Produced By - #8 - Joana Francisco: Relentless Search For Oneself In Various Types of Art

Starting point is 00:00:03 Joanna Francisco is a London-based artist focusing on various types of art, including film, music and theatre. Being born in Portugal, Joanna was interested in art from a very young age and represented her school in competitions, a performer and a singer. However, the educational curriculum didn't suit her, which left her uncertain about her career path. On top of that, she had to deal with a range of obstacles including racism, family separation and other teenage problems. Possibly thanks to these difficulties, she discovered her new life trajectory and moved to Van der Luftadi film. Still, she is proud of where she comes from and shares details about Grovin'nath in Almada, a city the opposite of River. Joanna has recently left her job in hospitality and received an unexpected opportunity that may have inspired her to focus on performing again. Listen to this episode to learn more about life in Portugal,

Starting point is 00:00:59 find out what strange methods the performers use and get it in the performance use and get it. and get inspired by Joanna's positive mindset. Enjoy. Hello, Joanna. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the show. Hello! Thank you, thank you for having me. For the beginning, can you please introduce yourself?

Starting point is 00:01:21 Okay, so my name is Joanna. I'm 27 years old. I'm a filmmaker, so I do a bit of videography, editing, and I also keep a regular job to be able to play the bills. so that's pretty much I'm also a musician I produce I sing some right songs

Starting point is 00:01:38 yeah that's pretty much it it's like you must have a lot of time doing so many things it's hard it's really hard I mean yeah because I'm trying my best to do all these things all at once and sometimes it's a bit complicated

Starting point is 00:01:53 so do you primarily focus on filmmaking or doing music right now I'm actually doing more filmmaking than I'm making like music on my own because I'm responsible for this project. I'm directing a few music videos for this artist called Makum. He's an artist from Nigeria. Like I'm going to deliver probably in a few days. I want my deadline. My personal deadline is for tomorrow. Is it going well? Are we going to hit the deadline? I think I will because it's my personal deadline and the artist's like he

Starting point is 00:02:27 just gave me like complete freedom and I'm definitely I've been having like some delays because I'm finding people to edit and I had to like edit myself and much of that also like mental health and all of that but the artist he I feel like as long as he sees that I'm doing like the job that he likes the part I've been having really good feedback so yeah I would say let's try to start with your beginnings so can you say where do you come from so I was born and raised in Portugal I'm daughter of immigrants I am half peopleerickland Castongolan, so Africa. And my story started a while ago.

Starting point is 00:03:08 Because when I was 15 years old, I wanted to study. I started like drawing. When I was very young, I started making music when I was very, not making music, but I started singing, yeah, when I was very, very young. So I was in school, which is a long, long story short, I was in school. My music teacher noticed me. And basically, I took the spot of this. girl and everybody in school hated me for they hated they hate him like you stop palus like because usually every year you have to

Starting point is 00:03:42 perform in madayret christian elkan al-do's island spent like six years of my life in there and every year you have this competition and you have to go there all the schools compete and I was selected to be the main voice of the choir so is it like one student representing the school it's an entire school like The school is kind of like your bands. So you have like the flutes and then you have like, I don't know, you have like a bigger higher. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:10 And my teacher like basically, yeah, I was very young. I was like, what, six, seven years old. So my first performance was televised. Really? Yeah. Then I looked at it and I was like, damn. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun.

Starting point is 00:04:30 But ever since I was just like, I was very. because I always wanted to do music, but then I started drawing and, you know, I became a teenager, so drawing became my thing. And then I had an uncle, he's an architect. I wanted to study architecture. And then out of nowhere, this theater course opens in my town. And my mom was like, yeah, to go. You need to like you all like play it. Go, go, go.

Starting point is 00:04:55 Like, it was like, like, that's certainly where grandpa wanted me to be a teacher or a lawyer. and because I always wanted to either be a teacher or a lawyer or something. I was saying, yeah, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a teacher. And was like, yeah, go for government jobs. This is what are you supposed to do? And my mom was like,

Starting point is 00:05:14 and my journey in the show business started when I was 15. I started studying drama when I was 14. 15 I did in my internship at the theater Joaquin, which is in Almada. and I was doing my internship since I did all kinds of stuff because after the internship I stayed there. I was working here and there, delivering flyers, calling people like his hundred people in like four days, painting scenarios, cleaning like a 12-weater window with no arm in security and getting like two euros per hour. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:51 I have crazy stories. And then I took a gap year when I finished high school. I finished when I was 17 years old. took again, Peter, was very depressed, I stayed in bed, put on the weight, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Why depressed didn't work out at high school? I didn't know when I went. High school was really hard because all my colleagues were older than me. They were older.

Starting point is 00:06:16 I was a bit naive, young. I also did like some stupid things, you know what I mean? But at the same time, I don't think that even if you were stupid at that time, it's not really an excuse for you to get any sort of bullying. So I was very young and I didn't know how to deal with like certain things. My teacher, he was, do you know anything about the method? Like Sangislavski method? I remember we studied that at the university. But if you can introduce it, then it's good.

Starting point is 00:06:43 The refresher for me as well. Now that fight. So the Sanislovsky method, what are the methods, is basically using your personal experiences to feel certain scenes. So, for example, if you have a dramatic scene when you have to cry, Maybe the director is going to be like, remember when you come on die. Or like, for example, actors that stay in character that can also be considered the method. The thing is that Beck's not really healthy for anyone or either for you around. It might work for you, but it's not in the long term.

