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Miguel Nunes
Interview by Joana de Verona
Photography by Frederico Martins
Styling by Nelly Gonçalves
It was Joana who asked for his number. “Miguel Mano” got registered on the cell phone in 2006 when they shared the screen in Morangos com Açúcar. They became friends, in and out of work, discovered and rediscovered themselves wrapped up in the respect and admiration that builds up the best friendships. A certain at ease with each other, as Joana explains, and a similar sense of the world, settled into a listening place open to silence as well as an amount of a healthy shared ‘madness’. A teenage friendship that turned into an adult relationship, a mutual vigil that enabled growth that both expect to continue nurturing. She – “she, a very important person with a great sense of justice” – picks up her cell phone in the Azores, where she is busy in rehearsals. He – “the stability which works as an anchor in my life, a humble kid with a wonderful heart” – is at his desk, but he could be anywhere. He always feels at home with her.
JV – Well, Miguel, I would like to start by asking if you also feel this thing of what we do being a great privilege because it takes a lot of courage – and humbleness. And if you feel, because you have this job, this artistic activity, professional activity, if you feel our work has also enabled you to develop your maturity while growing as a human being, that is, if you feel this work gives you a greater awareness of the self and more maturity.
MN – I feel that yes, even though, I believe that the word you used at the beginning is too strong and does not fit our work – courage. I think courage is something more associated with survival instinct, and I feel our work is not necessarily a courageous one. It is, however, a deep emotionally work, which makes us question ethical values as well and, for that, yes, I suppose it takes a person with these values well established to question them on the stage through its characters. That exercise of questioning too – which is an exercise of comprehension of our interior, but of the other as well, with whom we act, of others, of spaces –, it is a privilege to be able to do it and do it in the company of colleagues such as yourself, for example, or Pedro [Caeiro]. In the sense that we share this common interest, this profession, and the need to deepen our work. I believe so. I believe the accompaniment is a privilege.
JV – Not courage. There are jobs, such as those related to health, rescuing people and supporting lives, which show courage more clearly. I said courage in the sense that we choose this way of life, despite not always knowing when we will have a job, or not… Courage related to our body and emotions being moulded to the character we are building, the story we are telling. In that sense.
But let’s start with Gloria, which is your most recent work, and a job so beautiful and well-done. It seems to me that this is an important work, highly demanding, and of a quality that will position you on the map, even in our country, that may open paths. You had this protagonist, this host, and forged an intense connection with the work, not least because it took you five months, which is quite a long time. What would you highlight of this experience in your life?
MN – Look at this group, which joins people with a lot of professional and human qualities. For the time we are living, I feel that this was essential, and it has been shown in the reaction of people, that every day tell us how much they love the series and want it to go on. In fact, we are making a connection here with this special work, I feel that in people’s words, how they comment, how they arrive overflowing with emotions, sometimes, to tell us that they are proud. At first, it was a word that caused me some confusion, mainly because I think I don’t understand very well, yet, what is that of the public being proud of the work an artist does, but maybe it is something similar to what happens to the athletes of the national squad when they go outside. Suddenly, people feel that a little bit of them is in there, too. And I feel that is special. I don’t work with that goal; I work to do the best I can and reach out to the public. I truly appreciate ‘reaching out’ with this tremendous quality, which I believe we have achieved, and it really is this that I found the most important. Though, it is always difficult to envision and make an expectation concerning the public’s reception. This work was also a privilege because I had this prominent role of being almost a host to all the actors who passed by because I was there every day, and it is a character who guides all the series.
And it got me to meet some actors I already knew distantly whose work I admired, but now had the opportunity to perform with them, and also strengthen relationships with people I knew beforehand. Like the director, Tiago Guedes, who is a remarkable person, able to embody the type of leadership a project of this magnitude calls for. His education, delicacy, and way of interacting with the actors. It was something very fortunate indeed.
JV – You used the word pride to speak about the public – do you think that relationship with the public is also due to being a period story? A story that, perhaps, many people were unaware of, which addresses something that happened in real life. There is certain a pride for part of the story not being entirely fiction, that it is real, the historical path.
