Brazilian superstar Cauã Reymond may have spent this week at the world premiere of Globo soccer series The Playoffs, but he revealed in the Deadline Studio at SXSW London that he’s not much of a fan.
The actor and martial artist instead deferred to The Playoffs director Bruno Safadi for his verdict on whether Brazil can win the World Cup this summer.
“I think it will be difficult,” Safadi told our studio. “Brazil is not in a good moment, but we don’t know, 1994 we were in a bad moment, and we won the World Cup, so you never know. The World Cup is the World Cup.”
Reymond and Safadi joined us to talk about The Playoffs, exploring the behind-the-scenes realities of professional soccer. The narrative tracks Maurício (Reymond), a retired player striving to establish a new career as an agent in the aggressive football business while managing industry rivalries, family tensions, and the legacy of his past disappointments.
He may not be a soccer fan, but Reymond was fascinated by the “backstage” of the sport.
“I wanted to talk about prostitution behind the lines,” he added. “I wanted to talk about homosexuality, about players involved in bad scandals and about how players have a hard time after their career is over. So I was kind of a detective.”
Reymond did plenty of research, speaking to old players, coaches and PRs although he was careful not to reveal who to Deadline. The series is very much inspired by real events but only inspired, and Reymond stressed that it is fictional.
Safadi, who has directed a number of huge Brazilian productions, said he was motivated to shoot the actual soccer scenes in a realistic way.
“I love football, I follow football, and I think it’s very difficult to shoot scenes of soccer,” he added. “We don’t have many good examples of football scenes in drama.”
In order to make things as realistic as possible, he combined documentary scenes with crowd shots and cut to plenty of close-ups. He was also pleasantly surprised that the actors were good enough to pass themselves off as real players.
The team were happy to have their world premiere at SXSW in London and said England has a real connection with The Playoffs.
The pair are enthused to have a premiere at a major event and think now is a time that Brazilian stories, like Oscar nominee The Secret Agent, are having a moment. Safadi said the success of Brazilian movies can extend to the small screen.
“The languages are very close to each other,” he added. “So cinema 10 years ago, 20 years ago, was in a very different place than television was, and now with the streaming, with the talent, these borders are blurring. The talents of cinema is doing television and the talent of television is doing cinema.”
Reymond added that “the audience is now prepared to watch things with subtitles” and there is a “certain curiosity about our work.”
