here. She was playing Nina Simone not caricaturing Black people. To suggest otherwise is a false equivalency.
Nope. Not false equivalency at all. Saldana didn’t just “darken” her skin. She also wore a prosthetic nose. C’mon.
She also says really deeply stupid stuff about race like, “there’s no such thing as people of color.”
Simone’s family wasn’t having it, and rightly so. Look at a picture of Saldana on-set — it is CLEARLY problematic and indefensible.
Zoe is Black? According to who? Cuz it damn sure isn’t according to her.
It really wasn’t an issue here in Brazil in 2009. Nobody in 2024/25 even remembered this sketch… it only resurfaced now that she’s running for an Oscar. I also don’t think she was trying to claim that she was young and therefore didn’t know any better. She was simply stressing it was an old clip.
I’m brazilian, unfortunately I don’t think she will win the Academy Award. I think it’s more likely they’ll give it to Demi Moore.