Interview- Priscila Buiar-Valentina-Stupid Wife

We exclusively interviewed actress Priscila Buiar, who has been a huge success as Valentina, one of the main characters in the highly successful web series Stupid Wife.

Priscila Buiar is an actress, graduated in performing arts at the State University of Londrina (UEL)/Paraná. She took several trainings focused on acting in addition to a dubbing training in the Brazilian Artistic Institute (IAB) and working as a model, with participation in advertisement and video clips. Priscila performed in theater plays such as Hamlet Essential and Symphony of Death. On television, she participated in Portas dos Fundos and in the soap operas A Força do Querer and O Rico e o Lázaro.

In series, films and short films, she participated in the web series “Marauders: a Story” playing Narcisa Malfoy, in Magenta with the role of Manuela, and in the feature film “Kaiser: The greatest footballer never to have played football”, among others.

The Stupid Wife web series is produced by Ponto Ação Produções (independent producer) and based freely on the Fifth Harmony fanfic by author Nathália Sodré, which has more than nine million reads on Wattpad. You can watch the first season episodes by clicking the link HERE.

Congratulations on the huge success of Stupid Wife webseries. You are rocking the role of Valentina. We wish you much more success in your career and life!

In our questions, we will talk about Stupid Wife and a little bit about your career.

1) What is it like for you to be part of a web series that is based on a hugely successful fanfic like Stupid Wife? Could you tell us a little about the filming process? And what are the differences between it and productions aimed at television?

PB: Being a part of Stupid Wife was a pleasure and a huge vote of confidence. The fanfic already had a large and loyal audience – with a lot of expectations and affection for the story – and receiving the admiration of this audience has been an incredible experience. It surprises me daily.

The filming process was quite intense. As it is an independent project, we do not always have that complete structure found in major film productions or TV stations. The challenge comes from having to have a lot of willingness and desire to do it. In many days we record until the wee hours and then wake up very early the next day with the script memorized, good humour and a lot of patience. But it was beautiful to see the crew and cast doing their best to see the project come to fruition and shine the way it is.

As the team is small, it is common for everyone to have more than one role on the set. In other words, it ends up becoming a job with many hands, different from a large production. We actors, for example, help by composing our costumes with our clothes, taking some object from home to compose the art direction and scenery, etc. I think it’s really cool to expose this part so that the public understands that conditions are not always perfect, but even so, everyone comes together to make it happen.

And as an actress, I learned a lot from paying attention to roles other than mine. For example, due to not having a script supervisor (also called continuity supervisor, manages the coherence of the script’s narrative along with sound, photography, and art, that is, the scenography, props, costumes and characterization (source: AIC), I started to pay close attention to the details of how the character’s movements were, how her hair was, the costume, the accessories, small details but that, added up, helped me create the behavior of my character.

Anyway, it was a big challenge, but in the end it was all worth it.

2) Stupid Wife is being a huge success. Despite that you already have a career with several participations in television, theater, commercials, shorts and movies, how is the recognition of this journey as actresses for you?

PB: Very good news. Until then, my work had had smaller projections and recognition came from friends or close people who could identify me in ads or in some participation in a certain soap opera. Today, the recognition comes from thousands of people (Ponto Ação’s channel has more than 900 thousand subscribers) from all corners of the world. I receive – daily – affectionate messages from fans in all languages and I am shocked by the scale the series has taken.

Recognition is important when working with the public. It’s part of our job to get feedback on the result we’ve delivered, and when it’s positive and so big and unexpected – as it is right now – it’s really rewarding. The feeling is that all the study and dedication paid off.

3) You have already participated in other webseries, what was it like to play Narcisa Malfoy “Marauders: a Story” which is played by Helen McCroy in the movies? What is your Hogwarts house? Brazil was recently inserted in this universe with Maria Fernanda Cândido as Vicencia Santos, did you get to participate in the auditions to be in the movie Fantastic Beasts?