MN – Yes, there is that side of people feeling proud because some stories are real, the space is real, it happened, it existed, it still exists today, though degraded. Something curious happened, which was a lady writing to me from Germany saying she was watching the series and that João character’s was her husband. She explained that her husband had been a KGB agent on the same radio, but in Munich. So, she felt that while watching the series she could see her dead husband, and even sent me a link to a book about his life and everything. And then there is the fact that a platform is a platform, thus, can reach numerous audiences. Even here, in Portugal, a large number is public of the platform but watches mostly international content. Suddenly, that public can see national content, and likes it a lot, and that is also related to the pride we were speaking of.
It came at a good time because we had a difficult year. We have professionals with a lot of quality in Portugal, it is a project that opens doors, and many are now open to all of us.
JV – It is impressive, isn’t it? Portugal, in territorial terms, is such a small country, but in talent, in several fields, there’s that: many talent and much resilience. It is a very resilient people, who manages to do art with few means. It is curious and heads into the fight, and there is much talent, that is really… I feel it is really important. I don’t know if you agree or feel it is already different. That there must be an external endorsement of other countries for the Portuguese men and women to feel capable, competent. There is a certain view of a nation of people who do not value themselves so much, not sure if it is because it is a small country planted by the sea. And the more you work with other realities, the more you realize Portugal has very strong characteristics. I don’t know if you feel that this appreciation, although a bit firmer now, seems like it still needs…
MN – In a work like this, which has massive publicity, and it really reaches a wider audience, it happens that in many interviews journalists end up asking ‘so, and now to go to Hollywood?’. It is a question that is done a lot when Portuguese actors and actresses make a project that is broadly publicized, and it seems the expectation is on the side of themselves, of the question and the journalist, that this actor must leave Portugal. But truthfully, I don’t think so, it doesn’t have to be like this. Hollywood can come here. Like these big distributors can come here and produce our stories. I thought a lot about this, and it reminded me of the moment I began studying theatre, when I pondered going abroad, I was pondering going abroad or to the conservatory. In fact, I concluded that there was no sense in going to study theatre in a language that is not my mother tongue and do the way backwards, trying to master the acting tools in a language that is not mine, that is not part of my identity. That is, deepening the relationship of the Portuguese language with the stories we tell is also extremely important, I want to continue doing it, and I feel that we have more and more space and means to do it. If we are given more means, we will be able to deliver yet greater quality, as we’ve proved – not only in this series, but in others too.
It is proof that the Portuguese public is enjoying the series, wants continuity of works in the audiovisual and cinema areas, with the professional’s quality we have here. Therefore, I think that we deserve another kind of look from our governments concerning the work, which allows us to stay and continue to do better and better work. Instead of wanting to let everyone go.
Jacket, shirt and trousers Inês Torcato
Shoes Carlos Santos
JV – Of course, more appreciation for the culture sector from the Government beyond that rather old idea that to see a good show, work of art, you go to Paris or London. No, easy. There are many good things made in Portugal, with a lot of quality, besides, it’s still a sort of provincialism, isn’t it? In the end, that was it. This interview’s purpose is to say that more encouragement is needed from the Government (laughter). A more respectful look for the artists in Portugal, as it is a profession that employs many people, and should be valued.
MN – We had the greatest example of that last year, that culture is extremely important, otherwise, I don’t know how we would have survived the pandemic’s successive confinements. What would we do without accessing culture, even if restricted to the virtual space?
And well, it is that, and now you are in the Azores to do a performance.
JV – Yes, the Meridional theatre, which brings me to the next question about you, Miguel, as a performer, related to the performing arts: were you saying you wanted to deepen your relationship with the Portuguese spoken word? What you meant to say is that you have more and more will of exploring text theatre, or more will of making theatre in Portuguese? I did not understand exactly.
MN – I was saying that, at that time, when I was deciding between studying theatre here or outside, I thought about it, that I needed to deepen the relationship with my mother tongue in the performing arts.
