This article intends to outline the 70-year carrier of Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata, otherwise known as 'Grande Otelo', across the different periods of Brazilian cinema and within the debates on race in Brazil. Although such an actor was able to play a diverse range of roles, and his characters followed the new tendencies of debates on race between the 1940s and the 1980s, there always existed a gap between his opinions and the message of the black militancy. This article aims to analyze the tensions between Grande Otelo's characters and his point of view towards race. This analysis is carried out by exploring the concepts of stereotype and persona at the intersections of race, body, and gender in his characters, allowing for reflection upon representations of black people through Brazilian cinema's conventions. It is also done through an examination of Grande Otelo's own perceptions of the debates on race.
Grande Otelo; cinema; debate on race; stereotype and persona