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One of the most lauded authors in the history of the Brazilian telenovela, Aguinaldo Silva is responsible for iconic works such as “Tieta,” “Everything Goes” and “Her Own Destiny,” having penned some of the most infamous villains in the catalogue of Brazil’s media giant Globo. Silva has recently returned to the broadcaster’s prestigious primetime slot with “Three Graces,” seven years after retirement rumors swirled following “O Sétimo Guardião.”
Globo is launching “Three Graces” internationally at Content Americas this week, cleverly rolling off the great momentum the novela is having in its home country. Starring a roster of Brazil’s most popular names, including Sophie Charlotte (“All the Flowers”), Murillo Benício (“Brazil Avenue”) and Grazi Massafera (“Hidden Truths”), “Three Graces” tells the story of Charlotte’s blue-collar heroine Gerluce, a woman who tried her hardest to stop her teenage daughter Joélly (Alana Cabral) from repeating a pattern followed by generations of the Das Graças family: teenage pregnancy succeeded by single motherhood.
“Three Graces” was sold in Brazil as Globo’s return to the “novelão,” “big novela” in literal translation. The concept doubles down on what is arguably the greatest strength of the genre: its undisputed penchant for melodrama. Who better to spearhead such a campaign than Silva, who, more than once, stopped the entire country to watch a villain’s unabashedly camp reckoning?
Speaking with Variety ahead of Content Americas, Silva emphasizes how the novela possesses “an unchangeable language.” “It’s a genre that relies less on action than emotion, and emotion is something that happens within characters. It’s been the same since Charles Dickens wrote his novels in England and distributed them one by one. It’s the narrative of a hero towards knowledge. ‘Three Graces’ is purposefully structured as a dose of melodrama shot straight into the vein.”
With a career spanning four decades, Silva has seen many changes in the industry. Today, he highlights the difficulties of capturing the attention of increasingly sparse audiences accustomed to the speed of the digital world. “How can we tell a story that unravels across 170 45-minute episodes at a time when audiences are used to watching everything they want in under three minutes? The novela has its own time and, increasingly, audiences have theirs. The only option is to double down on the essence of melodrama and the emotion that moves the story forward.”
The inspiration for “Three Graces” came from a visit Silva paid to a maternity ward during research for “Duas Caras.” “Pregnant women were lined up in a long queue,” he recalls. “Most of them were teenagers. That touched me, even more so because the majority were either alone or accompanied by other women. Those were girls who were becoming single mothers. That image stayed with me for years.”
The author credits his return to the 9 PM slot to “a terrible vice.” “I couldn’t see myself as retired. I continued to invent stories that I would only tell myself. Then, one day, I thought: why not return to action? Working is when I have the most fun.”
Despite the “fun” of writing a telenovela, the nature of the open work is challenging to any author. Brazilian telenovelas are written concurrently with exhibition, with the audience’s reaction often directly influencing the future of the characters. Silva jokingly credits his “lack of danger awareness” for his attraction to an open work. “Writing a novela is like throwing yourself from the trapeze while knowing there is no one there to catch you when you fall. When it comes to a 9 p.m. novela in Brazil, there are more than 60 million people watching every week. For an author, it is pure magic when they can win the hearts and minds of all these people.”
18-year-old Alana Cabral is experiencing this magic firsthand. The newcomer recognizes the weight of playing the lead role in a primetime Aguinaldo Silva novela so early in her career, stating that it has made her “grow” immensely in a short period. “I was already very familiar with [Silva’s] work and always admired the strength of his female characters. To be center stage in one of his stories so early in my career demands a lot of artistic and emotional maturity. I couldn’t be happier.”
Veteran Dira Paes (“Pantanal”), who plays Joélly’s grandmother Lígia, echoes that sense of responsibility, saying that novelas are in “direct conversation” with Brazil. Paes calls “Three Graces” a gift from Silva, praising how the story touches upon themes of generational trauma that speak to universal pains. “It allows the audience to become your accomplices because everyone has a similar story in their lives.”
Paes reiterates she is in “a great moment” in her renowned four-decade career. On top of “Three Graces,” the actor has also recently starred in Marianna Brennand’s Sean Penn-backed “Manas,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 and kept a strong momentum that even challenged Kleber Mendonça Filho’s chances at the International Film Oscar with “The Secret Agent.” “Brazilian cinema deserves this recognition,” says Paes. “We have a cinema that goes beyond borders despite being spoken in Portuguese. It’s a global phenomenon.”
“I come from cinema, and I am immensely proud of Brazilian cinema and Brazilian filmmakers,” the “Divine Love” actor adds. “It’s a work of great artistry that manages to cross borders with the strength of its identity and cultural roots. We are living in a truly special moment for the consolidation of Brazilian cinema internationally. I feel inspired, and I think it’s time to go beyond our language and start working on international co-productions. I feel this is the next step.”
Silva is also “immensely” proud of Brazilian cinema, but reiterates that “we can’t forget that Brazilian novelas have also earned the world’s attention.” “Within the audiovisual sector, Brazilian cinema and television have their own rhythms, but they walk together.”
English (US) ·