Meet Salvatore Russildi | Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Salvatore Russildi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Salvatore, what inspires you?
I always liked Acting, perhaps because my mother was an actress. I have this memory back when my mother was studying. She needed child actors for the play she was in. I was 5 or 6 years old and she didn’t even ask me or my siblings anything. She just took us with her every rehearsal and that was my first time on stage. Since that moment I’ve loved Acting.

So even though I tried so many other things before Pursuing Acting as a Career, like Biology, or fighting Muay Thai, Or Energy Healing Like Reiki. There was this calling on the back of my Head, I wanted to Act. there was and still is something special and Unique for me that only happens on the stage and/or Set. So my thought process of starting my own business, since Actors, we are our own business, would be, listening to myself, following and doing what I truly enjoy and love doing,

So there is this advice that goes: if The opportunity comes to you that means you should take it and I don’t really think that’s the case, I mean I do agree with the Idea of if the opportunity presents itself to you, I think we are ready to take that opportunity but only if we want to, we don’t have to take that opportunity, and it’s not going to be the last one that will come to us, not every chance or opportunity´s going to take us to were we really want to go, were we desire to go, so I think in order to have access to the opportunity´s that are going to take us to the place we want to go we probably will have to say no thank you more than once. and that’s perfectly fine.

There´s something particularly interesting about risk, it’s intimidating, exciting, intense, and it can be really scary. And certainly it has been all that in different moments of my life, but taking risks helped me pursue Acting, So now I have a good relationship with Risk. I´ve always welcomed risk and challenges in my career. I think it can lead you to special, unique places, and those places, moments whatever they are, are really fun to explore.

Lots of habits are important. take care of your health, sleep 8 hours a day. amongst many others, but the one that really clicks with me would be, have discipline, My uncle once told me. I believe he read it somewhere, he told me: Everyone who ¨makes¨ it (whatever making it means to us) has Discipline, that doesn’t mean all who has discipline will ¨make it¨ but everyone who ¨makes it¨ Does have Discipline.

that and stay curious, for me curiosity helps me stay open and gives me the impulse to explore and see what happens if I try this or that. I feel curiosity not just for People who do art but for all of us, it’s very useful.

For me an important factor for success would be, being yourself, not pretending, not trying to be someone you’re not, being honest, have fun wherever you go, or at least try, enjoy the grind, if you can help those around you, Do, Teamwork. you have to work well with others, and create content with people you trust and care for, support them and let them support you, not only in your career but in life in general.

One of the most important lessons in my Career as though me would be, being open, allow yourself to be vulnerable, allow yourself to show who you are, in today’s world we don’t open ourselves any more. or perhaps not a lot, it’s easy in today’s world to feel judged, so we close ourselves to everyone, we close our empathy, therefore we don’t connect or we have issues to do so and to an extent we don’t show who we truly are, not completely. and fist I think allowing yourself to be vulnerable it’s really brave, and second I do think it opens you to the world, and to the people who connect or are going to connect with you in a deeper way.

Balance, that’s a tough one I think. Finding balance is hard. at least for me it has been. but the things that i’ve found that help me to feel balanced are, not just focus on my Career, not only on acting. acting is playing, and there is no bigger inspiration for me to learn and play than living. take care of yourself, go out with your friends, go to the gym, read a book, play video games, so for me so far Balance means work hard but learn when to take a moment for yourself and be able to enjoy it.

I would have to say the Idea to go for a Life in Arts would be from my mother. Almost everyone in my mother’s side of the family does art or has done art in some way. so I grew up surrounded by art, singing, painting, playing an instrument you name it. As I mentioned before, my Mom was doing acting when my and my siblings were young, and as the time passed my two older siblings stopped ¨helping¨ my mom in her plays, but me being the youngest I guess I didn’t had a choice, so i continued to be on her plays whenever they needed child actors. and I always had a lot of fun doing it.

Why acting? well at some point in my life I wasn’t feeling balanced at all, I felt quite angry, and lost. I felt empty and trapped. For the longest time, I fought the Idea of pursuing a life in the arts. So I guess being a Teenager and not wanting to do what a lot of your family was doing played a big part in my decision to fight against what I deep down wanted to do. that and perhaps actually doing it and it not being what I thought it was going to be.

So one summer I decided to just do a summer acting workshop. and see how i felt afterwards, perhaps that calling will stop. and the first day of the workshop I knew. This is what I want to do. and everything then aligned for me to go for what I wanted to do. and it has been far better than what I thought it would be.

I have found inspiration in a lot of places., movies, actors whom I admire, athletes, i guess i feel inspired by people doing what they love and enjoy it, there’s a special ¨light¨or feeling that happens when they are there on the stage, in front of the camera or in the sports Arena and I see them doing what they love.

I also feel inspired by the People close to me, my friends and Family who are there for me, to help me get up and try again or are there for me to celebrate with me when it is time to do so.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The piece that I’m most proud of would be The play Still Life By Alexander Dinelaris, a play that changed my life. It’s a beautiful piece, and being able to play Sean in it was an honor for me.a play that talks about grief and how we relate to it and life after it. deeply emotional moments, and being able to take those hits, not only in Still life but as an actor that’s something that really excites me to do and explore. and what excites me? tomorrow excites me

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first thing would be going for a hike to the observatory, then perhaps going to Griffith park . Or the groove to chill, perhaps a coffee and some food at sightglass coffee and I would close the night with a beer at BIergarten, the one in Korea town.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I wouldn’t be where I’m at without my Teachers. who have helped me to push forward, and dive deeper in my career, and have fun while doing it. teachers like Nike Doukas, Tara Brown, H Richard Greene. Sean Cowhig and Sean Spann, and of course to The Art of Acting Studio. and Johnny Yoder. all of them changed my life.

Instagram: @salvorussildi

Image Credits
Alex(@meshinto)

Joel Luna.

Gice Silva