One is not enough, two is good, three is too much, but six is even better. We already knew that the next nine o'clock soap opera on Rede Globo would have a gay character, but now the network has revealed: there will be at least six gays – among them, a lesbian.
"Insensato Coração", written by Gilberto Braga and Ricardo Linhares, premieres on January 17th on the network, bringing in its plots a group of LGBT characters - played by actors Leonardo Miggiorin (photo), Marcos Damigo, Edson Fieschi, Wendel Bendelack and to today
veteran Cristiana Oliveira.
In addition to the quintet, the character Eduardo (played by Rodrigo Andrade) is a boy who discovers he is gay throughout the soap opera. Eduardo is the son of Sueli (Louise Cardoso), owner of a kiosk frequented by gays on Copacabana beach – an allusion to the famous Rainbow kiosk at Posto 6, in the Rio neighborhood.
Crowning this "group", Deborah Secco plays a typical "gay friend" – a former reality show member and aspiring celebrity, in the same vein as the disturbed manicurist Darlene, who she herself played in the soap opera "Celebridade" (2003/04) , by the same authors.
To balance the gay groups, the authors created a homophobic character: Kléber (Cássio Gabus Mendes) will be prejudiced against his gay boss, Álvaro (Edson Fieschi).
Novelist Gilberto Braga is one of the most traditional defenders of LGBT characters in soap operas. Since "Dancin Days" (1978/79), he has often included representatives of the class in his plots – in that soap opera, there was the effeminate butler Everaldo (Renato Pedrosa).
After that, in "Brilhante" (81/82), he created the closeted gay Inácio (Dênis Carvalho), who had two boyfriends, played by Buza Ferraz and João Paulo Adour. In "Vale Tudo" (88/89), currently being rerun on the pay channel Viva, it was the turn of the lesbian couple Laís (Cristina Prochaska) and Cecília (Lala Deheizelin), and the butler Eugênio (Sérgio Mamberti). And we also had the preppy gay couple played by Carlos Casagrande and Sérgio Abreu, in "Paraíso Tropical" (2007).
But without a doubt, the group of gays in "Insensato Coração" must represent an advance and a record, since traditionally LGBT characters in soap operas appear isolated, without interacting with other gays. Just wait and check.