Starting point is 00:07:16 You have like several cases of actors that actually go crazy because if you don't have a really strong sense of self-vultivated, you really get lost in all of that. So what happened to me is that I had a teacher that, not just one, that used that method, and we only had, like, a therapist that would come and visit once every two months for an entire class, and it was, like, 45 minutes where she was asking, so, like, what color are you? And you'd say in Brown? That says a lot about your personality. Like, that's no help.

Starting point is 00:07:49 So that fucked us up. Like, in the end of the year, only three friends of mine, four. I would say, and we were a class of 20, only four people tried to go to study at the conservatory to go to university, and the rest of us only one or two managed to get in, I'm not sure, but the rest of us, we just decided to take a gap here because it was really hard. It was three years of emotional scarring, and yeah, it was hell. Does it work this way, like normally in other courses as well? Or was it just because of your teacher that he liked this method or something?

Starting point is 00:08:28 Well, what I know? My teacher, he wasn't really qualified to give his classes. I like my voice teacher and my movement teacher, they had more studies than he did. And there was like other teachers as well that were like more qualified than he was. So it was definitely also a character thing. He definitely taught me a lot of things for sure. but now when I talk with my colleagues from my course and all of that, there's a lot of damage that people are only overcoming now

Starting point is 00:08:58 because of the way that he taught. Still after years? Yeah. So I guess there is something you wouldn't recommend to starting actors or performers. I feel now, like I'm the type of person that right now, because I also had like many years of trying of understanding things, these things don't touch me anymore. Like, I don't feel really sad about them anymore.

Starting point is 00:09:24 They allowed me to understand more of myself. I was exposed to, like, weird situations when I was younger. And I was also working on the theater. So I've been exposed to all kinds of interesting personality, the situation. Do you want to share something? Man, oh, my God. Like, drugs, for example. We had these guys, I mean, drones in terms of, like,

Starting point is 00:09:48 there's to be exposed to a world where, grown-ups are a bit because they were also exposed to that method acting in some sort of way so at the time the guy Joaquin met him got to meet him he was absolutely insane like there was this like actress she was peeling a potato and he wanted her to peel the potato on time so at the time that she finishes saying the line it's the last peel and he wanted her to peel like non-stop

Starting point is 00:10:19 So I don't know what to say it, but... I was just going to say, why? Why would you peel potato during that? I think, I don't even remember the thing, but the character, she was a leather, is just like preparing the dinner, and she's trying to fill the potato without the thing going. In the moment that she finished just saying the line,

Starting point is 00:10:40 the peel needs to fall directly when she finished just saying the line, which is an entire monologue. So she has the time when she, it's a lot. lot. So for her first rehearsal in manager, the lady obviously she's like, whatever, like, I don't understand what you want, and it's a bit hard and she needs to breakfast. This guy

Starting point is 00:10:59 was like, you, mother beep. Yeah, this is a lie, you're incompetent run on what type of mother ideal. You're like, when I tell he started calling her all names in the book. It was saying that she was a trash mother, what type

Starting point is 00:11:15 of leather is she that she can't even peel a potato? It was really, really, really, really bad. It sounds crazy. I don't really know what to think about it, to be honest. It's crazy because now nowadays, directors are not really like that anymore. But, like, for example, people like,

Starting point is 00:11:32 Ichcock used to say that actresses are like cattle. So they're like cows, you know. They'll always find one more. I don't know. Just because there's an hierarchy doesn't mean that you need to treat other people like badly. And I feel like these people back in her day, they thought that the only way to extract

Starting point is 00:11:49 real feelings, virtual, personal emotions. And luckily, I have other teachers that taught me other methods, such as, oh, wait, maybe if I focus on what my body does when I cry, for example, your diaphragm starts to, like, in your body's closing up. So I'm already creating, like, some sort of really deep sense of compassion towards, like, your character, when you really feel like where your character is supposed to feel, that's when the emotion counts, because you're why in that sense. situation. It's not you anymore. It's the character.

Starting point is 00:12:22 Yeah, so much kind of healthier way how to perform. Yeah, that sounds so. I mean, very strange. I didn't. I mean, or I heard about the metal, but I know that it can have such consequences or be like this. It sounds crazy, especially when they are young. And especially when you're young. That's why you have like a lot of child actors that are not definitely okay like now because they have to go through these things. It's also just like people that are a bit like they're sadists in a sort of way. They're just like people think that for you to make beautiful art, you need to suffer.

Starting point is 00:12:56 There's so many emotions out there. Suffering is not just the only emotion that you can grab on to to make people feel them. It's just because suffering is so common. People will just like always relate to someone's pain or sometimes not. Nowadays, I don't feel like people are very compassionate towards each other. Not nowadays. People are getting more compassionate now. Sorry, I want to rectify that.

Starting point is 00:13:18 It's just the internet makes it seem that we are parts from each other. And I don't think that's the case. I feel like we are actually talking about things more and more. And did you begin to want to become actress? Yeah, I wanted to become a performer. I always wanted to ask. I've always, before that, I was in acting classes. I did dance classes as well.

Starting point is 00:13:39 Before that, my career was mostly, before that, it was like sports. I did a lot of sports. One step other, it was a football player. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things there. So I always wanted to do a little bit of everything. I always liked a little bit of everything. And I feel like Tia encapsulated everything I liked.

