51视频

12/06/2018
By Katharine Webster

Award-winning Portuguese actor loves playing the villain, but he鈥檚 a little tired of being typecast as a Latin American drug lord.

De Almeida, the first Portuguese actor to make it big in Hollywood, has been in , including 鈥淒esperado,鈥� 鈥淐lear and Present Danger,鈥� 鈥�24,鈥� 鈥淨ueen of the South鈥� and 鈥淭he Gilded Cage.鈥澛�

In eight of them, he鈥檚 been cast as a drug lord. In fact, he just turned down another such role. He鈥檚 also played a priest eight times 鈥� but those films are less well-known, he said.

鈥淥nce you do two or three good [roles as] bad guys, then when another bad guy comes up, they say, 鈥極h, de Almeida can do that,鈥欌�� he told students in the Theatre Arts, Digital Media and Portuguese Studies programs during a master class last week. 鈥淚鈥檝e done more movies where I played good guys than bad guys, but those movies were independent movies: They don鈥檛 have the same distribution as studio movies.鈥�

The master class, attended by about 40 students, was led by Assoc. Prof. of Theatre Arts Shelley Barish and Visiting Lecturer in Portuguese Patricia Ferreira. Later in the evening, de Almeida held a similar event for the public with Assoc. Prof. of Digital Media Wael Kamal, at the invitation of the Saab Center for Portuguese Studies, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

Students asked all kinds of questions during the master class, and afterwards de Almeida posed for photos with anyone who wanted one. Among the thoughts he shared:

• On acting as a career 鈥� 鈥淵ou are unemployed more times than you are employed 鈥� If you don鈥檛 know how to deal with rejection, you don鈥檛 want to be in this business.鈥�
• On how he prepares for each role 鈥� 鈥淚 read the script over and over to get the feel of my character, and then I prepare scene by scene. In each one, I ask myself, 鈥榃hy is he doing this? What reasons make him act this way?鈥欌��
  
• On speaking English with a foreign accent 鈥� 鈥淚 came to the U.S. at a time when they wanted real actors with real accents. Today, I think the tendency is for younger actors to feel they have to take speech lessons to lose the accent if they want to act in big studio films.鈥�
  
• On playing roles in six different languages 鈥� 鈥淚鈥檝e played everything but a Portuguese. I鈥檝e played South Americans, Italians, Frenchmen.鈥�
  
• On the pace of work in television and film 鈥� 鈥淥n film, you have time to work with the character. In television, everything changes every day. The script gets rewritten and you have to learn a whole new scene in a couple of hours. It鈥檚 fast and it鈥檚 tough.鈥�
  

• Image by Cameron Blanchard

  On acting for film 鈥� 鈥淵ou have to know the size of the lens shooting you 鈥� the tighter the lens, the less you can do. On camera, less is more, but you have to feel the emotion all through you. Emotion in the eyes is important.鈥�
  
• On the difference between studio and indie films, besides the budget 鈥� 鈥淚ndependent film, you are more part of the film. People listen to you. You feel like you belong. You understand the whole film and you know everybody. On a big studio film, you come and you do your job. It鈥檚 a little lonely.鈥�
  

Theatre Arts major Alexander Wedge, who aspires to be an actor, said he appreciated de Almeida鈥檚 reminder that rejection is inevitable and that it鈥檚 OK to fail. Wedge also said he was heartened to learn that actors of color are not just considered for roles representing characters of their own race or ethnicity, but that casting calls are now more general.

鈥淢eeting Joaquim was great!鈥� Wedge enthused. 鈥淚 always appreciate opportunities to meet people who actually have experience in the business.鈥�

De Almeida, 61, has won multiple Portuguese Golden Globes and film festival awards over a career spanning nearly four decades. He told the students he became obsessed with acting after visiting Paris as a teenager and going to a play by the 17th-century playwright Moli猫re.

鈥淎fter that, I would watch a film and decide each role I was going to play,鈥� he said.

He聽studied theater at the Lisbon Conservatory for two years, but his education was interrupted by the 1974 military coup and popular uprising. He went to Vienna for a year and then moved to New York, where he attended the famed 鈥渕ethod acting鈥� school founded by Lee Strasberg.聽聽

De Almeida began his career on the stage, but landed his first movie role in 鈥淭he Soldier鈥� in 1982, and never looked back. He went on to more prominent roles in a number of European and South American films, including 鈥淕ood Morning, Babylon,鈥� which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival.聽

He returned to Hollywood in 1992 with 鈥淒esperado鈥� and now lives in southern California. But he continues to act in films all over the world, sometimes learning his lines phonetically in languages he doesn鈥檛 know, including Chinese and Romanian.聽

De聽Almeida has become successful enough that he can afford to turn down roles he doesn鈥檛 want or that don鈥檛 pay enough 鈥� and he always has another role waiting for him. But while he was working to establish himself, the weeks and months of auditions and rejections took a toll.

鈥淭he toughest part is when you finish a film. The sense of loss is incredible. It鈥檚 being with the same people every day for three months, and then you鈥檙e home and you don鈥檛 see them again for a while,鈥� he said.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e lucky, you always have another job coming up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been very lucky.鈥