Juliana Paes’ popularity in Brazil has been sustained by more than two decades of recognized quality work, navigating between drama, comedy, and even action. Always accessible and friendly, Juliana has achieved a rare and envied status among many artists: she is the audience leader on the main platforms of the moment: Globoplay, Netflix, and Disney Plus, where she is the main star of a soap opera (Renascer) and two series (Pedaço de Mim and Vidas Bandidas).

On a yacht in Marina da Glória, in Rio de Janeiro, the cast of the series gathered to celebrate the premiere and talk to the press, with contagious happiness and pride in the result that has been on the platform since August 21. When I ask her about the current positive moment in her career, Juliana reflects calmly and with her feet on the ground, without forgetting the hard work that put her in the most-watched series on Netflix (world!) in the middle of the year and now with the great highlight and expectation of Vidas Bandidas on Disney Plus.

“2024 is a year eight, right? A good thing and it forms the symbol of infinity, people!”, she jokes with me in a new exclusive chat with CLAUDIA, accepting my suggestion that 2024 is ‘Juliana’s year’. “I’m very happy because it’s really being a year of harvest. Because last year was very intense! I started preparing for Pedaço de Mim, I had a little time [to breathe] before Renascer. I did one thing after another, the feeling that – of course, the year isn’t over yet – but of fulfillment, of joy. It’s not always that we have so many works with such a positive repercussion and so close to each other, these close emotions. It’s so good. It’s very rewarding, very rewarding,” she agrees.

Surrounded by her castmates, especially actress Larissa Bocchino, who plays her sister in Vidas Bandidas, Juliana – who was on the cover of CLAUDIA in July – is all affection and friendliness. Taking care of Larissa just as Bruna, her character, does with Lara (played by Larissa), she makes sure to help her when the wind gets in the way of the photos and the interview, personally taking care of putting in hairpins to avoid the elements. Exactly what we see Bruna doing with Lara, except that the scene I witnessed wasn’t in the script.

“We were already talking a little before that we did a very symbolic preparation because I didn’t know Ju and Maria Silva, who is our casting director, did a dynamic where I had to arrive blindfolded and meet Ju without seeing her,” commented Larissa. “And the first time I hugged Ju I cried a lot,” she recalls, without realizing that the one who gets teary-eyed at the confession is Juliana herself. “I only knew her from television and I always admired her. I thought ‘It’s Juliana Paes, I’m going to work with her’ and I hugged her out of nowhere and started crying a lot, thinking ‘What am I going through today!’ and I was very happy,” she reveals.

“It was a great idea because we really use the physical tool to feel, to connect, and the first point of connection needs to be this touch. Looking into each other’s eyes and seeing the past, seeing stories that we lived, that we didn’t actually live [laughs], but that we created as memories,” Juliana added. “It’s important because the bond between these sisters is what justifies Bruna’s dramaturgy,” she says, taking care not to reveal too many secrets.

The series, which at first glance could be “just another one” about the criminal world of Rio de Janeiro, is more than that. With lots of action and drama, it is, in fact, a story marked by greed and revenge, with a less explored Rio de Janeiro (in Guanabara Bay, at Cais do Porto and beaches outside the city), in a tangle of violent and tragic relationships. Bruna is the criminal leader of a gang that robs tourists and manages a floating casino but is betrayed by Serginho (Rodrigo Simas) and Raimundo (Thomás Aquino), in a twist that changes everyone’s lives forever.

“Even for the characters who are not exactly involved in this game of one deceiving the other, revenge splashes into their stories, right? Like in the case of Marina, who ends up experiencing this reckoning firsthand with her whole life turned upside down”, comments Larissa Nunes, who plays Raimundo’s ex-girlfriend, currently deceived by Serginho.

“In fact, it is clear to Raimundo that his arc is going to the maximum, but he has a character that, no matter how many times he takes the wrong path, committing crimes, trying shortcuts to earn money to be happy with his girlfriend and, who knows, start a family, you see that he returns to this character at the end of the chapters. However, does this end this desire for revenge? I think that is the point”, comments Thomás.

The only one who stays quiet is Rodrigo, whose character is openly antagonistic and irresponsible.

“I can defend Serginho, but he really has to make very difficult choices, right? With very difficult consequences too”, he jokes with his companions, pretending to be surprised at speaking well of the villain who destroys everyone’s lives. “In his mind, the important thing is to have money, travel, and live life, but he keeps falling over himself all over the place”.

Is that what they say? Is playing a villain more fun?

“It’s really enjoyable”, Rodrigo confirms. “Because that’s it, we get to play in a place where we don’t have to defend the character all the time. It’s more fun, it’s more enjoyable. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not good to play several good guys, and several non-bad guys, too. They’re challenges and each project is different, but I was very happy to play and experience Serginho”, he confirms.

In this universe of empathetic antagonists, Juliana Paes has experience before Bruna, playing the unforgettable Bibi Perigosa, from the soap opera A Força do Querer. She understands that at first they may be considered variations of the same scenario, but she warns about the differences.

“They are totally different, their motivations are different. Maybe the aesthetics are a little similar when you see a woman holding a gun, right?”, she comments. “They arrived at this crime scene in a very different way. Bibi was thrown, almost a victim of a criminal husband who threw her into that big trap and she entered with a lot of guilt, but also with a lot of responsibility. Bruna didn’t, she created this empire. What caught my attention the most in the script and in the character has to do with this place of a woman in a position of power. I found it interesting, I liked seeing a woman, even within the world of crime, in a position of power, coordinating, giving orders, leading men, and instilling fear. It was fun to do, it was enjoyable. It was enjoyable to beat that security guard up, to hit him over the head with a screwdriver”, she laughed, remembering the scenes where Bruna resorts to violence.

Without revealing any spoilers, although it is about Revenge, Vidas Bandidas may surprise you.

“What is revenge? What moves us to seek revenge? As human beings, on this plane, on this earth, how can we free ourselves from revenge? Because hope is there. Having the wisdom to deal with our mistakes, our defects, is something else,” reflects Thomás. “How can we forgive ourselves, forgive others. It is difficult and I speak here because I have tried this exercise. How can we take a deep breath? How can we talk? How can we listen? There is hope,” he suggests.

And Juliana reinforces.

“What matters is that the audience embraces this perspective, which ultimately begins with a great betrayal, with everyone wanting to get ahead and, in the end, we see where it ends,” she warns.

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