Jonathan & Phellipe Haagensen: these boys from Brazil have nothing to hide—they bare all in their raw, gritty performances

Interview, Nov, 2003 by Katia Lund

[Translated from Portuguese by Amber Levinson]

KATIA LUND: So, guys, you've had an amazing few years, huh? Our film about life in Rio's housing projects, City of God, which I co-directed [Fernando Meirelles is credited as the film's director] and you starred in, has played all over the world. It has won awards here in Brazil, at the Havana Film Festival, at the Encuentro Latino Americano de Cine, and at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, and now it will be re-released in the U.S. this fail. How did all this begin for you two?

JONATHAN HAAGENSEN: When I was 13 I was working in a video store and earning good money. I had some friends who were involved with Guti [Fraga, founder of the Rio youth theater group Nos do Morro (We From the Hillside)], and I said, "This is the stuff! Besides being fun, it's a job!" I started out behind the scenes, and then the opportunity came when I was 14 to act in a play.

PHELLIPE HAAGENSEN: The script talked about poverty and inequality. Heavy stuff.

KL: Phellipe, isn't that also when you decided you wanted to act?

PH: Yes. Jonathan invited me to the play, and when I saw him up there communicating this message that all of Brazil should have been hearing, I cried. I said, "I need this too!"

KL: I remember when we first met: I went to Nos do Morro to find people tot the music video I was directing [for the Brazilian hip-hop group O Rappa], and by chance you guys were performing a Backstreet Boys song that day. You had amazing charisma.

JH: I had done a little scene here and there as an extra, but your video was our first real job.

KL: Tell me how City of God has changed things for you guys, if at all.

PH: Before City of God we lived in a small house [at the top of a hillside] and we slept on the floor of the living room with our mother and, occasionally, friends. After City of God, we put in bedrooms for ourselves and our mother. But first I spent 1,000 reais [Brazil's unit of currency] for a motorcycle, which I destroyed after one week, [Lund laughs] along with my knee.

JH: City of God was such a big step. We had been taking little steps before, and we continue to go step by step now.

KL: Were you prepared for what happened when the movie came out?

JH: No one was. Not even you and [Fernando] Meirelles.

KL: That's true.

JH: We used to walk down the street as anonymous people, but now everyone looks at us. I think it's cool, but sometimes it's strange. And people think we are living it up, when we are really working our butts off in the same struggle. PH: Everybody reads In the news that City of God has made millions of reais from ticket sales, so they think, These kids must have gotten a bundle out of it. I hear little jokes in Vidigal [the Rio neighborhood where the Haagensens live]: "He's got money, and he's hiding it."

KL: [laughs] So what have you been doing since we finished the film?

PH: I appeared on Yellow Woodpecker Ranch [a popular children's TV show in Brazil], which was cool. I've done the miniseries City of Men [an offshoot of City of God], and I'm doing a feature.

JH: I did City of Men too, plus another feature. Now I'm rehearsing for Donkey Without a Tail [a new play with Nos do Morro].

KL: Didn't you also do work for the NBA in Brazil?

JH: Yeah, I had a spokesperson deal. And I've done some fashion shots for a few magazines.

KL: Phellipe, you have to ride that wave too.

PH: I did some photos for an ad campaign. Panties and brae.

KL: Women go nuts over you.

JH: There's one that comes by our house--she sleeps with a picture of him under her pillow.

KL: When I was abroad, a lot of people asked me whether you two spoke English. I said, "Shit! If those guys spoke English, the market would be totally open for them."

JH: Well, I'm starting an English class on Monday, I got a scholarship,

KL: Uh-oh! [all laugh]

Katla Lund Is currently directing City of Men and working with Feb 5 Freddy on a feature film about hip-hop.