Lower City

Background:

“I love my country, but I'm not very Brazilian at all.” Alice Braga

Brazilian actress Alice Braga was shot to international prominence at age 19 with the highly acclaimed “City of God” (2002), which received multiple nominations at the Academy Awards and a nomination at the Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. As Angélica, she was nominated for a Cinema Brazil Grand Prize. The beautiful performer acquired even more recognition with her portrayal of an escort and exotic dancer in Sergio Machado’s “Lower City” (2005), for which she nabbed several prestigious awards, including the Special Mention Award from the Miami International Film Festival and the Best Actress honor at the Brazilian Academy of Cinema and the Verona Film Festival. Talking about her character in the film, she said, “She's really a challenging character for me because she is 20 years old and she has had such a strong life and so many things that she's been through for a girl alone in the world; but she's a woman. So there was this, how they say, being a woman and a girl at the same time with the same intensity was quite challenging for me.”

Making her Hollywood debut with the disappointing “Journey to the End of Night” (2006), opposite Brendan Fraser and Mos Def, Braga bounced back in 2007 with the Will Smith blockbuster “I Am Legend.” Alice has since acted in David Mamet's “Redbelt” (2008, opposite Tim Allen) and “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles' “Blindness” (2008, with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo). Her upcoming American credits include Wayne Kramer's “Crossing Over” (2009, opposite Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Ashley Judd) and “Repossession Mambo” (2009, with Forest Whitaker and Jude Law).

The Bragas

Childhood and Family:

Alice Braga was born on April 15, 1983, in São Paulo, Brazil, to actress Ana Maria Braga. Her aunt is three-time Golden Globe and one-time Emmy nominated actress Sonia Braga (born on June 8, 1950). As a child, Alice frequently accompanied her mother and aunt to movie sets where she fell in love with acting. At age 8, Alice received her first commercial work, which was directed by her mom's friend.

I Am Legend

Career:

Growing up in a family of actors, Alice Braga was introduced to the world of acting at a very young age. Although working in a few commercials, Braga did not seriously chase roles in films and television until she was a teenager.

In 1998, at age 15, Braga landed her first film role in “Trampolim,” a Portuguese-language short directed by Fiapo Barth and starring Júlia Barth as Raquel and Braga as Cláudia. She subsequently withdrew from acting to complete her studies and did not resurface until four years later in “Cidade de Deus/City of God,” which was adapted from a novel by Paulo Lins. Directed by Fernando Meirelles, the critically praised drama debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2002 and went on to be shown at various film festivals worldwide. The film received four Oscar nominations and Braga was nominated for a Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for Best Supporting Actress (Melhor Atriz Coadjuvante) for her role as Angélica.

However, after this initial success, Braga again took another hiatus from acting. She resumed her film career in 2005 when award-winning Brazilian director Sérgio Machado hired her to play Karinna in “Cidade Baixa/Lower City.” Costarring alongside Lázaro Ramos and Wagner Moura, Braga's performance was critically heralded and she was handed the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for Best Actress, the Miami Film Festival Special Mention Award, the Verona Love Screens Film Festival for Best Actress, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival Première Brazil Award for Best Actress and the APCA Trophy for Best Actress from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics. Also in 2005, Braga made her TV series debut with the hit drama “Carandiru, Outras Histórias,” playing Vânia.

2006 found the gifted actress taking the lead role of Dolores, a free-spirited Brazilian art student who crosses paths with a Mexican journalist (played by Diego Luna), in “Sólo Dios sabe/Only God Knows,” a drama helmed by Mexican director Carlos Bolado. Braga went on to make her English-language debut with “Journey to the End of Night” (also 2006), a thriller by director/writer Eric Eason. Premiering at the 5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, the film was ignored by audiences despite having an impressive cast, such as Brendan Fraser, Mos Def, Scott Glenn, Catalina Sandino Moreno and, off course, Braga. The movie went directly to video release in North America.

Back to a Brazilian production, Braga earned a Cinema Brazil Grand Prize nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress after playing Garçonete Dois on the Festival of Rio-debuted comedy “Cheiro do Ralo, O/Drained” (2006). She next starred in the Jorge Furtado short “Rummikub” (2007) and teamed up with Marco Ricca for Lina Chamie's “A Via Láctea/The Milky Way (2007), which netted a Jury Award for Best Motion Picture at the Prêmio Contigo Cinema. She next scored a box office hit in America thanks to the Francis Lawrence-directed “I Am Legend” (2007), based on the novel by Richard Matheson about the last survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of bacteria that mutates humans. Playing Anna, she starred in the Sci-Fi film alongside “Men In Black” and “Wild Wild West” star Will Smith.

Braga gained additional popularity in Hollywood with “Redbelt” (2008), which was directed and written by David Mamet. Among her costars in the film were Max Martini, Emily Mortimer, Tim Allen and Chiwetel Ejiofor. She then rejoined “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles for the moving drama “Blindness” (2008), in which she portrayed the only woman left in her village with the ability to see after an epidemic of instant “white blindness” demolishes her city. The film, which is based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, also starred Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal and Danny Glover.

Recently, Braga completed shooting “Crossing Over” (2009), Wayne Kramer's remake of his 1996 short of the same name about the lives of immigrants living in Los Angeles and their attempts to attain U.S. citizenship. She plays Mireya, opposite Harrison Ford as Max Brogan, Sean Penn as Chris Farrell, Ray Liotta as Cole Frankel and Ashley Judd as Denise Frankel. She will next costar with Forest Whitaker and Jude Law in the based-on-novel “Repossession Mambo” (2009), a thriller directed by Miguel Sapochnik and co-scripted by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner.

Awards:

• Cinema Brazil: Grand Prize, Best Actress (Melhor Atriz), “Cidade Baixa/Lower City,” 2007

• Miami Film Festival: Special Mention, “Cidade Baixa/Lower City,” 2006

• São Paulo Association of Art Critics: APCA Trophy, Best Actress (Melhor Atriz), “Cidade Baixa/Lower City,” 2006

• Verona Love Screens Film Festival: Best Actress, “Cidade Baixa/Lower City,” 2006

• Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival: Première Brazil, Best Actress, “Cidade Baixa/Lower City,” 2005