This is a great opportunity for me to present a dear friend of mine, Maria Clara Spinelli, actress of the award winning film Paulista (Quanto Dura Amor?, 2009) by director Roberto Moreira with Silvia Lourenco, Danni Carlos, and Paulo Vilhena. Maria is from a town called Assis in the interior of Brazil. In the film, however, she acts as the 'Paulista' native, Suzana. Maria has stunned audiences worldwide with her radiance and talent. Her honest and transparent nature communicates through the screen and her stunning performance makes this film an unforgettable triumph.

Despite her busy schedule, Maria took time out to interview with me (translated from Portuguese to English).

ME: Thank you for interviewing with me, Maria. So, can you speak a little bit about Paulista? How did you get involved with this film?

MARIA:´Paulista´ was my first role in a film; a film of an author of cinema, auteur, and not commercial cinema. I was passionate about this role from the beginning.

ME: Maria, you play a very unique character in this film; and yet, your character is the most intriguing. Can you please tell readers about your role?

MARIA: My character is´Suzana´, a square lawyer with characteristics like any other woman, like everyone. But, one of these characteristics is very uncommon, and for this people call it a 'secret'. But in reality, it's only something intimate and personal, in my opinion. It's not easy to represent this character because, in spite of people thinking the opposite, I consider it much more difficult for an actor/actress to play a character that is so close to his/her self...

ME: I can imagine. I mean, acting a role of a character similar to yourself is like acting naked, in a way. Maria, do you have any stories or anecdotes you might share about the process of making this film?

MARIA: Yes, there were some very curious stories about the film. The main one, for me, was the 'inversion' between fiction and realtiy... I'll explain: My character is 'Suzana', a lawyer who lives in a big city. She receives 'Marina' in her house, a girl from the interior of Brazil, who comes to live in Sao Paulo to realize her dreams of becoming an actress...Well, during the filming process, I lived in the house of actress Silvia Lourenco in Sao Paulo, the actress who plays 'Marina'. In other words: me, Maria Clara Spinelli, came from a city in the interior of Brazil to live in Sao Paulo to begin my carrier as an actress in cinema and was the guest in Silvia's house. Like they say in Brazil: 'life imitates art'...