Starting point is 00:13:57 Yes, yes. So when the change came, when you decided to go for filmmaking instead of continuing with performing? Depression made me do it. Depression. Was it after a gap year? Yeah. So it was during the gap theater, I did it to play with my friend. So we went to schools and we performed this play for kids

Starting point is 00:14:20 And it was really cool Like it was inspired in the Grinch We built a house and we had like Oh Grinch, the Christmas one Yeah, it's great I like it We were inspired in that We built like a house And in that house, for example, we had this thing

Starting point is 00:14:35 This white panel as if it was like You know, Chinese shadows? The ones that you do with like the paper and light Probably no It's kind of like Yeah, it's fine We had like a whole scenario and then you opened the scenario and we had like sock puppets. And then the kids are like, cool.

Starting point is 00:14:52 It was so cool. Other than that, so after that, I was just like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Because at that time, I felt completely out of love for theater. Like, I didn't have the confidence. I didn't think I was an actress. He just kept on saying, just because you have her acting class, acting course, doesn't mean that you're an actor. It sounds like a motivation. I mean, at the time, honestly, I also kind of agree, but at the same time, after all the things that we had to go through, damn, I was so discouraged.

Starting point is 00:15:24 And also after, like, you know, seeing that it's really hard if you don't have connections. And there wasn't a lot of, like, roles where girls like me, like girls in Portugal, I didn't see. At the time, when I tell you, there was no black people in roles in Portugal, I'm not even joking. Is it better now or is it different now? It is better now because of the whole like movement. Also the fact that like African music is more popular. Of course that the new generation will like, that's cool and listen to this.

Starting point is 00:15:54 And I feel like people are also trying to mimic what society looks like. For example, Brazil has like 54% of the population of Brazil is black. But when you open the TV and you look at the telenovelas or the soup operas in Brazil, it's only stories about like a certain type of people. It's just like you only see white people and that doesn't represent the population of Brazil and the majority is black. So I feel like nowadays we are getting better, you know. Out of curiosity when you were growing up, how many people were there for Americans or what was like the ratio just to get an idea? It's a different thing for me because in my town I grew up like in the white neighborhood.

Starting point is 00:16:36 So if you would go, you know, outside kind of in certain neighborhoods, there was definitely a big, demographic of like Africans because Portugal used to call it as Angola, like for names and meat and all of that. So obviously that piece of economies were ruined and people were trying to find like better solutions of life in Portugal. So yeah, in my town, I was like the only black girl. But if I walked like a bit outside my town, and my town I would say like my little place where I was. Yes, yes. My school, for example. But if I looked at a little outside and all that, definitely have like big communities of Africa.

Starting point is 00:17:12 people, but they were living in very, very poor conditions. But is it better these days, like years after? There are things definitely that, like, for example, now with the whole push on education, push on healthcare, like in terms of representation, things are getting slightly better. But I feel like, for example, these stories are still not written. These stories about, like, black people are still not being written by black people. I feel like there's still a little bit of a gap. So, for example, if we're going to talk about racism or what racism is, I understand now

Starting point is 00:17:49 and also because, for example, when I was 16, I didn't have conversations with my friends about racism because I didn't know. I knew that it was a big problem because I've seen my family and I've been to a situation myself, but I didn't know much about it because we never got any sort of information about it in school. I love this to say that nowadays, I don't think that people know really much about what racism looks like. I think that people think that being racist is, ah, you can't see here. Yes, that's also racism.

Starting point is 00:18:22 Like, oh, you can't see here. You're black. Go back to your town. But people, like, don't really associate, for example, like, you know, you getting to a place and, like, a person slightly grabs their bag. Like, these little things. conversation. It's about the little things. It's about the big things, definitely, but it's definitely about the macro things when I went to. You in Portugal, I had a teacher. I was talking. No, she wouldn't let us talk like a part of the, this was very crazy, actually. She would teach to one side of the room, and we were on the other side of the room. She wouldn't even talk to us. And then there was a moment that I got up, because I was fed up, and I said what I had to say in terms of like what she was asking.

Starting point is 00:19:06 because she would look at us and she would never let us respond and I thought that was really weird and in the moment that I said something she said oh you're actually smart and I was like but do you lean what do you mean

Starting point is 00:19:19 what we do think that when she said oh you're actually smart like people just looked at me and I didn't say anything because I didn't want to stop yeah yeah did other people in the room realize as well yeah yeah it was really big

Starting point is 00:19:34 it was really big The class was divided into places. We had like a whole... Imagine our class, you remember? Yes, yes. So you have students on the left and you have students on the right. For her, that was the right and we were from the left. She had this thing in Portugal and here is completely illegal.

Starting point is 00:19:55 But she had this thing where if you wanted to get your brains, you would have to fill up a form, put a picture of yourself in there and put your address. I've noticed that the people that were on my side were either black from my town or gay. Meaning, my town is known for being a lefty, is knowing for being from the left. Like, it's mostly associated to like communism and blah, blah, blah, blah. Regardless of your political opinions, you are an educator and you should always catch her to your students. You know, I don't think I'd never seen anyone being like left or right or in the class.

