“It’s always like this, I do a 45minute interview and the 15 seconds where I talk about sex becomes the headline of the article and goes viral,” says Deborah Secco in one of the two conversations we covered last month Zoom led.
The consultant had promised an hourlong interview and exclusive photos illustrating the article, but it is rare to see a full hour in the schedule of the actress, who stars in two works the 6 p.m. soap opera on Globo, “Elas por Elas.” , and the series “Codex 632” available on Globoplay and takes intensive care of the four companies in which she is a partner, a sevenyearold daughter and herself.
“I don’t mind talking more about my personal life than my work,” he says. “Talking about sex helps you have more sex.” At the end of the second conversation, he was more relaxed about his thoughts. “I like talking and I like sex. But this curiosity surprises me. Guys, it’s 2023, seriously, is it still controversial to talk about sex?”
“It’s high time we told this bunch of grown men that we’ve been pretending all along, yes, but that this trouble is over. Now you have to make an effort,” she says goodnaturedly and continues to talk on the cell phone, with her robe and cap in her hair.
Relaxed, the 43yearold actress seems to have reached a moment in her life, achieved through hard work, mistakes and successes, where she does and says whatever she wants.
“I started acting very early, at the age of eight, because I was very insistent. I was tired of hearing that I had talent but I would never play the lead because I wasn’t pretty. Then I did the soap opera.” “Suave Veneno” and I became beautiful in the eyes of the public without anyone telling me. It was crazy,” he says.
The 1999 soap opera was written by Aguinaldo Silva and Secco played a supporting character, Marina, a “Kick Mary” a term common at the time to refer to women who dated soccer players.
He was 18 years old and became a sex symbol. That same year, she posed for Playboy for the first time, which landed her on the cover of the magazine’s 24th anniversary issue. “I did it for money,” says the actress. “I gathered my family and said I had received the offer. Back then, Playboy’s fees were very high, we needed the money and I had no idea how long this adventure of being an actress would last. My mother said, ‘I pray.’ that your career is going well, but for actresses who start working at such a young age, it is very difficult to continue in this profession. This could be their last chance.’ So I said yes.”
The edition was a sales record. So much so that the magazine repeated the invitation three years later for an even higher fee and accepted Secco again for the same reason. It was once again the magazine’s anniversary and once again she was naked, the socalled gift to the readers.
Between one issue and the next, the artist took control of what the audience saw in her, but she still didn’t understand it. “I had to run after it because in people’s eyes I became something that had nothing to do with me.”
Having been in therapy since age 12, she took charge of her sexuality both in the office and in life, becoming interested in both how to arouse desire in others and in figuring out what interested her sexually.
“To this day, I don’t really believe in the idea that I’m a beautiful woman. I think I’m much more interesting than pretty. I can talk well, I have a lot of stories to tell, a life experience that only a few people have,” she says. “And I am free, independent, that is much more seductive than my beauty. But I take full advantage of people’s perception that I’m not stupid or anything.”
The two are married for the third time to the 33yearold photographer and model Hugo Moura from Bahia and are parents to sevenyearold Maria Flor. At 35, motherhood entered Secco’s life, taking the actress out of the place she had occupied since birth: the center of attention.
“Being a mother is a very conflicting experience because my desire is to protect my daughter from everything. I want her to never be cheated on, never lose her job, never have a conflict. But if I do that, how will she grow up?” she asks, as if to herself.
The arrival of Maria Flor also caused Secco to think more seriously about the future. “I have lived with death since I was a child because I lost my older sister very early, she was five years old,” he says.
She has been contracted to TV Globo since 1993 and says she is closely monitoring the company’s move to end long contracts with the house’s actors. Therefore, he began to diversify his professional areas of interest.
“Today I am a partner in four companies. And I employ a lot of people, a lot of people in my family work for me, so I have to take responsibility, I can’t enter into a partnership and not know what’s going on,” he says. “People around me say I could stop working now, but I don’t think about it at all.”
It’s not hard to prove this theory as the actress is currently seen in no less than three different Globo Group products. On television, she records the soap opera “Elas Por Elas”, in which she embodies the widow Lara, who discovers that she has been cheated on and hires the private detective Mário Fofoca, played by Lázaro Ramos, to find out the identity of her dead husband.
At the same time, he is recording the second season of the series “Rensga Hits!”, which is set in the world of women and premiered on Globoplay in 2022. It had such good ratings that it was added to TV Globo’s schedule in August of this year, when the second season was announced. Season currently being recorded. The actress is businesswoman Marlene, owner of the production company that gives the show its name.
And there is the drama series “Codex 632”, which is now available in six episodes on Globoplay. This was his first work created outside of Brazil and recorded in Portugal. The actress plays Constança, an embittered woman, mother of a child with Down syndrome and wife of Tomás, the character played by Portuguese actor Paulo Pires.
“I never dreamed of living outside of Brazil or having an international career, but spending two months in Portugal with Maria was incredible,” he says. “It made me want to try new things. Not now, because my daughter needs me here, active professionally, at least for the next ten or twelve years. But after that, she might want to study abroad, and I want to stay free so I can accompany her if she wants. I want to be a mother to them like I did.
Secco’s mother, Silvia Regina Fialho, was the first person to believe that her daughter’s obsession with becoming an actress deserved attention. “I spent every afternoon calling the phones of Angélica and Xuxa’s programs,” he says. “But it just went to voicemail.”
“One day a girl from TV Manchete answered and asked if I wanted to talk to the production team and I said no, I wanted to be an actress. She referred me to a casting producer who asked to speak to my mother. I said, “No, she couldn’t know. But she convinced me, I called my mother and she convinced my mother to let me take a test. But nothing came of it.”
However, Fialho decided to pay to see how far the girl’s wish went. She looked for an actor friend who recommended a production company to her, and after about a year and a half of trying to get into acting, the young woman passed an audition for a commercial. He was eight years old and never stopped acting.
“I think there’s that calling, right? I don’t know it. There is no other explanation.”