FERNANDO MEIRELLES - Director
Team Deakins
James Ellis Deakins
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 198 Fernando Meirelles - Director
In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with director Fernando Meirelles (THE TWO POPES, BLINDNESS, CITY OF GOD). Despite growing up with a filmmaking-loving father, it wasn't until Fernando graduated from architecture school, smuggled film equipment into Brazil, produced television and commercials through a video production company, and met cinematographer César Charlone (Season 2, Episode 174) that he finally directed his first feature. During our discussion of CITY OF GOD, we learn how he, the crew, and a cast of non-professional (and young) actors prepared for the shoot, and Fernando reveals how they strategized to capture the necessary footage while filming in a favela. We later learn how Fernando incorporates improvisation while working with actors during production, and, while reflecting on working with actors who like to plan far in advance, he shares a story from his time working with actor Anthony Hopkins on THE TWO POPES. Fernando later reveals why he planned to quit filmmaking after THE CONSTANT GARDNER and why BLINDNESS brought him back, and he shares what his biggest regret is.
-
Recommended Viewing: CITY OF GOD
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to Season 2 of the Team Deacons podcast, a collection of informal conversations |
| 0:10.1 | between Roger and James Deacons and a guest. We never know where the conversation will take us, |
| 0:16.4 | so listen in and see where it goes. |
| 0:23.5 | Today, we're speaking with the director. |
| 0:30.5 | His credits include City of God, The Constant Gardner, Blindness, and the Two Popes. |
| 0:33.9 | We're pleased to welcome Fernando Morellus. |
| 0:36.2 | Ferando, thank you for doing this. |
| 0:36.6 | Welcome. |
| 0:40.2 | Nice to see you. Yeah, thank you very much for having me here. Big fan. |
| 0:42.4 | Oh, great. Great. Good. |
| 0:50.7 | We'd love to start with our first question, which is, how did you get to where you are today? Is this something that you always wanted to do as a child? Did you even think it was a possibility as a child? Or did you find it later? Did |
| 0:55.6 | you go down another path? What's your story? Well, I think like everything in my life was not planned. |
| 1:01.7 | It just happened. But anyway, my father was, yeah. My father was a doctor when he was in college. |
| 1:09.1 | It was before getting married. He used to make little films with his |
| 1:12.9 | friends, you know. He liked music and theater, and he would just, just like something fun. So he did |
| 1:19.5 | some westerns and suspense films in 8mm. And then when I was born, he even shot one or two films |
| 1:26.4 | with me and my sisters, and I was just for fun. |
| 1:30.1 | So I grew up with this environment, and for me, cinema, eight million, he had this projector that I used to project his films. |
| 1:40.1 | And so from the very beginning was like a game for me, something fun, you know, |
| 1:46.9 | because my father did it only for his friends and for himself. |
| 1:50.6 | So it was just something fun. |
| 1:52.4 | And then when I, but of course, I love films. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from James Ellis Deakins, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of James Ellis Deakins and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.