Jorge Neto draped his vocation for the art of acting unexpectedly. A discovery that allowed him to begin an acting career with over ten years, some of which are devoted to a memorable character that brought him fame and recognition of the Portuguese, as the rat in the famous saga of bullets and cookies.
How woes your first experience as an actor? It was in the bullets and cookies?
Jorge Neto: The beginning of all was the proposal of a group of friends to come together to make a short movie. The initial idea was to make a film about a group around a table, in their natural environment. We wanted to do something funny. The concept was intended to criticize the world around us, in that context. My character comes alive in that moment during rehearsal once a week has been growing thru what was written and constructed. He was gaining its own characteristics, different from others, as is natural and how a rodent is and how we looked at the "rats" that abound in our daily lives. Then I tried to add the shape of this animal to be frantic and changed the voice.
What did you add more in the second movie?
JN: What make this character more credible are the situations that were created in this film. The production had that concern. You put the rat on a street is different than in a scene interacting with other characters and the extras. There is an evolution, as was natural. It was impossible to repeat what I did in the first film
So what was changed?
JN: The sentences that the public liked best, which were used again by the character and we complement this with new speech reactions. I was more an actor in this second feature film, did a more cinematic approach of the rat, because at that time was studying filming. The way to frame me in the take, the camera position and everything around me, all that was studied. Although the character is the same.
In the third, the rat is more physical?
JN: The idea is that the saga ends here, and although it is influenced by the other two films, before there was a lot of improvisation. In this third part, we cannot escape much from the script of the day to finish shooting in a positive way. From the point of view of the action itself, I will have more scenes, now everything is timed. It is done as scheduled and there is not much room for change.
When did you have the perception of the popularity of the rat? It was in Fantasporto?
JN: The recognition in Fantasporto was fifty friends in the room. The little while ago I attended a dinner where I met people who were in that debut, and were pleased with my character. It was a home movie for us and when was for the public. In fact the big bang was in SIC radical, people repeated the phrases in my street and came to me so tenderly saying they enjoy the movie.
The character helped you in your acting career?
JN: In recognition among the public, yes. Professionally, I have not done much work, because I was not invited, or I was not at the right place at the right time. I have taken part in a television series that was "the Ferreirinha" and a work of animation. I do voiceover for cartoons. Recently, was part of the "roots"; filmed in the natural park of Peneda-Geres is a fictional documentary about life in the Neolithic period. Projects in Portugal, on the other hand, are not as many in terms of cinema, and as diverse as bullets and cookies.
It's hard to be an actor in Porto, given the fact that you are far from the capital, where much happens?
JN: Yeah. It makes it very difficult. There is great confusion in the middle. The focus is the famous instead of real actors and this are two completely different aspects. I see and do theater all over the country and go to the movies and when I watch a film that has one of those personalities recognized by the general public, you notes that it is not the same thing. You see that person doing of itself and that is not what is asked. Fiction needs magic and demands an actor to create a character. We have to strip, that is, when the character shows up you cancel your own personality. This is to make art and what we often see is a cover over a person.
As an artist how you foreseen the Portuguese film industry?
JN: I see it very well. There are excellent theater actors who make the transition to film with ease. There are differences in view of the sets, decors and even cameras. There is another relevant issue, the scripts. There is a gap that is written for a cinema audience. Overall, I see that as an actor we do great things in our country.
