AUSTRALIA is about to get a major boost in its spunkiness factor. Brazilian actor Alice (pronounced Ah-lease-ee) Braga - who has held her own opposite Will Smith, Jodie Foster and Matt Damon - is headed this way next month to star in Kriv Stenders' new thriller, Kill Me Three Times.
Braga has been attached to the movie for some time - long before Simon Pegg's casting was announced in May - but when Hit spoke to the spunky 30-year-old in April, she hadn't heard much on it for a while.
"If it does happen, I'm excited. I have to learn how to surf, which is going to be awesome," Braga says. "I love Australia. You guys do amazing films. My sister lived there for five years. I would love to work there."
Prior to hitting the waves in WA, Braga was in Argentina making a film with Gael Garcia Bernal: "The director calls it a western in the middle of a jungle. It's a very intense film."
And before that, she was in one of the world's largest rubbish dumps in Mexico City shooting Elysium, the new sci-fi flick from District 9 director Neil Blomkamp.
Though she laughs at the memory of co-star Matt Damon getting covered in poo on location, she believes the tip brought a realness to Elysium.
"The massive difference shooting in places like that is the whole crew gets not the point of view from outside, but inside. Like, the guys embraced getting real s--- on the face!
"It brings to the audience how real it is. It's not a set made in Vancouver trying to match up with Mexico City."
Braga plays a nurse in the film, which imagines what Earth would be like if the super-rich (led by Jodie Foster) lived in a utopian space station called Elysium, leaving the ruined planet below to the poor.
She treats the hero of the tale, Max (Damon), and has her own reasons for wanting to escape to Elysium.
Braga, who shot to fame in her homeland a decade ago with City of God, fought for the role by emailing Blomkamp at least "100 times ... He must (have thought) I was really annoying!"
Braga has done the tough action/sci-fi chick thing before, not lease alongside Will Smith in I Am Legend.
"When you do action films it's fun because you're always running and shooting and shouting and desperation. And Elysium of course has all of it," she says. "But this character is different because I don't hold a gun, I'm the girlie girl in the film.
"I really love this character because she really represents our young people in the slums nowadays, how they don't have many opportunities in life, how hard they have to fight to get their dreams to become true."
Braga had similarly strong female role models growing up in Sao Paulo. Her aunt, Sonia Braga, is a legend of the acting trade in Brazil and beyond.
"Sonia was an inspiration not only for me but for many actresses in Brazil - she was a phenomenon," says Braga.
But it was Braga's mother, Ana, also an actor, who really got the kid hooked - Braga's first professional gig came at eight, doing a commercial with her mother's friends.
Braga says her mum still offers a guiding hand.
"Every time I jump on a plane, before I go do a film, we always have the same talk, it's almost like a prayer: 'Do it with soul, do it with passion, believe it, because if you believe it, everyone's gonna believe it.' I hope it works."
ELYSIUM OPENS TODAY
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