‘I’m Still Here’ Oscar Nominee & Golden Globe Winner Fernanda Torres Apologizes For Blackface Turn In 17-Year-Old Resurfaced TV Comedy Sketch

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: After scoring a Best Actress Oscar nomination after winning the Golden Globe for Best Performance By An Actress in a Film Drama for her portrayal of a mother searching for her disappeared politician husband in I’m Still Here, Fernanda Torres tonight is making an apology for a decades-old skit on the Brazilian TV show Fantastico that is beginning to resurface.

She played multiple characters in the skit, one of them in blackface. “Almost twenty years ago, I appeared in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV show,” Torres said in a statement. “I am very sorry for this.

I’m making this statement as it is important for me to address this swiftly to avoid further pain and confusion.  “At that time, despite the efforts of Black movements and organizations, the awareness of the racist history and symbolism of blackface hadn’t yet entered the mainstream public consciousness in Brazil.

Thanks to better cultural understanding and important but incomplete achievements in this century, it’s very clear now in our country and everywhere that blackface is never acceptable.  “This is an important conversation we must continue to have with one another in order to prevent the normalization of racist practices then and now.