Starting point is 00:20:37 And because at that time we were even like a bit younger to even like, I don't know. To me, left or right at the time it was the same. Now I have different opinions, but that's another story. But it's the whole thing. It surprises me. I wouldn't expect that it's possible at school in Portugal. You know. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:59 at the university. It's like, why did you do that? Do you think that students aren't going to notice or that it's like going to be okay? She said that she was going to retire like next year. She was going to retire like a form like doing this. So for her, it's been years since she was doing that. I bet she was very bamboozle because I stayed there for one semester because then I took the decision to go to London.

Starting point is 00:21:24 So one year, one gap here. Then I got into the university in Portuguese in Portugal. because I studied like general studies. It was a bunch of things. I had like literature. I had astronomy and astrophysics, which I only put my foot in there like once because I was too tired. Although I love astronomy and astrophysics is something that I'm actually starting right now.

Starting point is 00:21:46 But at the same sign. That sounds interesting. It's a different thing. Not studying, studying ethically. I'm studying in terms of like, I don't know, like theories and just like or studying biology. I like to study, but I'm not a really good thing. person on like. Yeah, yeah, understand. But you know, I wonder that no one said anything to the principle of the university or the person on top that this is happening and they kept it like that.

Starting point is 00:22:11 I feel like maybe some people might have done that, but they don't really care. Like, I don't know how it is now, but the relationship that we have student teacher in Portugal is very formal. For example, you know, we would be messaging, emailing, and they would be like just responding and they will be like, oh, I understand. Oh, you're going to like a rust longant? Yeah, let me help you out. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, I can give you the standby.

Starting point is 00:22:35 Okay, blah blah. In Portugal? No. In Portugal, is like zero relationship in between the students and the teacher. Because the educational system needs a huge reform, they still have this really big idea of irony. Since I have amazing, amazing teachers, like everywhere, but they are being swallowed by this whole weird system.

Starting point is 00:22:57 where, you know, teachers that are getting paid or her out. They're kind of like corporate. Is it like that in educational system or is Portuguese culture in general like that? I would say both. I say bold, but at the same time, I will blame more the government for that. We don't have, like, a government that is very educated or that wants to educate people because for them it's not a priority. The priority is quick fixes.

Starting point is 00:23:25 It's like bread and circus, right? the people are complaining about, hey, raised our minimum wage. And he's like, yeah, we're going to raise your minimum wage by 100 euros. But we are also going to raise everything, you know. That's not. Like, people are just very tired. And I feel like that's the reason why, like, people are not really fighting

Starting point is 00:23:46 because no matter how much you fight, things are not really changing. So people are just tired and they don't happen any time because if you stop to actually fight, for something at the moment you would have to put other things behind and you don't have time for that you have to be if you were a student and if you work at the same time then the reality of most Portuguese students. It's interesting.

Starting point is 00:24:10 I didn't know. I feel like there are plenty of Portuguese students in London in general or at the university where we used to go. So. For a reason. What are a reason? But you know, before I thought that it's maybe because it's, it's, I don't know, somehow support it to go to study abroad or there is maybe high level of English,

Starting point is 00:24:32 so it's easier to go to study there. So I didn't really know why, but now I see that it's kind of a different reason. I feel like, yeah, in some sort of way, like, for example, because you're in European, you could get access to student financing in some sort of way is encouraged, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And also, like, it's also the thing of like, not everybody has access to this, like where mom had to make sacrifices. She had to emigrate in order to put me through university. Otherwise, I would never be able to go to university in Portugal and then make my little decisions on like going to university in Portugal.

Starting point is 00:25:07 So I was very lucky in a way. My family would truly come from nothing, I would say. Were you born in Portugal? Yeah, it was born in Portugal. And my grandparents' house is a very modest house until today. And are the universities for free in Portugal, or do you have to pay for it? Universities in Portugal, you have to pay, but get this.

Starting point is 00:25:31 The minimum wage in Portugal now is 700 euros, 715, before I was 600. Maybe 600 still, I'm not sure, but maybe 700 with all these. University for a year, like comparing to Europe, the rest of Europe might look cheap, but for a Portuguese person isn't. So it is a thousand, a thousand euros, a thousand something something per year. which is cheap, but at the same time, now with the price of rents going up and up more than ever, before you could rent a room for like 250 euros in Lisbon. Now you went to Rome for like 500,7 million euros.

Starting point is 00:26:10 So it's absolutely... And do most of the students go to study to university at Lisbon or are there universities in, I guess, Port or other big cities as well? Yeah, they are there. Like we have this like one university city. They call it the university city. It's called Quimbra. And there's like messages like people usually instead of the city of students.

Starting point is 00:26:33 So people usually like go there to study or Lisbon and Portugal. Is it something like Oxford or Cambridge in the UK? It would be the equivalent. It's all the old is old. There's like. I guess full of young people, right? Yeah. And which one did you go to again?

Starting point is 00:26:52 I went to Lisbon, so I'm from Lisbon, but not really from Lisbon. Close, I'm from the other side of the river, which means I'm from this town called Almagh. Yeah, it's the part with the Jesus, right? Yeah, there you go. I wanted to go to look at it, but I didn't have time. It looks beautiful. It looks beautiful. Because I'm from the beach side, so we have the best beaches, not Lisbon.

Starting point is 00:27:21 And what is like the other part? Because when I was there, I wanted to go there, but I didn't have time for some reason. And I said to state only kind of the main part or the bigger part. But I wanted to go there. I promise, I don't know why. Now still when you go to Portugal, you really need to light it there. So what's up? Right?

