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

Fernanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have ever done is the short film Amentalio.

This year, I decided to write, produce, and act on my own movie, and this has been a fantastic journey. It was my first time producing, and I have learned much about the industry and myself during this process.

Amentalio tells the story of Liam and Emilia, a couple expecting their first baby. As the preparations take place, joy and excitement find their place in this new family until something unexpected happens, teaching them how to give the word “life” a new meaning. The movie is about love in all its forms.

I decided to tell this story because of a video I watched online about a mother who had just suffered a miscarriage. In the video, she talked about how alone she felt and how no one seemed to understand her pain.

After watching, I clicked on the comments and found thousands of women who identified with the situation. I was extremely moved, mainly because I have people in my life that I love very much and who, unfortunately, went through the same situation.

The first impression I had when watching the video and reading the comments was that miscarriage caused an intense and lonely pain of grief. When we lose someone dear to us who lived physically in the world, we also suffer from grief, but in many cases, this pain is shared with other people who also knew the deceased. People feel the same pain and suffer together, creating a network of support and solidarity. And this usually does not happen in cases of miscarriage.

The pain that the family feels when losing the baby, especially the mother, doesn’t translate in the same way to others because the child does not “really exist” for people outside the family. The couple’s pain may move friends and family, but without the same intensity of grief as they would have if they had met the baby physically.

After reading countless testimonials, researching the subject, and interviewing people who went through this trauma, I wanted to do something to help them so they didn’t feel so alone. This is how Amentalio came about.

The film deals with the grieving process, especially the one suffered by the mother, in a very verbal way. I didn’t want to leave anything up to interpretation. I wanted the feelings to be expressed clearly and said out loud because, in real life, this rarely happens – mainly due to the lack of knowing how, which increases the feeling of loneliness. I wanted the film to serve as a hug for these women and that Emília, my character, could serve, at least a little, as this support network.

As a writer and producer, I wanted “Amentalio” to have the power to make the audience feel like they were inside the film. I wanted the viewer to feel like they were inside Emília’s house, as if they were, in a way, “intruders” in this very intimate and delicate moment for the couple. However, I wanted to preserve the idea of ​​coziness and “home.” Working with this duality was exciting and something that I loved to do.

As an actress, bringing Emilia to life was also very challenging; I wanted her to be real and relatable, and I didn’t want her to feel like a character. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to learn from great teachers in Los Angeles, and everything they taught me came in handy during the character development process and the shooting.

Amentalio is officially done and has been doing very well at festivals worldwide. Our team has been blessed with awards such as “Best Actress,” “Best Short,” “Best Screenplay,” and “Best Producer,” and I couldn’t be happier. I hope that when the movie is finally released, it does its thing, helping those who need it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Fernanda Vilela, and I am a Brazilian actress.

I have always been passionate about acting. I remember being seven years old, memorizing the lines of my favorite films and shows and playing them with my friends.

When I was around ten years old, I asked my mom to sign me up for the school choir, being that the first time I got to explore what it was like to be an entertainer. The school decided to produce a musical theatre play, giving me the protagonist role (Azuli – The Blue Girl); it was my first time on stage, performing for an audience, and that experience transformed me; it felt like I had found my “place” in this world.

The years passed, and I finally graduated from High School. During daylight, I was pursuing a law degree (to have a safety net), but at night, I was following my dreams in a small acting school in Curitiba. There, I learned the basics of the craft and was introduced to the Uta Hagen technique.

After graduating from college and passing the BAR exam in Brazil, I decided it was time to give my dream a proper chance and to make it my main goal. There was still so much I wanted to learn about the world of acting and so many different techniques that I wanted to explore that I couldn’t give up yet. With that in mind, I moved to Los Angeles to attend a method acting and two imagination-based schools.

During my time in LA, I did two plays: “Where the Cross is Made,” written by Eugine O’Neil, and “Ghosts Can’t Pay Rent”, written by Sarah Ruttan, winner of the Encore award from the Hollywood Fringe Festival, where I got to perform the protagonist Cas. Those opportunities gave me the confidence boost I needed to keep going and trying to make it in America.

In the cinematographic universe, I have done three short films, “Estate of Purgatory,” “En El Nombre de El,” and “Amentalio.” The last one was written, produced, and starred by me, my very own first project. The movie was finalized in May and it has been blessed with several awards and nominations worldwide (USA, UK, India, Korea, Slovakia…) . I have had the honor to receive awards for “best actress,” “best film,” “best women theme,” “best screenplay,” and “best producer,” and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. It has been an incredible journey, where I got to learn a lot about the world and the industry, but mainly about myself.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

This is an excellent question!

There are so many things one can do to support creatives and artists, for example:

-Going to theatres! — Some programs in Los Angeles, for example, give great play tickets away for free for people under 25. There are also affordable local theatres, which are equally important and inspiring and are a great way to support local artists and creatives without going over budget.

– Attending comedy clubs and stand-up shows! It’s always so much fun and not necessarily expansive.

– Donate time or money to productions; volunteer in plays, short films, and student films. If you have the money to donate, many filmmakers create a ‘Go Fund Me’ campaign so they can afford their productions. Remember, every amount donated counts – trust me, I would know, hahaha.

– If you own a company, sponsoring a play or a short/movie in exchange for advertising would be a great idea.

– If you have a friend in the entertainment industry, support them in whatever they are doing. Go to their shows, even if small; post them on social media; talk about their work to others…

– Watching international films is also great! The search for diversity would help creatives. The more the audience requests diversity (not necessarily just in the color of their skin – which is also essential – but also a search for different accents, different cultures, different ethnicities, etc), the more the big companies will hire those creatives.

– Read books from big and small authors.

– Go to the movie theatres!

There are so so so many ways to support creatives, these are just some of them!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Seeing that my work has moved/touched people. There is nothing better for me, professionally, than to hear that my art made someone laugh, cry, think, and brainstorm with others. This gives me such a feeling of gratitude that I can’t even express it in words.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: fernanda_vilela23 Amentalio.shortfilm

Image Credits

Picture one and four are from @mateogamero123