Breno Mello was a soccer player with no acting experience at the time he was cast as Orfeu. Mello was walking on the street in Rio de Janeiro, when Marcel Camus stopped him and asked if he would like to be in a film.
Shooting on location did not come without its share of challenges. Marcel Camus, already on a limited budget, quickly ran out of money. According to an interview he gave to Time Magazine, in order to cut corners, Camus took to pinching pennies on meals and sleeping on the beach rather than in hotels. When he was down to his last $17, Brazil's then president Juscelino Kubitschek helped Camus procure some filming equipment from the country's army in order to help the production out. "The poverty was not such a bad thing in the long run," said Camus. "I spent so much time trailing around on foot, just looking, that in the end I had a deep awareness of Brazil. With money, I would never have made the same film. Everything would have been done too quickly."
A young boy who dances across the screen playing a pandeiro grew up to win a national pandeiro-playing contest and play his instrument around the world. Currently, Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro teaches in Los Angeles and at California Brazil Camp.
Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, the actor who played Death, was a triple jumper who won two Olympic gold medals, in 1952 and 1956.