The actors stepping in front of the camera were amateurs, but they were hardly new to show business.
There was a bearded rancher who had played a bounty hunter in a Western-style action flick. A soft-spoken cook who had moonlighted as a dancer in an art-house drama. And a chatty grandmother who made her silver screen debut in a beloved comedy more than two decades ago.
“We can do it all — you tell us to laugh, we laugh. You tell us to cry, we cry,” the grandmother, Maria Edite Santos França, 71, said on a recent weekday morning as she prepared to audition for the latest film production coming to town.
The town was not Hollywood, but Cabaceiras, a sleepy hamlet of more than 5,000 people tucked deep within Brazil’s dusty outback. Some 6,000 miles from the buzzing studios of Los Angeles, it has become known as Brazil’s own Hollywood, serving as a backdrop for at least 50 films and television shows since 1929.
Like the American town that inspires it, part of Cabaceiras’s appeal is the dramatic landscapes that flank it and the year-round crisp blue skies. Known as Brazil’s driest community, its biggest curse has proved to be a director’s dream: The scarce rains that have long made life here a struggle have also turned it into a perfect shooting location.
Cabaceiras relishes its show business credentials. An oversize clapboard and a 50-foot gate fashioned out of cartoonish film strips mark the town’s entrance. Yellow stars are painted on the sidewalk, meant to evoke the gold ones on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. And, nestled in the parched hills, a towering sign spells out “Roliúde,” the phonetic pronunciation of Hollywood in Brazilian Portuguese.
There is the Roliúde butcher, the Roliúde gas station and the Roliúde inn, home to the town’s single makeshift movie theater. At least two pizzerias sell pies with names inspired by famous Brazilian films shot in town.
On a scorching Monday morning, a few dozen people packed the lobby of a modest government office for a casting call. They hoped to land a part in a short film with a theme familiar to many here: A woman sets out on a quest to deliver a letter in the distant village her mother left decades ago, fleeing poverty and drought.
Inside the darkened room serving as a studio, they were asked to improvise lines. Some grew shy or fell into nervous giggles. There were a few false starts, with eager actors launching into the scene before the cameras rolled.
“Cut!” Nivaldo Rodrigues, the director, called after another take. A smiling woman ended her screen test by waving goodbye to the camera.
Most, though, were clearly seasoned experts. When Mr. Rodrigues asked Amilton de Farias Cunha if he knew the recipient of the fictitious letter, the 37-year-old rancher improvised without skipping a beat: “You don’t know she’s my aunt?”
When Ms. França’s turn came, she peered confidently into the camera and insisted the recipient had actually dropped dead. “Is it hard to pretend?” she said. “Not at all. It’s the easiest thing in the world.”
“It’s not just about the money,” said Aline Soares, 30, a cook auditioning during a break from work. “It’s about art. It’s about our identity.”
Mr. Rodrigues said his crew was planning to run workshops for the town’s aspiring actors. The goal, he added, was to cultivate local talent and turn Cabaceiras into more than a backdrop. “We want to harness this talent,” he said.
Historians believe the first film to be shot here was a documentary in 1929 about daily life in the northeast, a frequent source of inspiration for Brazilian artists. But it was a 2000 comedic tale of a pair of broke tricksters who con a fictional village that made Cabaceiras into a film hub.
More recently, the town has served as a photogenic backdrop for a string of splashy television shows about Brazil’s folkloric bandits, produced with streaming platforms like Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
Film and TV productions have been an economic boon. Crews pay hundreds of dollars to hire local actors and rent homes, ranches and livestock. A silent role can pay around $30 per day, renting a horse or goat can rake in almost $40 and uttering a line pays nearly $300, more than the monthly minimum salary in Brazil.
But this Hollywood, like the American one, also faces headwinds. The influx of film crews has set off a mad scramble for water, long a scarce resource here. Climate change is also making rains, and film schedules, less predictable.
At the same time, the advance of technologies like artificial intelligence have made simulating exotic landscapes possible without the costly travel.
Lately, some residents say, fewer productions have been coming to town. The recent sequel to the comedy that catapulted Cabaceiras to fame was shot in a Rio de Janeiro studio. That’s a sore subject here.
“It turned out horrible,” said Jefferson Soares, 30, a school administrator and an aspiring actor. “Not believable at all.”
Despite the snub, the town clings to its Hollywood identity, which itself has become a way of earning a living.
On the rural outskirts of town, Mr. Cunha, the rancher, waited for the next group of visitors. Unbothered by the stifling heat, he wore a herder’s cap and gaiters made from goatskin, the type his father and grandfather had worn to shield against the piercing shrubs of the savanna.
Now, Mr. Cunha wears this uniform for movie roles and Brazilians from out of town. “It was a gift from a set,” he said, pointing to a cellphone video of him playing a bandit.
He was already in character when a tour bus sputtered to a stop in front of his family’s ranch, which he has turned into lodging. “Welcome to the world-famous Hollywood of the northeast!” he yelled.
Inside, Mr. Cunha sold water and homemade liquor to the tourists. A few mugs, stamped with his face, were perched on a shelf behind the bar. “We want to give people a souvenir to take home,” he said.
Soon, he was leading the group through a maze of towering boulders, as he told behind-the-scenes anecdotes from movie sets. He stopped at a spot where a pivotal scene from a hit television show was shot. “This is where she sees the blood mark — and realizes something is wrong,” he said with dramatic pause.
“Now, we make more money from the rocks than we ever did from the goats,” Mr. Cunha explained. He plans to expand his lodge with more rooms and a pool. To ensure enough water for his vision, he has dug a well reaching 330 feet into the parched soil. “God willing, it won’t ever dry up,” he said.
Lately, newcomers who share this optimism have flocked to Cabaceiras. On the fringes of town, a working-class neighborhood has added rows of new cookie-cutter homes.
But the town’s dizzying growth has had drawbacks. “We’re always short on water,” said Márcio Vinicius da Cruz Pereira, 48, a supermarket clerk, leaning on the neighborhood’s empty water tank.
As the sun began to fade, the film crew set up on a square just behind the town’s colonial-era church. Mr. Soares and Mr. Cunha, who had made the cut that morning, took up their positions. “Action!” yelled Mr. Rodrigues, the director.
The aspiring actors strolled into the shot, coming to the aid of the actress clutching a letter. They scratched their heads, feigned wonder, called for help and finally pointed the lost newcomer to a cobblestone street lined with candy-colored houses.
After a half-dozen takes, it was a wrap. Mr. Cunha, beaming, huddled with the crew for a group photo. “Who knows,” he said, “maybe the other Hollywood will hear about us and come knocking.”
Lis Moriconi contributed research.
Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.
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