DARWIN DEL FABRO is Celebrating Brazilian Culture

Talking to Darwin Del Fabro is like talking to the embodiment of a bona fide muse. With an ethereal beauty, they celebrate their non-binary side, and with well-crafted words of artistry, they inspire with every phrase that lilts out of their mouth. An old soul in a youthful body, their manners and grace are from yesteryear, while their modern ideas and work ethic make them a present-day mover and shaker in the entertainment field. There is little left that they haven’t accomplished. A successful singer, actor, producer, fashionista, and more, they live and breathe entertainment with a resume that most other artists don’t even come close to in a lifetime. We, in the US, are just getting to appreciate the person who has come to us via Brazil.

Born into a family of entertainers, both of their parents met in New York while modeling and eventually went into acting, returning to Brazil. Getting into the business very early on, Darwin won their first singing competition at age 3. At the very center of their art, is the celebration of Brazilian culture.

Everything, every single piece of my body, my blood, is because I was born with that culture and those elements that made me have bigger dreams to be in America and construct an international career. I like the word global more than international because I still want to be able to work in other countries and know other cultures as well. But I think the good and bad (parts) of being born in Brazil made me the person that I am today.

Their parents, even though entertainers themselves, did not force Darwin into an early career. Darwin took that up for themselves and does not regret getting into the biz so early. For them, a childhood spent acting and singing was normal. Constantly challenging themselves to the next project is also a normal part of their life.

I think it’s in the blood. I think you’re born an artist. Fortunately, I’m very privileged to be able to do that. There’s something about having pleasure and happiness in all the things that you do, that they don’t become work. I am a workaholic. I love to be working. But I don’t see it as work, that’s the thing. My pleasure is my work. I can’t stop, and it always has been that way. It’s never enough, you are always like, okay, I need to do the next thing, I need to improve on this or improve on that. And that’s the fun of doing what I do. As a producer, a singer, writer, actor, you need to do a little of everything. It’s always nice to be passing through all of those things and never stagnate.

In Brazil, Darwin enjoyed a full career on the stage and screen. In known musicals like Shrek, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Wizard of Oz, they also cut their teeth on dramatic and cultural fare. At 19, they produced, directed, and starred in Be Careful, It’s My Heart, a musical that was adapted into an album. Going on to appear in a miniseries based on Dangerous Liaisons and a soap opera. Coming to terms with their queerness, they knew that Brazil would no longer be a safe home and moving to New York was inevitable. Without speaking any English, they enrolled in the musical theater program at the Broadway Dance Center while learning the language.

I always had that dream; I always loved the culture. I loved the pace, especially here in New York, and how Americans work. I always thought that I wanted work that is more global, with a wider range of people – especially when talking about queerness with the world. Right now, we’re seeing that sometimes we are not very aware of things that are happening close to us. I think art in general in Brazil, would be limited to spread all those things and put that image (out there) and be that person who would be able to work on a bigger scale. I’m still working on that.

I can say that I really started from zero because I couldn’t speak a word of English. It was challenging, still is, and I think it always will be. But also, it made me understand better. And today when I see foreigners and I see people arriving – I don’t have great English, if I’m doing a movie or something I have to have my three coaches, but that gives me pleasure – it makes me a little more generous and understand others’ perspectives when they arrive in this country. We weren’t born with the same advantages sometimes that some other people were born with and schools and things.

Music has a great strength, and I think I ended up going more to music during my years living here because I also wanted to have communication still with Brazil and music in English or Portuguese, whatever it is, it’s something that everyone understands. They might not understand the lyrics of this new album. That’s why I went back to doing it in Portuguese. But they understand the feeling, the hope at least, that they understand the feeling, or it brings them some, any kind of, feeling. To me, that’s worth it, the art that I’m doing.

Darwin’s latest album, Revisiting Elis Regina, is an homage and celebration of Brazilian singer Elis Regina. Darwin’s voice soars in an upper register as they interpret the singer’s music and make it their own. Regardless of your knowledge of Portuguese, there is a pathos and storytelling that fills your ears. Making this album was more than a career project. It was a milestone in their life.

