The boy from Brazil

As rags to riches tales go, Seu Jorge's ranks up there with the best: from sleeping rough in a Brazilian slum to starring in a film with some of Hollywood's A-list is quite a change in fortune. But Jorge is taking it all in his rangy, laid-back stride. In fact, it seems little could faze this 34-year-old singer/musician/actor.

'Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett - they are my mates now,' he says of his co-stars in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, which opens tomorrow.

But more important for him than an address book to die for is the fact that he's the first black Brazilian actor to have a role in a Hollywood film. 'It was an opportunity to show my work, and to show Brazilian people can do good work and be professional,' he explains.

This is by no means Jorge's first brush with fame. A successful recording artist in his own country, whose 1999 album Samba Esporte Fino was album of the year in Brazil, he found international renown when he took the role of Knockout Ned in Fernando Meirelles's multi-award-winning 2002 film City Of God.

His chilling performance as a peace-loving man driven to horrendous levels of violence was electrifying. But Jorge knew the story being portrayed all too well. Born and raised in Rio's Gogo Da Ema favela, he left home after his younger brother was shot dead aged 16 (his halfbrother had been killed four years earlier) and lived on the streets for three years.

'I didn't want to work for anyone, so I decided to buy

a guitar, learn to play it and try to make money out of that,' he says. When a friend suggested he audition for a part in a theatre-school production, he ended up studying there for five years and, for want of a home, sleeping there at night.

His part in City Of God came about almost by accident: he was working on a film called Madame Sat" - a portrait of Rio's transvestite hero Jo"o Francisco dos Santos, co-produced by Walter Salles. But it didn't work out, so he ended up swapping places with an actor in City Of God; an exchange he must be very pleased with, although at the time no one could have guessed how successful the film would be. 'We were very surprised: the film's subject was so powerful we were afraid of censorship,' he admits.

His latest role is a much more relaxed affair: he gets to show off his musical skills as PelÈ Dos Santos, a diver who serenades his boat's passengers with Brazilian versions of David Bowie songs.

Jorge was charged with adapting Bowie's songs himself. But before beginning this project, he only knew Let's Dance from Bowie's oeuvre. 'When I started, I listened to 12 Bowie songs in a row, and they were all different styles,' he says. 'I thought, "I'm in shit here." At this, he lets out a booming

laugh. 'Where I lived, we used to listen to traditional Brazilian roots music - Bowie was for high-class rich people.'