From the way he lines up upcoming projects, one would think Selton Mello has 72 hours in the day. But the crunched-up schedule is a joy, not a burden, to the Brazilian actor, who is hungry to capitalize on the continuous momentum of Walter Salles’s Oscar-winning “I’m Still Here.”
Currently undergoing a period of many firsts in his decades-long career — having just starred in his first big Hollywood production alongside Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Tom Gormican’s “Anaconda” and acting in French for the first time in João Paulo Miranda Maria’s “I Don’t Even Know Who I Was” — the actor is now gearing up to experience his first-ever Cannes with Dominga Sotomayor’s “La Perra,’ also his first-ever film in Spanish.
“I am allowing things to happen and keeping the door wide open,” he tells Variety. “After ‘I’m Still Here,’ I could have lined up several projects in Brazil that would block my time for a while, but I don’t want to do that. I want to have the chance to jump on other projects and undergo new experiences and witness new ways of working.”
Attending the Oscars fulfilled one of Mello’s lifelong dreams, one that felt impossible for many years. Now readying himself to attend Cannes, the actor feels that same childlike spark of excitement. “I have a 40-year-old career, I’ve acted in dozens of films and directed three and have never been to Cannes, which is such a curious thing. I am so, so excited to be there. I feel like a child headed to the amusement park because all my idols have been to Cannes. I have never walked the red carpet, never been to the Palais, and I have no idea what it will feel like. I’m experiencing a lot of first times and loving every minute of it.”