I recorded this album after eight years away from Brazil. Being non-binary using he/they pronouns – it’s something still unknown. And unfortunately, it’s still the place that most kills LGBTQ people in the world. So, forcing myself to bring that image and that conversation was important, we have a long path to go. It’s much better than when I left, but it’s a challenge that excites me to have this conversation. It’s something that once you feel safe, you are more able to express yourself, have more confidence, and, within that, be able to do your work better.

I felt that it was time to embrace a Darwin that was left there years ago – a young Darwin. The idea was just to play with being non-binary – bring that question, bring that image to the country, and open that conversation. So, I took all my favorite songs of Elise and I started to play with the gender of it. I changed some pronouns, and I brought a new fresh identity for 2024. She recorded this album in 1964 – we’re talking about the sixties in Brazil, we’re talking about dictatorship, we are talking about a place where everyone was being trapped and denied to make art. We still have some issues like that in today’s world. But this is another person singing and it’s another experience. Of course, I always honor those composers and Elise as much as I can, but I want to bring something a little different to that sound.

Returning to Brazil and being in the studio would be life-changing for Darwin. Listening to this album is like listening to a mythical siren. The emotion, the drama, the storytelling, it is all there shrouded in their crystal-clear notes and quiet interpretation.

I think every album kind of makes me walk five steps more than the last one because. The same as I believe that we become better actors with age, I think it’s the same with music. You put in a little here, you’re putting a little there, you’re discovering new things. For this album, I chose ten songs and if you ask me if I have a favorite one, I don’t because I put my heart into every single one of them. The studio became therapy.

I wanted to bring something where people will always call me the female pronoun, and I try to correct them and say, I use he/they, and they didn’t know what that was. I don’t like the feminine and masculine, I don’t like this binary kind of world. Elise was a singer who had so much power and I thought I would be the same and doing all of that in this album. And I went to the studio, and I just whispered, and I wanted to whisper in people’s ears. I want them to stop and pay attention. I don’t want them talking loud. I’m not screaming with you. I’m going to speak in a very whispery voice so you can lower your voice to listen and hope you get the message that I’m trying to tell in this album.

Darwin made their US film splash in the Blumhouse slasher film They/Them, starring Kevin Bacon, Theo Germaine, and Carrie Preston. The film tells the tale of an LGBTQ conversion camp gone awry as a masked killer makes their rounds slashing people up left and right. Darwin didn’t even have to audition for the film’s writer and director Tony and Golden Globe winner John Logan of Gladiator, The Aviator, and Bond films fame. In true Darwin form, he reached out to Logan after being a fan of his Tony Award-winning play Red and invited him to attend a project that they were workshopping. The two would start to work together on adapting Darwin’s play which led to the horror film casting. The role of Gabriel that Darwin plays, is a complete turnaround from his latest album. His performance is visceral, with a bit of a sexual and evil side. Being a horror film fan, Darwin was hooked.

It’s hard to create a queer movie. We are in moments where we need to do everything right, the right moments to say certain things, and be very careful with what we put on the screen. But it’s tricky when we talk about horror because I want a horror film! As a horror fan, I want to produce more things when I have a little more of that liberty to really go harder on those elements with queer actors and crew as protagonists of a story.

And then there were challenges that were just very personal. I wanted to play with the delicacy and how strong those things can be. There was the lake scene before the whole crazy thing (spoiler alert!). I wanted to bring beauty and a queer element, but I also don’t consider myself sexy and I challenged myself when I saw that (in the script). So that was a challenge as an actor that I wanted. There’s something about showing the body and queer love that I didn’t grow up seeing much.

With so much talent and ambition, it will be fascinating to see what direction Darwin finds next, pretty much the world is their oyster. Continuing to bring Brazilian culture to Hollywood, instead of playing French or Italian, they want to fight to make roles just as available for a Brazilian character. This summer that adaptation that John and Darwin were working on will find itself Off-Broadway, with Darwin starring and directing. Who knows what’s next? Maybe a Brazilian/American horror musical film? It could happen!

And Darwin’s message to the LGBTQ community?

We’re coming. We’re coming strong and we have so much power and so much to offer. We not only want respect, but admiration. You’re going to see a lot of us at this moment and in this business.

You can follow everything Darwin at DarwinDelFabro.com

Revisiting Elis Regina is now streaming.