JV – But do you still want to continue this work? Because you recently worked in three shows, performative experiences, theatrical, quite different. I would like to know if you feel like speaking about it.
MN – Yes, working with the Meridional Theatre. I was really surprised when I got the invitation from Miguel Seabra to work in the Teoria da Relatividade. It was a work in which we managed to immerse ourselves in a very special way. I think Meridional Theatre has an aura as a space that it is nourished by the people who ran the company, which are also very special, the way of building up the actor’s performance, in the very meaning of what it is a theatrical company. I had the fortune of being part of this project, of working with three actors I had never worked with before – Lígia Roque, Alfredo Brito and Emanuel Arada – and of doing a text that talked about an issue much spoken lately, which is the possibility of returning to a non-democratic political system that conditions our freedoms and rights. And it was up to me to be on the oppressor’s side, which is nothing new given my appearance (laughter), I will never be able to abandon this side, at least from a physiognomic point of view. I had this demanding task of discovering this character – a cop trying to restrict the freedom of a writer who had just written a book and was being accused of criticizing the Prime Minister. So, I was one of the inspectors who would go to her house and essentially tried to manipulate her into banning her from releasing that book. This manipulation had also some physical violence dimension. And they are all, were, difficult questions to work with, to find. Precisely, because they place ethical and moral questions on the table, in the body and the words. It was both a very emotionally deep and pleasurable work, but I felt insecure at each performance we did. I never quite knew how it would go. I didn’t quite know if I was enjoying performing it or not because there was always uncertainty lingering around.
And then at Guimarães, the Arquivo Presente de Guimarães, it was a very different project, which also stirred up some personal memories from the city itself, closely linked to a film I had done there. It was also a reunion beyond that memory, a reunion with a colleague from the conservatory who, nowadays, is performer and director, Rita Morais, and invited me to be this somewhat undefined character, if it was a man, if it was a cloud, if it was music. Therefore, it was very much an undefined body and very influenced by Raul Brandão’s literature, who was also from Guimarães. It was a very beautiful project that I really enjoyed doing too.
And that’s it. The project with André Uerba, the performance Um buraco do tamanho do teu toque, it was very, very what? (laughter). It was a project that brought memories of my body. It was a project entirely connected to the physical and non-verbal language, where the goal was to explore intimacy through the body, through the touch between performers and the interesting part is that the group joined people from different backgrounds, dance, theatre, cinema, someone from therapy who was a sex therapist. André assembled us to have us bring these backgrounds to the interior of a physical laboratory, in an attempt to discover and reveal touch relation among us, and that for me was big news. I spent four weeks of my life, many daily hours, paying close attention to my colleagues mainly through observation and touch. That ended up stirring many memories about my body, I told you then, which I didn’t even imagine were associated with that part of my body. That physical memory, that touch ‘spot’, intimacy, wordlessness, it was a big discovery, and a very different project from what I was used to doing. It was a challenge, but one I was very glad to take on.
JV – It is the thing about cellular memory, about cells having our memory. The body is very, very, intelligent, it stores information. The body does not forget. And that is very strong. Having the opportunity of doing an entire work around that subject is quite focused, different and specific.
You mentioned something interesting, which is the physical lab. It’s our job at heart. Sometimes more physical, sensorial, others more analytical, verbal, but always this continuous search. It is in this sense that I use the word courageous. Paraphrasing our teacher from the conservatory, “the courage of warming up the will to make yourself available to research”. We seek ourselves to try finding common denominators and things we expect that reach others and make them feel something. Deep down, it is as if we’re vehicles, we summon things, words, images, information, that through us reach the public. Hoping to grow, to communicate and transform something in people.
MN – It’s a laboratory, it’s a test tube, sometimes we are rats. We are everything.
JV – It is from this point of us being so many things and being available to this search, of this huge articulation we do, that I want to ask you from where does your desire to create and become a ‘maker’, to concretize not only from the inside but also from the outside, comes from? Do you feel compelled to explore other things, it comes from a story that you wish to tell, of enjoying being an observer?
