by “At the height of the health crisis caused by the coronavirus, I did not read a single novel. She was tense, lacking concentration. I found an escape in the poems, ”says gaúcha Silvia Pfeifer. Based in Rio de Janeiro, the actress who is currently filming on Globo with the third revival of O Rei do Gado (a soap opera which, since her return, has earned her 200,000 new followers on Instagram) has made such an escape the coup sending a new professional design. Last August, at the age of 64, Silvia made her radio debut. Her program Sons&Poesia, presented on BPMRadio Brasil, mixes music of different rhythms with texts by Cecília Meireles , Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Mario Quintana, recited by her. Multi-talented, this is not the first time that she has experimented or made the transition to an artistic career. Before her more than three decades in Brazilian television series, Silvia had a successful trajectory on the catwalks and was one of the most famous models in the country.
The daughter of a civil engineer, she moved from Porto Alegre to Rio in the 1960s, and encountered fashion there by chance. “In my last year of high school, I was very attached to two girls, and one of them encouraged me to accompany her on a modeling course. I was a volleyball player and I thought I was tall, clumsy. It was my chance to gain some finesse,” he laughs. Disciplined, the 1.81 meter gaucho ended up excelling in the classes and was summoned by the teacher to be selected for a Duloren fashion show. “I thought I was clumsy, but sport gave me body awareness. I also practiced classical ballet as a child. Silvia won the spot on the show and the doors opened a “I even suspended my law studies for lack of time. Afterwards, I tried to take the social communication course again, but the pace of work made it impossible for me.”
Renowned in Brazil, she left to try her luck on the other side of the Atlantic in the early 1980s. The scenario did not go as planned. “In Europe, I looked for an agency recommended by former model Betty Lago (1955-2015). It didn’t work for a number of reasons, but I learned the lesson. I redid my book and went looking for new reps. The return to Paris, the following season, in 1982, was triumphant: I did 14 shows, including Dior and Chanel. What more could I want? Afterwards, Giorgio Armani, in Italy, fell in love with me and cast me for almost everything except the campaign,” he recalls.
With the birth of her first daughter, Emanuella, in 1985, the gaúcha, already married to businessman Nelson Chamma Filho, decided to try her hand at acting. She prepared for two months with the director Bia Lessa to participate in the film A Grande Arte, by Walter Salles, but was dismissed at the last moment, thus postponing her film debut. Frustrated, she tries to break into the American market. “I actually went to drown my sorrows,” he jokes. “I traveled a lot in New York until I realized my baby was in Brazil; and me there, going up and down these avenues. I returned. As soon as I got home, I got a call from my US team saying that Carolina Herrera and Bill Blass wanted to work with me. But I had already turned the key.
A candid conversation with Bia about the situation put her back in the game. He left his material in the direction of Rede Globo and began rehearsing the play Orlando, based on the book by British writer Virginia Woolf. “In 1990, a few weeks before the premiere of the show, television called me to star in the mini-series Boca do Lixo. The theatrical production was by Bia and I explained the situation, that I should give up Orlando to play in the mini-series. She was very kind, understanding. It would not be possible to reconcile the two worlds. At that time, I opted for teledramaturgy. Critics came quickly and I was I agreed with them. They were proportional to the size of the role they gave me,” she recalls, starring in soap operas such as Perigosas Peruas, Alto Astral and O Rei do Gado.
Last year, Silvia returned to the catwalks to walk for Neriage at São Paulo Fashion Week. “I have always had great admiration for Silvia, symbol of seriousness and professionalism, and owner of timeless elegance”, says stylist Rafaella Caniello. From her modeling days, Silvia still carries, in addition to her height, a taste for a more streamlined and minimalist aesthetic, citing stylists Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein and Issey Miyake. “But I consider myself a basic woman, who likes a T-shirt, a shirt and jeans.”
At just 65 years old, Silvia, who separated in 2020, after almost four decades of marriage, confides that over time, wisdom has come to “not put the cart before the horse”. “Today, I can assess and prioritize what matters. I am able to solve cases calmly. I was anxious and I tried to settle everything for yesterday, to avoid any form of suffering”, says – she, who values very parsimoniously the interventions on the body and the face. “Sometimes a wrinkle is so much more beautiful than completely stretched skin. For us actors, it’s important to show our age a bit, not to lose movement and expression. Obviously, I felt butterflies in my stomach with all these changes. I’ve worked all my life with beauty, but it took leaving the place of perfection to fall into the real world. And I can’t be the same woman I was 15 years ago. years.
Photos: Pedro Miceli
Styling: Juliana De Paiva
Photo assistant: Daniel Sulima
Beauty: Fox Goulart