Starting point is 00:27:39 But come to Portugal and definitely. You'll have the best view of Lisbon when you cross the river. In what way? Or what is so good about it? Or what is different than the other part? Oh, okay, so Just a quick one If you enjoy our podcast

Starting point is 00:27:56 Please give us a review on your favorite podcast app Subscribe or share it with your friends For more information, visit the show notes Thank you and back to the show Can you please try to sell us Your better part of the Lisbon Okay, so First of all, where I grew up

Starting point is 00:28:15 It's kind of like a desert So people would go to Lisbon work And they would come back to sleep So in my town, people had to build things for themselves. That's why, like, today, nowadays, they are trying to, like, organize streets and wildlife and it's super hard because people just bought land and they just started, like, doing their own thing. And because we have basically nothing other than, you know, places to go in camp with your friends or beach, we, my town, we had to build things ourselves.

Starting point is 00:28:42 And that's why, like, massive groups of music come from my town, for example. A lot of well-known actors come from my town. like because you had nothing so people were just getting together and just like making something out of the little that they have and plus we were like very poor in my town so that's why like we are the best town because we have the best view of lisbon best food best beaches we have places with like nature like we would just like go and grab a bunch of friends and just like camp out or just like walk to the beach i don't know like i had fun it was the perfect equilibrium of living in a city and at the same time living in and I guess it's not as busy as the other part of the Lisbon right I guess most of the students go there tourists I mean

Starting point is 00:29:28 yeah it's kind of like and now this tourist you know Portugal came this big thing out of nowhere so we are now having like a lot of tourists but it's still very chill like it's also the thing of like in my town you need to know what to care yourself you know like

Starting point is 00:29:45 we're not Lisbon very lot of people from from Lisbon. I'm joking, I took a bad for all the people from Lisbon listening to this. Because they are the capital and the capital will always give shit, you know? Always be like, oh, you poach people.

Starting point is 00:30:03 Yeah. I think that the capital is posh. But it's kind of like, I don't know how to describe it. No, I think I understand. It's like if I was like talking about the capital city of my country, me not coming from the capital city, I'll probably be speaking kind of the same way. kind of the same way so it makes it yeah that's pretty much true Lisbon is really cool I love it though I love Lisbon yeah I find it interesting

Starting point is 00:30:26 because I like geography so when there is like a discussion about the city or the country I'm quite curious so it was good to find out something new and you have it work a lot oh yeah yeah for sure but when I was there it was beautiful city for sure as a tourist someone who's not from there I can recommend it but the hills it wasn't fun I did I didn't know that, I didn't expect it. I didn't know. I mean, I guess I read someone that's called the City of Seven Hills, I think. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:56 Because, you know, I found online there are some beautiful views. It's like, yeah, I need to go there. Views are beautiful. But it's very... I put cost. Oh, okay. It's the whole thing. I feel like in Portugal, everything is hard.

Starting point is 00:31:12 Like, everything. If you want something, you need to walk for it. if you want to like transport to our heart. Everything is hard. If you are from my town, like if you go out to the list, when you have to wait until like 7 a.m. in the morning to catch the boat to go to the other side. I guess you could vent a cab, definitely.

Starting point is 00:31:31 But we were broke back then. So like we would just wait for the boat and go, oh, like, you know. Just be like hand over and just like, oh, the ball. Then you get on the other side. Then you have like almost like an hour of travel on bus. But the good thing is, you know grow up with this in the harder conditions than whatever happens so it's easier you are prepared for it you've been to some struggles so no it's easier that's why i say that people from

Starting point is 00:32:00 my town are very like you know you need to carry yourself in some sort of way of not be intimidating but in the way of people respect you because you have to work really hard to have not much sometimes so yeah coming back when you decided to live your university in Lisbon and go to the London? Was it because you didn't enjoy there? It was because I thought that I was tired, especially if Portugal is a small place. It's not that small, but it's small. I feel like it happens to, maybe the same thing happened to you, right?

Starting point is 00:32:35 You're searching for more knowledge. You want to learn more things. You want to know more of yourself. I got to a moment where I was tired. Years before, my mom was like, oh, we should immigrate, blah, blah, blah, because money, the mental situation wasn't really. good. My mom, she's a single mom. I have my grandparents in Portugal. I have my own sister. So things weren't okay at all. There was a moment in our life so we had no money. And if it wasn't for

Starting point is 00:32:58 our grandparents lending us 10 years here or like, you know, like we would have absolutely nothing. And so I would my mom would be like, oh, we shouldn't agree. And I was like, I would never leave Portugal, never. Two years later. And when your mom was saying to immigrate, did you have any particular country in mind. I feel like the people would definitely go more for like Switzerland like she already know what to speak French. So she's in Switzerland now. My sister is in Switzerland but she's tired of Switzerland so she's thinking about coming

Starting point is 00:33:31 here. I mean Switzerland sounds amazing. I wouldn't mind. Warring. It's very poor like a boring as felt. It's beautiful if you want to like travel and if you want a moment of solitude in your life, you know? Looking at the view,

Starting point is 00:33:47 beautiful if you eat beautiful foods. But other than that, everything close is very soon, very early. Everything is really expensive. Money, money, money, money. Like, it's all about money. So one thing that I've noticed, my sister is struggling a lot. Her and her friends are struggling. But, you know, school, school is very demanding, like, in a way that it's not anywhere.

