Today we’d like to introduce you to Débora Tácylla

Hi Débora, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

I started like everybody else, with nothing. And to be fairly honest, I do not know or remember when the sparkle for acting started, but I remember the day I decided that I was going to work hard towards it and also the day I decided to take a step back – and I am proud of both. I started by doing what I could and what made sense to me at the time, because it all started as a dream. In the beginning I would picture myself starring in the movies that were set to come up and it was enough. As time passed by, I started to understand that just waiting and imagining myself in projects would not automatically make me get cast, so I started researching how the casting process worked, how auditioning worked, what kind of materials I needed to have and much more. Day by day I learned something new and exciting and I always celebrated the small wins, which made a huge difference. During this time I was also learning English, as some of my acting inspirations are foreign and I wanted to understand their interviews, listen to their advice and watch their movies in their native language. And things started to happen, step by step, standing and falling, suddenly I was sprinting. On my first play, ‘Simplesmente Maria’ directed by Marcos Nepomuceno I had five lines and I celebrated. I celebrated because one day I was just a girl sitting on the living room couch dreaming of saying a line in a project and then I was a girl who had five real lines in a real project. And now, soon I will be a girl with over two hundred lines on a two-hour-long play that I will be the female lead. Even though I am an adult now, I will always remember my roots and where I came from because if that girl didn’t have dreams that were bigger than her, I would not be where I am today.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

Absolutely not, but it has been so purposeful and learnable that I would not change anything. The struggles come and go all the time, there is always a new obstacle that challenges us and makes us grow. Along my journey I have had to overcome the language barrier as English is my second language, understanding how the industry works in Brazil and then understanding how it works abroad, understanding how theater works and then how on camera acting works, how different acting techniques have their goal and what they teach us and many more personal aspects. But out of all my struggles, the hardest one was to say no to myself and to my dream. We are so blessed to have so many doors opened, that we can do worldwide things from the comfort of our homes, we can reach out to almost everybody and get access to so much useful and necessary information on all topics, but I was using it the wrong way. Advice is important, but you cannot apply it all at once and this one of the most important things I have learned. Every time I would go on Instagram I was constantly overwhelmed with so much information that I could not process it. One post would say that you need to have a blank background for self tapes, the following one would say that you need a blue one and the next would say that blue makes you look amateur; then another post would say that you should wear the same outfit you were in the headshot chosen for that audition, someone else would say that you have to stick to neutral colors and other person would say that you should dress like you imagine the character. And it goes beyond it. The point is, none of this advice is actually wrong but I was taking it the wrong way to the point that it was affecting me. I would receive an audition and think ‘I have to get this right’ but what is ‘right’? Nobody knows. I was hurting what I once said I loved. I was destroying my passion and I needed to take a step back before I ruined it and ruined me. Taking a complete step back and basically saying ‘no’ to my dream, a career that is full of rejection almost automatically was not easy at all, but it was the best thing I could do. It saved me. Sometimes taking a step back is what will bring you forward.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

Between all of the things I do, being an actress in one of them. I volunteer myself to tell stories that might help someone in this world. I have told stories of kind friends who want to help, liars that just want their own benefit, uncomprehended and broken people, fake and real villains, opportunists, lovers, enemies a bit of all. As long as there is a story that is worth telling, I want to tell it. It does not matter if it is live on stage, remotely filmed for a short film or web series, a phone call that only my voice is included, a self tape, if it is drama or comedy, dark or light, calm or energetic – I want to do it. I want to help people and if I can be a practical and visual example for a specific situation and some of the possible outcomes of rational and irrational decisions so they can decide for themselves if they want to do exactly that or the complete opposite, then I am fulfilled.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?

Life is unexpected so do expected things that will make you “unexpectable”. For a while, all I wanted to do was act and act only, and I was miserable. Acting is one of my passions, it cannot become my one and entire passion otherwise it will ruin me. I learned through the hard way that life is more than just us, than just what we think it looks like and try to program it. When I said that life is unexpected, I meant it, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us and if we are blessed, we will have many and many more but we cannot be stuck with the same idea or goal forever. For example, the most common goal within actors is to win an Oscar someday, but we all know that is not statistically possible – I may or may not get to that point, God is the only one who knows that – so in the meantime, while we work for it and continue to live life, why not enjoy life and other passions? There is nothing wrong in doing more than one thing, in fact I believe that makes life even more special and interesting. A lot of doors opened for me while I navigated through other paths. There are many ways to get a destination, and if you happen to make a few stops along the way, grab a snack, meet some local people, see some tourist places and enjoy life!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/deboratacylla
• Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12644079/

Image Credits

Professional Stage Photos: Caio Machado

Black and White Photo: Débora Tácylla