How Actor/Singer Rodrigo Massa is Dealing with Hollywood Coming to a Halt
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Saturday, 06 June 2020 00:27
- Published: Saturday, 06 June 2020 00:48
- Written by Lupe R Haas
Actor and singer Rodrigo Massa was about to drop his sophomoric album, "La Fiesta" when the world came a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can catch the Brazilian native now on Netflix's "El Dragon, Return of the Warrior" season 1 and 2 but his next gig as an actor is uncertain. The actor tells CineMovie how he's tackling the tumultuous times and why he skipped moving to Hollywood and straight to Canada for a Tinseltown career.
Rodrigo Massa speaks five languages which has allowed the actor to work in various countries. He moved to Mexico City for an acting career at 20 years of age. For 13 years he worked in Mexico as an actor and later hosted various competition shows including Mexico Sueña.
CineMovie talked to Massa as most of the world started quarantining back in March.
CineMovie:
You're stuck in Canada now because of the borders closing.
Rodrigo:
Yeah. Well, you know, right now, we can't really leave the house, like everyone else. Plus my partner works at a hospital, so I don't want to put anyone at risk, so I'm taking self-quarantining very, very seriously.
CineMovie:
It's a crazy time we're living in right now.
Rodrigo:
Yeah. Yeah. We'll get through this.
CineMovie:
Speaking of getting through it do you recommend listening to any of your songs to soothe the nerves?
Rodrigo:
I'm really excited. I'm going to be sharing this with my fans. It'll definitely help get through this It would be really nice if they could like give my album a pre listen on iTunes, on Deezer, Spotify or wherever. There's a lot of good vibes in that album. A lot of very energetic songs and for people just looking for things to do at home. I see so many people dancing on Tik Tok around the house. So if they want music to dance to, my new album is definitely an album that they can listen to right now.
CineMovie:
Now where do you make your home? Do you live in Mexico or where do you live?
Rodrigo:
Right now I live in Vancouver. I've been living here since of July last year. I just moved here because they call Vancouver Hollywood North and there are so many shows and movies that are shot here. So many projects, Netflix project CW, they do all their things here. So as an actor, it's always exciting to think about a new market. I've been working on television in Mexico for 12 years. So I just felt like I kind needed something new, something fresh, and Vancouver has been a breath of fresh air, literally here. I'm coming from Mexico city. I was just very stressed out in the city. You have 20 million people stuck in one city. It was becoming a very stressful situation for me, affecting my health. And even though I've always done so much in Mexico as an actor, series,elenovelas, movies, theater - it got to a point where I just needed to slow down and Vancouver offered me just that. A city that kind of feels like a small town, but yet you have all of those big city productions possibilities.
CineMovie:
So you bypass Hollywood and went to Vancouver. That makes sense. There's a lot of productions up there.
Rodrigo:
Yeah.Eventually I would like to try my luck in LA, but I think for now I'm going to focus in Vancouver. As soon as I got here, I booked Flash which was amazing.
CineMovie:
Oh, nice.
Rodrigo:
Yeah, just having something on Netflix worldwide that's watched by millions and millions of people besides El Dragon, which is also streaming the first season, with the second season premiering in April. I'm very blessed. I've tried my luck in different markets Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and luckily I've succeeded in all of them, so I consider myself very lucky.
CineMovie:
Speaking of "El Dragon," it's addicting. What episode do you come in?
Rodrigo:
I can't remember if it's six or seven where my character is introduced and then all the way through to the second season, which is premiering April 1st.
CineMovie:
Is there talks of continuing with a season 3?
Rodrigo:
There have been talks of continuing it. Even Sebastián Rulli has posted some hints of possible continuation on his Instagram, but it all depends on that huge amount of backend factors. I think Televisa considers it done but we've seen so many cases of shows going to Netflix and it's a huge success. And then Netflix is like, 'Oh, you have to give me another one.' So you never know. You never know. It's always a possibility. If they want to have a third season, the writers will find a way to have a third season.
Rodrigo:
CineMovie:
How has the coronavirus situation affected your acting career?
Rodrigo:
Vancouver is pretty much shut down right now. The casting offices are closed, and the agency closed. Nobody's working. All productions have stopped, and it definitely has affected me directly. I was already confirmed for a huge musical that they're going to do here in the city called 'Made in Canada.' And I got a call just yesterday telling me that they're gonna postpone that. It was going to premiere on May 8th and now we're going to premiere.... They're still deciding if it's going to be August or September. A situation like this obviously affects people financially. Even if it's over, people are not going to be in a place where they can go to the theater. It's going to be hard for a lot of people to pay for a ticket. Since this is a story that we really, really want people to connect with especially like immigrants, since they're the main theme of the story. We're talking about immigrant workers in North America. So yeah, we want everybody to be able to go and to be able to afford it. In fact, the tickets are starting at a very low price. I think they actually starting at $10 Canadian. So yeah it's an amazing origin story. The music is beautiful. We're working with the biggest theater company here in BC and, I' very excited about that, but I'm gonna have to hold that excitement. It's not going to happen in May. It's going to happen in August or September.
CineMovie:
Thanks for talking to me. I wish you and your family the best of luck. Good luck with your future endeavors.
Rodrigo:
Thank you. Thank you so much.