Starting point is 00:34:09 I don't think that school is that hard. Like high expectations from the students. It's really hard. It's really hard. I would just say if they actually moved there to Switzerland or family. My mom, she did first and I stayed in Portugal, I was taking care of my sister, two cats, a house. It's so important. It was hell because I was 18 at the time.

Starting point is 00:34:36 I was, mind you, that like she didn't really leave me alone, like my grandparents. I was 15 minutes away from me. So I was still in charge of like taking care of my sister. She was in school and I was doing university. so I really couldn't focus on university. I noticed that it wasn't a thing for me. Like, it was a lot. My sister, like, taking care of her,

Starting point is 00:34:55 although she's the easiest child to take care of all children. He had her sort of support. And at the time, I was also still dealing with all this drama course and not just that. I also like things in my private life, all of that. So it was a bit much. Not that I look at it. I was like, what the... My mom was telling my mom, no, my girl.

Starting point is 00:35:16 Take care of everything. a lot. And yeah, that's how it happened. A year later, I came to London and usually went to Cicelon. And why did you choose London specifically? So when I was depressed on my gap year, I started watching a lot of movies. But like, I feel so bad because I've watched so many movies, a lot of independent indie movies, you know what I mean? And I forgot to put a note on like, oh, I've watched this, I watched that. Because I've watched a lot of interesting things back then and then I was just like huh how do you do that how do you do that and before that I used to edit videos on movie maker Windows movie waker I used to edit

Starting point is 00:35:59 like I started editing was way before Premiere pro oh my god I used to like make and during because we had this module and drama course and we did I don't know a short movie oh my god it was it was a two-week module in three years of drama school a two-year two-week module for cinema. I guess you learn a lot during two weeks. No. Like, when I started editing like shows and I started anything like things for my friends, I started doing like small little stop motion animation with paint.

Starting point is 00:36:32 I would just like draw up a frame and just, like, draw another one. Yeah, stop motion is great. I like it. Yeah. So I started doing it. But I didn't know what I was doing. I was just like, ah, that's cool. So that's how I started.

Starting point is 00:36:45 And I started doing like that little video. every birthday videos and one of those videos was actually one of the videos that i used to get into london into film school oh like for the application yeah and they're being one of them because i showed it to people the boy oh that's like her that's really cool that if i look at it i'm gonna be like oh god what are i doing no part's good and it was at least helpful for that oh yeah yeah it just like made me question how do you do this how to you did it all so i would already had that seat glanced on way earlier on then i forgot about that i never thought that a field career would be possible for me cameramen is never existent these are invisible people that films just shook by

Starting point is 00:37:28 themselves like i never thought about the whole process of like doing something i started like making all these questions that i started searching like how do you dovers i keep this all and then i was talking to a friend of mine at this time i was already at uni i was like super fed of i was missing a lot of classes I was just like not interested and then I had this teacher and other teachers that were like just weird and very very weird like really weird people and we were at McDonald's and we were talking and I was like oh I'm really interested in like I really like movies and he was just like oh there's a film course in my university and I was like huh and I was like yeah my friend is there I was just like oh that's that's really cool like was it actually from middle sex yeah yeah and I was like that's really cool like what do you mean like that's so cool and then in that moment I called my mom literally in that moment I made my decision in 15 minutes I called her and I was like mom I'm

Starting point is 00:38:25 going to London and it's just like I mean I'm so like this is not a decision that you can make like like dude like what do you mean like yeah no let's talk about this in LA mom I am going to London I made my decision I don't know how but I will you know like I'm gonna be working and I'm gonna be a student that I'm going to really can't reprate that could be so easy it's going to be amazing and have you been to London

Starting point is 00:38:53 before? No, I was afraid of living in London. In all those stories like there was this like urban legend of this guy that was like in the bus and he was carrying a head of a person like on a bag. It was something that people used to say

Starting point is 00:39:09 I thought yeah they were like oh yeah London is crazy there's a lot of psychopaths. There's a lot of people killing each other And I was like, I will never live in London. Like, I can live in any place in the world when I won't have probably been a lot of it. I've never heard that, to be honest. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:25 Sounds scary. That's scary. It was scary. And then you all think about, like, Jack the Ripper and all that. Oh, yeah. Like, what I don't like, London is crazy. But if you consider how big it is, how many people there are, I feel like everything is possible.

Starting point is 00:39:42 Eight million people? 100%. Yeah. So you made your mind and you stick to the decision? I was telling people that I got into the university in London before knowing that I got into the university in London. Wow. Where you so confident?

Starting point is 00:39:58 I was just fed up. I was fed up. There was one thing inside of me. I feel like I already know. I was just like, now I'm fed up with this. I'm tired. I don't want to be here. I was just like I was tired of everything.

Starting point is 00:40:11 I would go out. Like people would be talking. I'll be like, ugh, it's plenty of tired, people are only talking. Not all people, definitely. Wrong to say 100%. There's also plenty of interesting people in Portugal, obviously. But like I said, all of these people that have a lot of capacity and talents

Starting point is 00:40:30 and not just that, they are not, they're being squished until, you know, people are not really posting their talents. People are not really, like, betting on them and do little. So, no money, no time for all these things. So it's kind of like, it's very tiring. I would say that most people in Portugal, like, Portugal is so rich in culture, it's so rich in art. There's a mess.

