Louis Ferreira as Colonel Everett Young in Stargate Universe. Photo copyright of Syfy.
In Music of the Spheres, this week’s episode of Touch (airing Thursday, May 10th@ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on Fox), Martin (Kiefer Sutherland) exposes a corrupt parole officer (guest-star Scott Michael Campbell), and a Brazilian street musician (guest-star Louis Ferreira) uses his guitar to win the heart of a beautiful woman. Meanwhile, Jake (David Mazouz) bonds with another mute boy (guest star Tre C. Roberts), while Clea (Guba Mbatha-Raw) and Martin learn new information about one of Teller’s (Danny Glover) key patients.
Actor Louis Ferreira, best known to fans of Stargate Universe as Colonel Everett Young, had the opportunity to exercise a number of his acting muscles, not to mention his vocal cords, when taking on his guest-starring role on Touch.
“I play a Brazilian, but I don’t speak the language,” notes Ferreira. “I’m from the Azores, which are the islands, and I speak Portuguese. The only thing I can only equate it to, is that if it was an English accent, I’d be the speaking Cockney, and a Brazilian would be speaking the proper Queen’s English.
“When I walked into the waiting room, I was literally surrounded by nine actors who I can only describe as nine versions of Antonio Banderas in [the feature film] Puss in Boots. These guys were the sexist, most handsome Brazilian men I’d ever seen in my life. I thought, ‘Look at these guys. They’re like Brazilian superstars. I don’t have a chance.’ On top of everything else, this character sings and plays the guitar, so I decided to try a different approach and do the sort of vulnerable man/boy thing as a character choice.
“During the actual audition, I was asked if I could play the guitar and I said, ‘No, not really, but I can sing a little bit, depending on what it is.’ They also asked me if I could speak Brazilian and I told them, ‘No, just Azorean, which is very different, so I’d need a [dialect] coach.’ I figured I was literally shooting myself in the foot,” recalls the actor with a chuckle, “especially going up against these Brazilian guys, all of whom were insanely perfect for the role as written on the page. However, I got the job and was thrilled.
“We ended up making some adjustments for the fact that I speak the way I do in the episode. It’s like someone from Saskatoon [Canada] deciding to go to Toronto to become an actor and then on to New York City. In Touch, my character, who is a musician/street busker, would have probably gone from the Azores to Rio de Janeiro, and then New York, which would be his big dream. So he took his prize possession, his guitar, together with all the money he had, and went to Rio to try to make his mark there, and from there I think he dreamt of New York.
“This is a very romantic episode and a love story about one man’s conviction in his ability to love as well as sacrifice and knowing that at the end of the day, love is the answer. There’s something very beautiful about that and I love the message of this particular piece,” enthuses Ferreira. “It was great fun to do and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turned out.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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