Raffa Virago’s Breakout Role and the Fight Against Stereotypes

Raffa Virago is stepping into the spotlight.

The Brazilian-Canadian actress booked her break-out role in the Lifetime movie, Dying in Plain Sight, which landed her the Imagen Award for Best Young Actor. She stopped by the LatiNation Studios for an exclusive interview ahead of the award show, and we got to know her better.

“What’s cool about the film is that if you watch it, you start seeing certain dynamics in your life and how they might reflect the movie,” Virago says. “After my mom watched it, we had a whole family conversation about it … how our issues sometimes project on our kids. It’s all about, you know, looking outside and looking at your loved ones and being able to almost support them and see that they’re going through something.”

The film paints a portrait of eating disorders for two very different women.

A mother (Nicola Correia-Damude) becomes obsessed with clean eating after leaving her husband, and she doesn’t realize that her daughter, Morgan (Raffa Virago), is battling anorexia. Over the course of the story, as Morgan’s condition worsens, so does her performance in school. Conversely, the more her mother obsesses over each calorie intake, the less she understands the negative implications of her severity on the emotional health of her family.

Virago’s character is a heavier-set girl, which makes her struggle with anorexia harder to see.

“I think having someone who looks like me be in the role was such a different thing,” Virago says. “I wanted to treat it with so much care.”

Hollywood has long favored actresses with small waists and tight dress sizes. Plus, the roles available for bigger girls are often supporting, humorous roles that help push along someone else’s story.

“For so long, I thought I needed to change what I look like to be in this industry,” Virago continues. “I think, as a bigger person, it’s just so difficult. I mean, you see what roles a lot of bigger women get, and it’s not at all like a leading role, you know?”

Little by little, casting directors are amending their rulebooks. Dying in Plain Sight showcases this shift.

Virago, at the focal point of this story, brought the main character to life truthfully and bravely. Only eighteen-years-old, she’s at the precipice of a career in the arts, and she’s made an entrance with a performance that sets her apart from other actresses her age.

Like all actors, being cast and trusted with a leading role re-affirms the practice, the dedication to craft. To be nominated (and to win) an Imagen Award for that work is another level of achievement.

“It’s crazy to be recognized at all,” Virago says, “and to be seen by people for your hard work and your effort and your care for a project—but let alone be in a room full of people who made me feel like I could go into this is, like, crazy.”

For 39 years, the Imagen Awards has recognized exemplary Latino talent in film and TV, magnifying and demanding more Latino representation in Hollywood.

Virago, who grew up watching shows like Wizards of Waverly Place (one of the first Disney shows to feature a Latin family), is honored to be advancing Latino narratives on screen and celebrating wins with the community.

“Our identity shifts the way we perceive things and the way we experience things,” Virago says, “so, you know, [this film will] broaden the narrative about eating disorders and disordered eating.”

Interestingly, the script was not written with a Latino family in mind. According to Virago, the last name was originally Irish. When they cast Raffa Virago as Morgan and Nicola Correia-Damude as her mother, they changed it to “Cruz”.

A universal, relatable story became a Latino film meant for everybody.