MN – It comes from all these places, of the need of exploring stories I have yet not explored as a performer, for example, and which I can do not only as an actor but also as a director. It comes from the interest in knowing more about how to direct actors. It comes many times from being in a scene and while performing having the ability to observe and direct this scene more to here or to there and let ourselves be surprised with each other’s proposals. These encounters prompt me to want to experience if I can be on the directing side. Now, I know that this connection with the actors cannot be the only motivation to create stories. There is also a need for an aesthetic sense, a production sense that began with Anjo [short-film directed by Miguel Nunes in 2018] and which I am hoping will have continuity.
JV – You are with what, 33 years old?
MN – Yes, yes.
JV – Is there something in your life that you would like it to happen, to see it materialized, in your professional artistic life… Say, something, any area, that you would like to go deeper into?
MN – [laughter] She is doing the question because she knows. Yes, yes, music. It will come the time. First, I must learn an instrument and later on decide what to do about the music.
JV – You have a strong connection to music. With the playing and vocal apparatus, isn’t it?
MN – Yes, the relationship with the voice is stronger, comes from when I was a small child. Truthfully, I’ve enjoyed singing since childhood, very influenced by the fact that my mom and my uncles played and needed to be accompanied, so the thing wouldn’t get boring.
JV – Does your mother sing? At home, relaxed.
MN – Yes, yes, yes, yes.
JV – And your grandfather?
MN – Yes, he sang fado and sang at desgarrada. I believe this encounter with music will happen one way or another, at the right time or place, or maybe not.
JV – It doesn’t need to be something public. But it is an area that ends up being a personal tool for you, and that you would like to develop. From you to you. Then, we’ll stop here.
MN – Yes, yes.
JV – Mike, good dinner, see you soon.
MN – See you later. Good rest.
Video
Fashion
After a second collection, Ernest W. Baker was nominated for the 2018’s edition of the LVMH awards – that itself reveals a lot about the brand, created by the designers Reid Baker, from Detroit, and Inês Amorim, from Viana do Castelo. The name comes from Baker’s grandfather and the pieces could have been rescued from his very own closet, if being a publicist was as cool as it was back then.
I read, in one of your most recent interviews, that these past years of global uncertainty helped assess what matters the most to the brand and what it states. What did you conclude? What have you determined?
Since we started, Ernest W. Baker was built around the family’s idea, thinking about the people who walk beside us on this journey. With the pandemic, the brand focus became even more relevant. Our brand is a total representation of those who work alongside with us and of what we believe in – creating a universe and an authentic identity.
Ernest W. Baker establishes itself in a game of contrasts in which the traditional meets the contemporary, American icons flirt with the European sophistication, casual elements arise from the same harmony of timeless elegance. How would you define your aesthetics? And how do you find balance between these polarities?
Our aesthetics defines itself in the balance between those two contrasts. We built an aesthetic in which these two elements are linked and at the same time even out each other. We also used the rose as a very important symbol for us. The strong duo of the red and black, merged with the beige, brown and camel trio. The colors that fit us, and that we showcase in every collection. Timeless and classic cuts are also a part of our identity – with details focusing on cut, materials and shapes.
Your suits are highlighted on this edition of SOLO, particularly those who gather some “out of the box” elements like flare pants. In your opinion, what constitutes the perfect suit? How does one make space to modernize one of the most classic pieces of all fashion range?
We never grow up wearing suits so that provides perspective for the nature of a suit and allows us to have new ideas and outlooks, so that its construction flows. We enjoy working closely with the dressmaking and learn and reinterpret its traditions and unique past elements. That way we inspire the present and convert it into our future.
ERNEST W. BAKER AUTUMN/WINTER 2022
Photographer: Vladimir Kaminetsky
Places
The furies of the water vs. the human hand – one of Douro landmarks served as an open-air stage for the uncontrolled talent of Miguel Miguel. Carlos Prata, the architect responsible for the project that won first plane in an international competition, tells us about the work that ended in 2009 and has left its mark to this day.
You were born in Porto, where you have always lived. How do you feel about being able to participate and improve a place that is so familiar to you?
