Paulo José, still one of the main figures in Brazil's film industry at 77, said in an interview with Efe that he had no plans to leave the stage despite a two-decade battle with Parkinson's disease. The actor has had a long career in television, but he said his two strongest passions have always been movies and theater. Paulo Jose spoke with Efe after being honored at the Vitoria Film Festival. "Those are the fields I like best," he said. "I never had anything against television for being a product for the masses. I have worked a lot in TV, but movies and theater have something that is missing in television."
Paulo José was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1992 and his speech has been affected, but that did not prevent him from joining the cast of the "In Family" soap opera running on Brazil's largest TV network, playing, what else, a Parkinson's patient. The disease has also diminished Paulo José's motor abilities, but it has not affected his intellectual capacity, something he showed during the interview by speaking in flawless Spanish, a language he learned from his Santander-born mother. Paulo José Gomez de Sousa's acting career, spanning over half a century, got a boost with his role as the white mother in "Macunaima," a landmark of the Cinema Novo and its focus on Brazil's social issues.
The actor, whose debut on the silver screen came in 1965 with "O Padre e a Moça," recalled the hard times for artists under the 1965-1985 military dictatorship. Since then, Paulo José has had roles in 43 movies and 18 theater productions, has directed 25 plays and has worked with some of Brazil's leading filmmakers of the past few decades, such as Glauber Rocha and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade.
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