We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Beatriz Cavalieri. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Beatriz below.

Beatriz, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was 16 years old, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I was young, had many dreams and when I just found out about the cancer, I was absolutely terrified. I got thyroidectomy (surgical removal of the thyroid gland) and a specific type of radiotherapy, in which you need to be isolated from people for a few days. During the treatment I felt very alone and I realized my urge to be around people. My need to have social interactions and make other people laugh and smile. promised myself that if I survived the treatment, I would pursue a career that provided me the ability to be around an audience. 17 years later, here I am, producing, acting and performing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I moved to New York in 2013, after receiving a scholarship to study Musical Theatre. I had just graduated with a degree in Filmmaking, but I always knew I wanted to be an actress. After living in New York for only five months, I was cast in an immersive off-Broadway. The show was called SerenadeNY and I played one of the principal roles: Saint Barbara. Serenade was similar to the well-known immersive show Sleep No More and it was so compelling that it was featured in the New York Times. At the time I was on a student visa and was not allowed to work. I did the show for free and it was one of my the most rewarding experiences of my life. After Serenade, I began to dazzle the possibility of having a professional acting career in the US. I applied and got an artist visa, and afterwards a green card. Everything led me to believe I was meant to stay here.

When I got my green-card I had many different day-jobs. I worked in restaurants, retail and babysitting as I continued to audition for TV, film and theatre.

In 2016 I started teaching for a company called FunikiJam, where I teach music and theatre for children of various ages. Brian Barrentine (creator of FunikiJam) gave me the opportunity of performing to my favorite audience: children. When I am around kids, I can be authentic, free and I can be myself. I did not feel judged and I felt very present.
Shortly after I created my production company and I started working for the Abingdon Theatre Company assisting Abingdon’s Artistic Director Chad Austin. In 2020 I became the Associate Director of New Works for Abingdon and I helped to produce 2 virtual festivals during the pandemic. With Chad’s mentorship I became a confident producer and professional. I owe my career as a producer and actress to Chad’s guidance .

2020 was a very difficult year, but I decided to make it fruitful. I used the time at home to look for representation, read plays and rebrand myself. With the support of Arcos Talent (my manager Katt Arcos) I was cast in important films such as Música (which will be released on Amazon Prime in 2024), Sinister Cover Up (which premiered in England in May 2023) and a principal role in the new original musical “Surviving the Moonlight”.
In the beginning of this year, I became a mom. My daughter Alice is 10-month-old and she brings a lot of creativity into my life. She is extremely musical and expressive. Last year when I found out that I was pregnant, I was doing the musical “Surviving the Moonlight” and in my belly, she experienced different songs, sounds, instruments, as well as my anxiety about being on stage.

In 2023 I am still acting, teaching and producing. I continue to wear many hats and I am grateful to be surrounded by art, talented friends and inspiring clients.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The search for the perfect body was always part of my life. As a child I was the chubbiest among my sisters and cousins. We have always been very close and even though I was one of the most expressive, the least shy, I was always ashamed of my body, always hiding. I was always bigger. I was always taller and didn’t fit into the clothes of girls my age.
When I was 12 years old, I was already wearing adult clothes and I already had boobs. I already had a defined waist. I remember praying at night to not get my period too early, because I knew it was a sign that I would be entering adolescence and I always heard that losing weight would be more difficult as a teenager.
At the age of 11 I got my period. I was terrified! Not even my sister who is 3 years older than me had gotten her period at the time.
I was constantly hiding my body in whatever outfits fit me, and I was in the constant battle to lose weight, reduce my size and fit into Brazilian standards of beauty, body, size.

This constant struggle left marks. Comments like: “wow, she’s really big”, “she’s so much bigger than her sister”, ” you look like you could be 18…” (when I was only 13) marked my life. I always tried to occupy and fit into a place that was too small for me.

When I started dancing, I began to find a way to express myself without thinking about the constant idea that I needed an ideal body. I started taking ballet and jazz, then I joined a choir and finally I started taking theater classes.
When I was on stage, I did not think about myself, I was there to serve others, I did not focus on how much weight I needed to lose, the pants I had to fit into, I just existed. This feeling of presence that rehearsals and performances brought to me was very therapeutic. On stage I am able to forget about Beatriz for a bit to exist in another body, with another name, another soul.
My coming to NY freed me from the story I carried my entire life. The ties I had with my battle were non-existent here. In a new country I could just be. My acting improved in English. I always carried many Christian values , I was always very polite, well-mannered and afraid to express myself the way I wanted. In English I started to tell the truth. My truth. Expose my body, my ideas. I started to not be ashamed to talk about sex.

The super polite girl in me became a woman by her own choice, not by an imposition of society.

The stage and film set became my home. The place where I learned to express myself and in NY, I found my voice.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Empowering all types of bodies.

My pregnancy was a big curve ball for me. For obvious reasons, I had no control over my body’s growth. Month after month, my belly, hips and breasts grew bigger and there was nothing I could do. I felt selfish for not feeling beautiful when most women feel so pure and beautiful.
I always knew I wanted to be a mother. I was always excellent with children and I always dreamed about having a baby girl. So why was I so miserable carrying my baby?

My pregnancy was a trip back to my adolescence and childhood. I relived memories of fat-phobia, bullying and the unattainable standard of beauty.
When I was almost 39 weeks pregnant, ashamed of my big body, miserable and anxious, I decided to write to people who fell the way I did… I wanted to share my story, share my compassion and empathy for every girl who has ever doubted their importance in the world because of their size. I wrote a play in 3 days.
The play is about a teenage girl who has an encounter with the adult version of herself as they get stuck on an elevator. I am still finishing it, but it is a story of forgiveness and compassion.

Today I am able to recognize that my mission in life is to empower and inspire people accept their bodies the way they are. My journey has not been easy, I made many mistakes, made foolish decisions and used awful methods that only hammed me to try get something unobtainable. But I also learned to forgive my mistakes.

My daughter Alice is a xerox copy of me. When she was 6 months old, she was already wearing clothes for 18-month-old toddlers. She is big for her age, 99 percentiles for height and weight. She is the most intelligent girl I know, she is always smiling, but most importantly she has a unique presence. She makes everyone smile wherever she goes and she absolutely loves the attention.
Alice came into this world to teach me to have compassion for my body. For myself. Her story is not my story and I do not wish for her the path I had. But she is growing in a home where her shape and size are perfect. Body types are not mentioned nor an issue. And most importantly, Alice’s qualities are not and will not be defined by the way she looks.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beatrizcavalieri.com
• Instagram: @cabiancab
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cavalieribea/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatriz-cavalieri-0b257970/en
• Twitter: @beacavalieri
• Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user104702016

Image Credits
Deborah Lopez, Alejandro Ibarra, Miguel Anaya, Gabrielle Bones