Starting point is 00:40:52 Like, the amount of talented artists that there is in Portugal is insane. It really is insane. Some kind of art specifically or art in general? Everything, everything. Talking about painting. I'm talking about cinema. I'm talking about music. I'm talking about, like, music production.

Starting point is 00:41:08 Like, there's this thing that happened in Portugal, which was like, culture is a big way of education. people. And I grew up going to a lot of theater and I grew up reading a lot of plays. And the moment that I felt more educated was when I was studying theater because I went to a lot of plays and that is definitely education. There was a moment that the budgets, so that they do every year, they only give 1% for culture, 1% of the budget culture. I do understand. First things first, you need to prioritize help. Then you have to prioritize, I don't know, education. And you have to prioritize, blah, blah, blah.

Starting point is 00:41:45 I understand all of that. But 1% for culture, that damages state of your country. It doesn't allow you to have a public that is highly educated. 1% for culture is insane, less than 1% for culture. And I wonder, for example, when it comes to this actress, did she become so successful because, I don't know, the education was so good that she improved herself as much? Or was she one of so many that was just talented or was it hard work and talent?

Starting point is 00:42:16 I think it was hard work. From what I know, I have like more friends that are closer to her than I am. Like I'm only know her like kind of like from the outskirts in some sort of way. If we see each other, she will recognize me. We will talk and blah blah. But I have definitely friends that are like definitely more closer to her. From what I know is having people uplifting you or having also like really hard work. she was doing soap operas in Portugal before all of this.

Starting point is 00:42:45 I feel like she has an amazing business mind in so sort of way because otherwise she will never be in or she will never caught the attention of all of these people from the outside wanting her to be part of the movie. So I feel like it's a combination of everything. I think that it's a combination, maybe like support from the family. I hope so. I don't know anything about that. But she's been working and she was a model before. She's been working since a very young age. So I feel like it was a combination of everything

Starting point is 00:43:13 And she did a lot of soap operas So I'm doing believe that she actually worked her ass off to be here Yeah, it's really impressive Definitely, especially somebody from your course And you're just like I was just like, okay, you know what? When I will catch you? Don't worry Well, I finally like, yeah, well, me will catch you, we'll catch you. And it's true, you have to believe that. Like, why not? Why not you?

Starting point is 00:43:35 No, of course, like, if you see a story like this, I don't have a friend who would be like in Hollywood movie like you do but if i did i'd be like it's really cool looking at from where you came from how you grew up and now you are here so it's like great example that it's actually possible to make it like this and also coming from our town you know like everything is really hard i don't know her ever hardships that she had to go through her life but i bet there's many especially in a film industry and as extras i cannot imagine how competitive and crazy it must be you know Even film industry is competitive, but being actress in Hollywood, and it must be even more.

Starting point is 00:44:16 I don't know about that, but I'm bad. In the long hours of work, 14 hour days, 16 hour days. I feel like you always hear these stories, you know, about the background, about the producers and what they need to do in order to get a role and everything. They're like, this is crazy, you know. The casting. I did, oh, I can tell you a story about what happened to me less than. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:44:39 So I decided to quit my job. I was working as a receptionist in this place that I'm not going to name it. It's a fancy restaurant in Kensington, and I was just tired set up of everything. I decided to quit. Still have to give notice, but I had a lot of days off. On the next day, after 10 years of not hearing a word from this teacher, I woke up on Friday. So this was Thursday when I took the decision on a Friday I woke up. I had a message from my colleague being like, Joanna Schrader, teacher in the clock.

Starting point is 00:45:08 like, from voice teacher. See, she wants to talk with you all a while. Like, she has a, she has a casting content her immediately. And then it's like, okay, cool. I called her. And I was like, hi, so how are you? And she was just like, Hey, Joanna, so I hired you in London. Like, I have a casting for you and gain beer. And I was like,

Starting point is 00:45:25 well, I can be there. Like, I just get my job. This way, I gave me there. I gave me there. I was like, well, I want. So it was coincidence. Yeah. It was a, I don't know. I don't care. Like, when it was, whatever. I had this casting.

Starting point is 00:45:38 I didn't stay in the casting, though. It's okay. But it was the fact that after 10 years, sometimes your name is in rooms that you don't even dream. You might plant scenes like back in the day. And then out of nowhere, you just have somebody giving you an opportunity. And I just took it.

Starting point is 00:45:53 I went. I was in Portugal Sunday morning. And then bring dinner with my friends, well that I haven't seen in like years. Now the next day I went on the casting. I walked in. I see the poster of Shrek sign. I see the poster of Searcher.

Starting point is 00:46:07 for Nemo. I know it was going to be for like voicing something to dub something. Oh, yeah. She is Peppa Pig in Portugal. And then back in the game, I read like, she took us on the class and I did a little voicing for like one of the characters of Pepa Peppa Pea Pea Pea. It was like to be a teacher and la la la la la. I didn't know if that was the reason why it stayed, but I also sang in la la la I also did like other part. So maybe she reminded of me

Starting point is 00:46:36 and I was just like very honored that she thought about me. So I got into the booth into the studio. I look at the screen. It was so cool. I got to see parts of the movie. It was so cool, but the song was really hard. The song is really hard. You were even a singing. Yeah, yeah. The song is hard. Different techniques of voice.

