Anitta Gets Real About Overcoming Her Insecurities

It may only be March, but Anitta has already had a jam-packed year. In the past few months alone, the Brazilian pop star has been up for a Grammy (for 2024’s Funk Generation), embarked on a whirlwind pre-Carnival tour, and, much to the delight of her devoted fanbase, released two new songs. But the past two weeks, in particular, have marked a major turning point in the life of the 31-year-old, Rio-born singer-songwriter, whose real name is Larissa de Macedo Machado.

First, her longtime passion project, the very candid documentary Larissa: The Other Side of Anitta, dropped on Netflix. Directed by her childhood friend Pedro Cantelmo, the film takes a close look at how the star has struggled to balance her public image—that of her stage persona, Anitta—and her private identity, as Larissa. But she didn’t have long to sit around and reflect on releasing such an intimate portrait of her life. Just a week after Larissa premiered, Anitta was in New York City to celebrate an entirely different project that’s rooted in self-expression: her new spring campaign for True Religion, which is fittingly called  “Own Your True.” 

With back-to-back launches, both ventures are clearly meant to usher in a vulnerable new chapter for Anitta. And it’s one that the star is welcoming with open arms—when she’s not busy planning her upcoming Coachella performance, that is. “You know, I think most of my life I've been prioritizing my career and my success as a professional,” she told L’OFFICIEL at the True Religion campaign’s Zero Bond launch party. “And nowadays—just right now in my life—I’ve decided to prioritize myself. So personally, yes, it does feel like a new era. Because I've chosen now to give more attention and priority to my personal life and wellbeing.”

Read on for the full interview with Anitta about the “duality” of her new music, the art of dressing sexy, and the power of overcoming insecurities (including cellulite) to twerk in short shorts on stage.

L’OFFICIEL: Your documentary premiered on Netflix earlier this month. What has the reaction been like so far?

Anitta: Of course, there's no way you can please 100 percent, but the majority of people got exactly the message that I wanted to send—which is that it’s not a documentary only about me. I just wanted young people to think about how the life of somebody that they see on the phone or on TV, something that they think is so unreachable or so different, can also be related to how they feel and what they go through. Teenagers now were born with social media; they’ve always had their cell phones in their hands. That’s different from me—I didn't have that. So how are they facing it? How are they living life? We’re all creating these characters to be likable on social media, and then we go home and life is very different from what we are selling and seeing online. Things are not exactly the way we think they are, and I just wanted them to realize that by saying, No, no, no—in real life, she goes through real stuff.

L’O: That message dovetails nicely with that of the True Religion “Own Your True” campaign, which is also all about self-expression. 

A: Exactly, and that was the reason I accepted, to be honest. [True Religion] didn't know about the project, the doc, when they invited me. So when I saw what the campaign was about, I was like, Wow, this is destiny. I really loved it, because it has everything to do with what I'm talking about in the doc. It was exactly the message I was about to give.

L’O: It's almost like it was manifested.

A: A hundred percent!

L’O: With both of these projects, how does it feel to be taking off the mask and really talking about who you are, beyond Anitta?

A: It feels great. I created the Anitta persona, because I always felt very comfortable singing and dancing when a song was on—boom!—but when the song was over, I was like, What do I say? How do I interact? I would just be like, Put on another song! I couldn't stand the silence, and I wouldn't know what to say. So, I got an acting teacher, and we started to write down what I would say in between songs, so that I wouldn't get as nervous and shy and really just desperate for the next song to play. I built these sentences that I would like to say based on the songs that I was writing, and that was what I would like Anitta to be. It was something that was inside of me, but I didn't have the courage to put it out there or to be that. 

L’O: Did that change as you started working more?

A: With time, I thought I was only likable when I was like that. The other side of me—the one that has insecurities and is shy and scared of things—was not likable. And I think with social media, that's how we feel. It's very hard for us to own who we actually are, because we don't know if it's going to be likable or not. After working a lot and being only that person for work, I separated myself in two. In the documentary, and also in this campaign, we talk about reuniting all the sides of us.

L’O: You've been doing this for 13 years now. If you could go back in time and give young Larissa one piece of advice, what would it be?

A: To take care of my health, probably. And to know that no one is perfect, including me. I'm not perfect, and I should improve myself and listen to people's reactions to how I behave, and just try to learn more.

L’O: One message of True Religion’s spring campaign is to unapologetically break the rules of fashion, with the collection featuring micro minis, destructed denim, shrunken jackets, and bold foiled prints. As someone who seems to have a lot of fun with her style, is there anything you won’t wear?

A: It's crazy, because the outfit that I'm wearing helps me to act in a certain way. I use the outfit to give me the energy that I need to deliver in that moment, and I have specific outfits for everything. I like to dress very soft and light at home, in chic, fancy dresses. But when I'm out to dance and party, I dress completely opposite. That’s when I like to be like, personality! strong! energy! sexy! It's really very different, because when I’m inside my house or with my family, I dress like another human.

L’O: What do you feel sexiest or most confident wearing?

A: I think I feel most sexy when I have the shapes of the body showing. Like, all the shapes showing. That’s when I feel really sexy. 

L’O: You've never shied away from showing skin, and you wear some incredibly short shorts in the True Religion campaign. Where do you draw the line when it comes to a revealing outfit? Is there a line? 

A: I just like to dress up and feel comfortable in my skin. For example, I have a lot of insecurities with cellulite, but there's nothing I can do about it. So what, I'm just never gonna wear shorts? Let me do it! Let's do it, you know? That [attitude] kind of helped me to just embrace it and let go. So I don't know if there's a line. I just don't like when I'm not comfortable somewhere in an outfit. I think there are outfits for every type of place, and if I'm not properly dressed for a specific moment, then I feel a little awkward. When I'm on stage, I like to dress [in] the minimum [clothing] possible, because I have to dance a lot. I have to be free to twerk. But if I dress like I do on stage to go to dinner, I'm gonna feel the worst. It's not it in that moment. I think that's the line for me. 

L’O: You’ll be on stage next month for Coachella, which is very exciting. Is there anything you can tease about the performance and any new music?

A: I released a new song [last month] called “Romeo,” which has a Reggaeton, very Anitta vibe. But then I just put out “Larissa,” which is the song that is in the documentary. There’s more of that duality, having two singles that are very different from each other and represent two different vibes of myself. I'm gonna perform both [at Coachella], of course. I just started planning what I'm going to do there—I built the set list already, but I'm starting to figure out whether or not I’m doing any surprises and how I would do it. I just started to think about all of that, because I’ve been doing Carnival in Brazil, and it was a lot. I did, like, 21 concerts in less than two months. So it's been really crazy.

L’O: When do you take time to recover and just rest?

A: Right after this [trip to New York] I will rest, because it's my birthday on March 30. I'm an Aries.

L’O: Me too!

A: It’s the best, isn’t it? So I’ll have a little time to rest now, and then I’ll take a few weeks off after Coachella.