I really loved participating in “Marauders: A Story”. My character enters episodes 4, 5 and 6 – which haven’t premiered yet – but were a lot of fun to shoot. As a good Harry Potter fan, the preparation and immersion in this Universe was almost all fun. I already loved watching the movies, I also took the time to read all the books and really dive into the process with the rest of the cast. Apart from that, the costumes, the locations and the characterization are completely different from our everyday life, so they give us the possibility to create and use a lot of our imagination.

My house is Gryffindor (but I love Slytherin too!); and it was an honor to play the role played by actress Helen McCroy. I really admire the work she did on both HP and Peaky Blinders. Her villains are exciting, we are attracted to and root for them (I think I even stole a little bit of that for the first phase of Valen).

I didn’t get to audition for the movie Fantastic Beasts, unfortunately.

4) In Stupid Wife, Luiza suffers from a recent memory loss. In this case, 6 years. What would it be like for you if it were the opposite? If Valentina had lost her memory and Luiza had to help recover it?

PB: I think the conflict would not be so interesting, because the fanfic drama is precisely about Luiza only remembering the bad times with Valentina.

If it were the other way around, nothing would change, because Valentina has always been in love with Lu, since college. She was annoying just to annoy and get Lulu’s attention, as she was so pretty, smart and determined that maybe just agreeing with her wouldn’t arouse the other’s interest and attention.

So much so that in the fanfic, Valen’s biggest sadness is that Lu’s first kiss was not with her. Luiza was always her first and greatest love.

5) In Stupid Wife, the synopsis is very similar to the comedy movie “50 First Dates” with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, but unlike it, Stupid Wife is a drama series. For you, is it easier to act in comedy or drama? Has the second season already been recorded? In all, how many seasons were thought of to tell the story of Luiza and Valentina?

PB: For now, we’ve only shot the first season. I can’t say how many seasons they thought about as these production issues are first decided by the Ponto Ação team and then passed on to the cast.

I much prefer acting in drama than comedy. I think both are challenging, but I like these very deep dives, LOL.

Comedy has the challenge of timing and, in my opinion, it’s a drama that you tell softly. I find it more challenging because I have less experience with it, but I’ve done some things like the series Borges Importadora (which is on Netflix) with the guys from Porta dos Fundos – who I admire a lot and who know how to do it very well.

6) Ponto Ação Produções is an independent production company, but it has achieved great success and repercussion, even more now with Stupid Wife. What is it like for you to be part of it? Do you already have other projects with them?

PB: I’ve known Ponto Ação for some time. I got to act with Priscilla Pugliese in two series: in the second season of Magenta and in the webseries 58 Seconds, which is on Instagram. I had also done a text reading with Natalie – for a short film she starred in, but I ended up not continuing the project. So I already knew and admired their work. For now, these are the only projects.

7) And for you, what is the role of women in audiovisual?

PB: At this moment, the role of women in audiovisual is essential. We need to occupy these places, both for representation and for the narratives to be told from the women’s point of view. So that women can have main roles in the cinema, series, and soap operas. I am very proud that 80% of our team is made up of women, especially in management positions, something that we still see little in the market abroad.

The women I work with support each other, respect each other, create a safe and favorable environment for us to practice our profession without being afraid of harassment, abuse, psychological pressure. I can’t even put into words how essential this is for us to be able to work without fear, with total surrender. It looks so simple and so basic, but we know it’s not like that in all productions.

8) Could you tell us a little about your new projects? What are your next dreams that you hope to fulfill soon? With Stupid Wife opening more doors for you, where would you like to act more cinema, TV, streaming or theater?

PB: I really rather announce my projects only after they are already recorded and completed hehe but I hope that this year two feature films that I participated will premiere: the first is “Sala Escura” (Dark Room, in free translation), by director Paulo Fontanelle from the horror/thriller genre. The second is the film “Looping”, by director Luiz Duarte. Both were recorded before the pandemic.

I hope that Stupid Wife continues to grow and that new seasons come. I also hope that it opens other doors within the audiovisual market, which I love and to which I dedicate myself since I moved to Rio de Janeiro.

9)Could you leave a message for the followers of Nerd Tatuado? And indicate a movie, a series and a book.

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