Africa-Press – Cape verde. She writes, directs, acts, and also sings. An artist involved in many shows and productions, Rita Cruz is used to juggling theater, television, film, and music. “The problem is staying still,” says the author of the single ‘Cuidado’ (Careful), recorded with Dino d’Santiago. Besides presenting this new album, this week’s guest on ‘O Tal Podcast’ reveals how “stubbornness” and a “somewhat unconscious and childish choice” materialized into a career in acting.
Even as a child, Rita Cruz dreamed and announced her own future: “I’m going to be an actress.” This certainty, she recounts in this conversation with Georgina Angélica and Paula Cardoso, intensified as she grew up, in the “little skits” she did at school. “It was stronger than me, this need to put creativity into practice.”
However, her artistic plans were eventually postponed, encountering warnings about the precariousness of the work.
On one hand, her mother advised her to pursue a university degree with a stable career path. On the other hand, her father was well aware of the challenges of an artist’s life. “I was a musician, but I also had a so-called normal profession. I think he saw this love for art in me, but he also told me: go for something safer.”
Rita did, and that’s why she graduated in Rehabilitation and Social Integration from the Higher Institute of Applied Psychology, before following the path she recognized as her own from an early age.
Having graduated in Theatre – Acting from the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema, she moved onto the stage and never looked back.
“I co-founded Teatro do Bonde with the desire to create opportunities. Only later did I realize the importance it had, because young people came to me: ‘Look, I went to theatre school because I saw you on stage, I had never seen a Black actress before’”.
Today, aware of the importance of all people feeling identified in fiction, Rita argues that “the lack of representation closes off the possibility of dreaming.”
Herself an ‘orphan’ of Black role models – “When I was a child, who did I see? Whoopi Goldberg, and little else” – she acknowledges that her trajectory was built from a “great desire to create,” combined with a certain degree of unconsciousness.
“I heard many ‘no’s’ and ‘it’s better not to come to the casting because you don’t fit the profile.’ I understood what they meant; it was purely and simply about skin color.” But I went, and it happened to me countless times that the director liked my performance and kept the role.”
Against the odds, at a time when she “didn’t see Ritas on television, in advertising, or in music,” the multifaceted artist believes that, through exposure to other Ritas, new generations have expanded their imagination and, with it, their aspirations.
“Some time ago, we had a conversation with different generations, in which we talked about representation, and we saw the generational difference: the 20-year-olds are much more upfront, [they say]: ‘this is my right’”.
Beyond words, the actress emphasizes the importance of combating acts of discrimination, something she also seeks to do through raising her son.
“When I was younger I felt alone and didn’t know why. It was a place of loneliness, this not speaking, feeling, but not knowing how to name it, this non-place. So, I think it’s very important to talk [about racism] with parents, with teachers, and with my son.”
One of the topics of discussion, Rita points out, has been the skin-colored pencil. “Just put several hands in front of them, and they can see that there are different skin tones. This is very important so that children don’t feel alone, in a place of exclusion.”
The commitment to inclusion, present in representation and motherhood, extends to music, and has a resounding manifesto in the song ‘Cuidado’ (Care), recorded with Dino d’Santiago.
“Being a good person is a treasure, paying attention to others. We are in a very self-absorbed, closed-off place. We need to seek out others more.”
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