O nome do garoto ator é Felipe Paulino . Seu treinador de atores é Fátima Toledo e o diretor de cinema é Fernando Meirelles. De acordo com esta inverview (é em português brasileiro. A citação abaixo é a tradução em inglês de seu trecho relevante):
"To Felipe Paulino, 22, it was a shot in the foot. (...) As he recalls, Fátima Toledo asked actor Leandro Firmino ("Lil Zé") to scare Felipe with a gun in a dark bedroom. She would've also told Felipe to think about his mother drowning to death.
Famous for her method of extracting visceral reactions from actors, the coach states that "nothing of this happened" and that Felipe might have "created a fantasy". She states that she showed Felipe a gun and asked him if he knew what it was, then he replied: "Yes, I know, and this one is a toy".
In order to make the scene look real, Fátima states that she asked Felipe to imagine a very strong pain, like a toothache, moving towards his foot.
"Maybe Felipe confused reality with fiction, because his performance was extraordinary", states Meirelles, the movie director. "As soon as the scene was cut, I was so impressed that I ran towards him and hugged him."