Starting point is 00:46:54 Like I don't consider myself a good singer. I want myself to be a good singer for like, there's different types of singers. I don't sing with my chest. like it's called belting. It's a different technique. Haley Bailey, she's a master at doing that. So in the moment that I saw the song, then I tried, I knew that I didn't stay.

Starting point is 00:47:13 Like I knew because the song wasn't for me. The good thing is that I felt that getting that no was kind of a reset in my life because it just put me into. I was going to say that it's, you know, like a new motivation or spark the interest or some kind of sign that you should maybe pursue it, that you should go for it. change your career. It was insane. It means something.

Starting point is 00:47:36 It's not like a little or old. You know, it cannot be coincidence. I don't know. I think you should go for it. I feel like it really means because like in the end when she said, I didn't get purport. First of all, I'm 27. The voice that I had to do.

Starting point is 00:47:50 I can't even do it right now. It's definitely not my speaking voice. So. Yes, say something with. I really, no. I'll be like, oh my God. No, I know. I can't do that now.

Starting point is 00:48:01 It was so cool. But then she said, hey, so you didn't get the casting. And I was like, okay. And then she said, but there will be other opportunities. So are you here in Portugal, like in London? And I was like, you know, just call me. I'll be there. Portugal or in London.

Starting point is 00:48:18 Even though it didn't work out, they can still call you again. Yeah. I please they know what I'm capable of. And I feel like it was very chic, you know. There's no shame. And it's... No. I've, after 10 years since 2013, but that was the last time I actually spoke with my teacher.

Starting point is 00:48:38 Ten years. Like, and out of nowhere, I get this call for me. It was insane, like just the whole experience of also being in the studio and just learning again how to do things, how to focus on things. I literally, when I inside the booth, I looked at the screen and I started crying for like 10 seconds, and I was like, okay, I need to get my shit together. Nice, let's start. because it was just like, what is this? Unviable, yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:03 And it was also inside, as you said, that happened one day after a quitter Europe. So like, what kind of coincidence is this? Yeah. After, like, I would choose inside. I was just like, yeah, I'm going to quit my job. And on the next day, it was just me waking up. It was like 10 something.

Starting point is 00:49:19 And I just took up with the messages from my friend being like, hey, well, so. And the thing is that, like, you know what? I'm not really mad about not getting the part. My friends, they were just like, what like i just like imagine would it be like if i go back to portugal again and my friend who's like you're surprised about that is for me it's you going back to portugal to do the voice that's the craziest part i would honestly react the same way i was never my dream was always to voice 3d character like an animated film or something yeah so who knows who knows and you know like shrek like nemo

Starting point is 00:49:57 I don't know, many other movies that I actually like, so I'm just, I want to, who knows? No, but honestly, I grew up with those films. I love them as well because I used to watch them when I was young. And these films from Pixar or Dreamworks, like these days, they are still good animation films, but those that we grew up, it's just kind of better. When it comes, I don't know, to Nemo or first Toy Story or, I don't know, but even a Shrek. What is my favorite one? one of your favorites

Starting point is 00:50:26 well I definitely like those you mentioned but I used to like Pixar a lot well I need to think about it nice why me too I like cars cars is cool which one first or second one no the first one I remember I went to cinema

Starting point is 00:50:43 I was like wow this is beautiful and I liked it oh up up was oh that's heartbreaking yeah yeah yeah man oh my god the word never favorite character ever

Starting point is 00:50:56 or you know Incredibles I like yeah oh my god definitely I saw incredible in the cinema

Starting point is 00:51:02 and I was little the first one back then it was like what 2004 2003 2003 thousand four

Starting point is 00:51:10 as a kid it must have been beautiful experience it was insane it was insane it was insane I wanted a house like they had

Starting point is 00:51:17 like until today but now no I agree it's incredible it's been so many years it's been so many years As you said, how many, almost, not 20, but more than 15, and it's still such amazing film. Sometimes I revisit movies like that like every year, kind of.

Starting point is 00:51:32 Shrek for me is the translation, the way they translated in Portugal is unbelievable. It's like, honestly, wow. Because with accents, Shrek has a little bit of an accent, not a little. And there's interesting expressions. For example, we say the far, far away land. We say wé m'we long. wherewe means slang for like far far so it's like the way that they in terms slang into shrek was the thing that people were just like wow what is they i understand you because i think

Starting point is 00:52:06 i've got it the same with my language they also translated it very well and they were great people who gave voices for example to donkey it was so funny and back then i didn't even know obviously English so I grew up listening in my native language so it was beautiful yeah that's what I want to do basically I would love to do that I think it's a great idea definitely go for it what with a gosh cat oh my god no Madagascar I once that will be so many times like the first one so many times yeah that's great I agree I would just suggest to finish this as the first part and we can agree on some other time and continue to do second part because there is a lot to discuss. Nice. Thank you. Thank you. I just talk a lot.

Starting point is 00:52:51 Thank you, Joanna. Thank you for Janeis today and I'll be looking forward to part here. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for listening to Produce Bye. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast tab, leave a review or send us your feedback. For more information about the host, links from the episode and ways to connect with us, visit the show notes. If we know someone who would be an ideal guest for our podcast, please get in touch. Thank you and see you soon.

Produced By - #8 - Joana Francisco: Relentless Search For Oneself In Various Types of Art

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