Actor Davi Santos chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about “Good Sam” on CBS, “Tell Me A Story,” and “13 Minutes,” as well as growing up in Queens, New York, and being a performer in the digital age.
‘Good Sam’
On his experience in “Good Sam,” he remarked, “The ensemble is so tight. We volunteer our Sundays to work on the new episode’s script. We get together Saturdays for dinners, games, or adventuring. The producers are compassionate and lovely beings. All around, it has been a warm and dedicated experience.”
‘Tell Me A Story’
He shared that “Tell Me A Story” took him to his hometown studio to film, Kaufman Astoria Studios, which had been a dream of mine since he was a kid. “Then my character’s apartment building was also blocks away from where I grew up. Every scene was a high-octane rollercoaster. I loved working with Dania Ramirez, who played my big sister; a role that she continues to play in my life,” he said.
’13 Minutes’
Santos acknowledged that “13 Minutes” was a trip. “Oklahoma is totally underrated. Will (Peltz), Sofia (Vassilieva), and Thora (Birch) just made the experience. We psyched ourselves out over the tornadoes, running through an artificial rainstorm into a basement whose walls were designed to shake, raining debris,” he said.
“The wreckage they created of the farm transmitted the devastation of these disasters. It gets under your skin to see it. I learned about agricultural migrants, adapting an accent based on an immigrant from Puebla, Mexico, and enjoyed the taboo love story, that was ultimately about forming a bridge between people on different sides of the farm,” he elaborated.
Davi Santos : A Queens boy at heart
Santos opened up about his childhood being raised in Queens, New York. “I grew up around the corner from the last 100-year-old movie theater in Astoria, going to a park along the East River with a view of the Hells Gate Bridge and the city in twilight. Queens was enchanting,” he said.
“As I matured, I got to know more about her Little Cairo street. The family over the Silk Store. The Shotojuku traditional Karate School, the Music School. Queens supplied endless adventures, explorations, meditations, a sense of home, history, architecture, and family to me. A foundation,” he added.
Power Rangers Dino Charge
He spoke about playing Sir Ivan, the Gold Ranger on the television series “Power Rangers Dino Charge.” “My manager at the time had actually passed on The Power Rangers. It was non-union. Would make me unavailable in New Zealand for eight months. So, I found out they were holding auditions from a friend in the produce section of a supermarket,” he said.
Santos continued, “A classic superhero franchise shot in exotic New Zealand where I’d get to use my decade of Karate training? Say less. I loved the part when I got to tell my friends and family because you don’t say the usual I got this TV show…or I’m going to be in the new xyz movie…’ You straight-up just say ‘I’m going to be a Power Ranger!’ Afterward same thing, ‘I hear you were a Power Ranger.’ It was definitely surreal.”
“I had a lot of fun, it was a magic period of my life. Then there’s the whole Ranger Universe, the international support of a passionate fandom of the show. It’s something else,” he added.
The digital age
On being an actor in the digital age, he said, “It made working on network television all the more satisfying. But you know what, whether or not a show is streaming, the audience is still watching it on their big-screen TVs. It makes little difference where it came from. Even being on a show that airs weekly with commercials, there’s an audience that’s streaming it commercial-free on Paramount Plus or Apple TV.”
“I respect streaming no less. HBO Max shows? Netflix Shows? Streaming has ushered in a new era of content and quality, where writers and actors that used to appear exclusively in films appear on streaming shows interchangeably,” he added.
Motivations
When asked what motivates him every day as an actor and performer, Santos responded, “That metamorphosis between reading a screenplay, thinking about and rehearsing it alone, then that moment when you’re in costume in the setting with the other person and it’s unfolding, happening; I love it.”
“Then, getting to share that with an audience. Then there’s how every project leads you into a new world, literally and figuratively. A different country. Underwater tombs. Then there’s working with your heroes and discovering new ones. It motivates me every day,” he added.
Dream acting partners
Santos listed the following actors as his dream acting partners in the industry: Jim Carrey, Tilda Swinton, Fernanda Montenegro, Ewan McGregor, Elliot Page, Zendaya, Julianne Moore, and Joaquin Phoenix.
Success
On his definition of the word success, he said, “Success is a lifestyle, a sense of attainment, and perspective. I felt like I was succeeding when I was at a performing arts middle school in Manhattan surrounded by showbiz kids even though I was just starting. I felt successful getting my first agent. Working in commercials. Every single role I did for free in the New York City underground new works theatre scene. Sleeping on a couch in LA and auditioning the next day at Paramount Studios.”
“Success meant I was on my path,” he said. “It takes perspective to recognize when you’re on it. Attainment because that’s what a step is and each step makes a lifestyle. When it aligns with the path of doing what you love and for what you love, success.”
To learn more about actor Davi Santos, follow him on Instagram.