I never imagined that I would leave so many marks on my city’s territory. I only realized it after a while. As always, I worked persistently – followed by my daughter Catarina in recent cases or always in different times with my supporting crews - to accomplish the best we knew, taking advantage of what the circumstances could offer and enable us. Today, as I stroll in the city, I can’t stop thinking I fulfilled my social role with these civil works, paying respect to the multiple places where I built pleasant and enjoyable areas and structures that didn’t go far from the context, that were not mimicked.
About the Douro breakwaters project, how did this opportunity come up and what personal memories did you had from this place?
The Douro breakwaters project was developed on the scope of a creation/construction contest for a particular client: two building contractors – Somague and the Cavaco brothers. There was a time that just like that you could develop big public contracts. The responsibility of intervening with such an extended mold, in such a sensitive place that I always knew, that was my biggest challenge. Ruling over the sea, that’s what this was about, it could only be done with mortar, which is measured in tons. Taking the opportunity of expanding the city, making the mortar compatible with the South and the North’s natural landscape was not an easy task. Today, the altered place has already been taken by the city life. The respect for the old Felgueiras breakwater and the Passeio Alegre dues do not shout for past local memories, as it happens in many dissonant interventions in other parts of the city. Therefore, it is with great happiness that I see myself in this work.
What was the project’s main intention and in what way did you integrate it in your work?
We achieved what was objectively expected with this project – safe navigation on the Douro River barrier and protection of its margins from the waters’ wrath. Subjects that no one speaks of anymore, which is a good sign. And then, that this project would respect the location, a much difficult subject. That’s why the ideas are so different. To South a highlighted breakwater – an island apart from the Cabedelo’s beach – at the lowest level possible so we can see the infinite horizontal view from Passeio Alegre with no restriction. To North, a vertical construction with a sequence of rebounds studied to better blow the waves energy.
Playing the superior part on this large construction, a public promenade that snatches the sea more space for the city, allowing it to be seen from angles once only witnessed by sailors. A public promenade delimitated by continuous benches on both sides – composed by reclining areas facing South – and incidents that establish references in the long linear path. One of them serves as warning for the reckless ones – when the sea is troubled and reaches the breakwater it means the tide is rising so it’s not prudent to continue the path.
Besides the corridor, a restaurant and an interior gallery were imagined. In what way did this project improve urban life?
A low jetty will be systematically leaped by the sea, making it fade away in times of major storms. Since it’s necessary to access the beacon with no restrictions, a covered gallery was built along the entire length of the jetty, so we’d have access through there. This need enabled the gallery’s creation as a recreational place which we called “trip to the center of the storm”. Being able to access the beacon would make us feel as if we were on the high seas right in the middle of a storm. On the jetty’s rooting there was also the opportunity to create a space for a restaurant directly under the jetty, facing South. Unfortunately, the equipments that the city could use were in much need of some winter protection intervention, especially when coupling the biggest river flow with the agitated sea south waves, which doesn’t allow the river to flow and causes the water level to rise. The lack of preservation, the disregard of those responsible for the jetty’s management, led to the complete degradation of these spaces, having been closed and confined.
What is still to improve in Porto? Eventually what project would you still love to embrace some day?
Porto’s city uses reduced territory, but it is a very dynamic metropolitan center area. I’ve been defending that Porto lacks density and I don’t really know any city in the world, with high specific importance, that lacks density. Hesitantly, the city hall current administration – which is the best thing that happened to our city – developed a municipal directive plan (PDM) and this major focus can be seen in multiple strategic locations. In my opinion, much more will be needed. I hope someday I can see several of my developed city projects accomplished. Like in Fernando Gomes presidency time, they installed conveyor belts on the 31 de Janeiro Street, to boost the local business. Also, already under that city hall administration, reorganizing the urban space between Praça do Império and Boavista Avenue in a public contest was intended, but never pursued. Nevertheless, and as usual I am available to take care of other matters, from the urban scale – like the territory rehabilitation which will be unbalanced with the coming of the new metro bridge – to the redesign of an urban space destined for people, no matter how minor the intervention.
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