Thalita Rebouças is a Brazilian journalist, writer,reporter and presenter. She has written several books, mostly aiming at a teen audience. One of her most popular works is Confissões de uma garota excluída (Confessions of an Invisible Girl), and she is also one of the screenwriters for the movie-of the same name-based on the book. She talks about working with Klara Castanho, similarities between the book and movie, challenges in writing a teen drama and several other things.
Q. What are your thoughts on the final cut of the movie?
Thalita Rebouças: I found the final cut amazing! I actually liked the film since the first cut. I’m very happy with the result.
Q. How similar is the movie to the book? What are the changes made, if any?
Thalita Rebouças: The film is extremely faithful to the book. We just changed very small things, but the essence of the story is all there: exclusion, bullying, excluded people coming together… I’m really happy!
Q. What is the major difference between writing a book and writing a screenplay?
Thalita Rebouças: Biggest difference between writing a book and a screenplay is that the sky’s the limit, you know? I really love writing, books are the things I love to write the most. Script has a thousand time limitations, a thousand little rules that I have been learning little by little in practice.
Q. As a writer, is it harder to make characters like Tetê relatable or likeable? Do you feel like those two traits overlap?
Thalita Rebouças: No, it’s too easy. What I like most as a writer is actually making people up. I think I’m good at inventing characters. Since the beginning of my career, readers identify a lot with them. I think they are very real indeed. I try to create people who are easy to identify, people who could be readers, relatives, neighbors, friends.
Q. What is the most challenging task while writing a teenage drama?
Thalita Rebouças: Perhaps the biggest challenge is that it is a very critical audience, so I feel very privileged that in twenty-one years they have never given up on me. The challenge is to make them not feel like they are in a class. As I always say that in my stories, I don’t want to say what is right or wrong, I like that they read and draw their conclusions. Teenagers don’t like to feel judged, to think that between the lines I’m being that boring adult.
Q. With a genre as popular as teenage drama-comedy, what do you think makes ‘Confessions of an Invisible Girl’ unique?
Thalita Rebouças: I never stopped writing and saying anything because they said “Ah, but they’ve talked about mother and daughter so many times”, “Ah, but they’ve already talked about bullying”. I just do it, it’s fascinating to tell a story. And I think what makes Confessions so unique is the grandparents thing, the family, the perception of the world of a girl with the eyes of the grandparents, the welcoming of the grandparents. This whole series of books has very important grandparents, as mine were in my life.
Q. Klara Castanho has starred in quite a few movies that you’ve worked on. Is that but a coincidence?
Thalita Rebouças: Klara is a person I know and admire since she debuted on TV. I’ve always wanted to work with her, then she was my reader and we bumped! Anyway, she has already been in two of my movies, and for me, Tetê has always been Klara. Also, she is the one who narrated the audiobook too.
Q. What aspect of the storyline do you think will resonate most with the audience?
Thalita Rebouças: I think the audience will identify with everything! Everyone knows someone who has been bullied, everyone has looked in a mirror with a magnifying glass for defects, everyone has felt bad about their appearance for some reason in life. It’s a very beautiful movie, it’s about friendship, family and I think everyone will relate to that.
Q. With how the story ended, are there chances for a sequel?
Thalita Rebouças: And the movie, yes, I hope it gets a sequel. I have two already published, the book “Confessions of a shy, nerd (slightly in love) boy” and “Confessions of a beautiful, popular and (secretly unhappy) girl”. And I just sent the publisher the “Confessions of a Smart, Glittering, and Intimately Discriminated Kid”. It’s Zeca’s book to close the tetralogy and I hope it works out because they are really cool stories!
The Movie Culture Synopsis
Confessions of An Invisible Girl is a teenage drama movie following the social dilemmas of young and adorably awkward Tetê, as she navigates her way in her new school. The movie is filled with laughter, love and a few lessons in life. It aired on Netflix on 22nd September, 2021.
