The Framing That Compromised my Entire Actor Career

In a single scene, I missed the opportunity to become a successful actor.

I am a lucky man. When I decided to become an actor, I already knew several authors of soap operas, the peak of an actor’s career here in Brazil. As I was having a lot of fun in the theater and considering that it was a good profession’s choice, where I would grow as a human being and have a life full of news and achievements, having the right friends in the right places was another indication that I was making the right choice.

Whenever I had a play to perform at drama school, I invited my soap opera friends to watch me. In my naive mind, I thought that just the fact that they were my friends was enough. I never considered that they were very busy people and that they would never have time to watch drama school plays.

They didn’t.

Even inviting them to all of my plays — there were six — none of them ever came.

After I graduated and was doing my second professional play, one of the authors went to watch me. The play in question was “Blindness” by José Saramago. We had made a visceral, heavy montage… The author couldn’t resist. She left before the end because we had managed to punch her guts.

However, she sent me a message: she said she liked my performance a lot and wanted me to be part of her next miniseries on the most prominent Brazilian television network, Globo TV. It…