Nina Morena at the Drag Taste Show in Lisbon
Photo: Zoe Dorey/Disclosure
Brazilian actress Nina Morena revealed that “the dream job turned into a nightmare”. She took part in Drag Taste in Lisbon and when she landed the role of Ms. Complicated, the daughter of writer Nelson Motta and actress Marília Pêra, according to Jornal O Globo, little did he know the show was going to be so complicated.
The service contract emailed to Nina Morena by the company called for a sixmonth tenure with a monthly fee of €1,000 (R$5,400). To reach that number would require 32 shows per month with a flat fee of €32.25 (R$175).
According to the actress, the first problem was the cancellation of most appointments by the project’s creator and founder of the brand, Pedro Pico, which greatly reduced payments. “He canceled because he was drunk and causing problems. But he always had an audience because he is talented but has a bad character. So much so that there are numerous complaints from people with no refunds and employees with no pay. He started curling up,” Morena told the newspaper.
In July she fell ill with Covid19 and was away for a week. During this time, Pico disappeared without leaving any news and she received a call from production to replace him at the scene. “The eve of my return they said he was missing and asked if I could play him. It was a god help us because I’m not a drag queen and I’m coming out of Covid. It was difficult, but one night I made it. I just didn’t feel safe doing it the way they wanted the second time around,” he said.
Morena says that when Pico found out about the episode, he called her drunk and said horrible things, accusing her of “sinking the taste for drag.” “The next day I was acting my role and he called me, calling me a bitch, manipulating me and saying that I was responsible for destroying everything and putting everyone out of a job. It was hard and I was depressed for three months, unable to work while he closed Drag Taste and left thirty unemployed with no pay,” she said.
She remembers that she did a few shows and that the sum total of the unit price per performance was €62.5 short. “My score was low because I was supposed to do shows Friday through Sunday that got canceled. And he paid the rest. But it’s not because of the money, it’s because he just didn’t pay me because he thought I was a whore and I didn’t have to pay,” the actress said.
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