Meet Thomas Augusto dos Santos Claro | Actor & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Thomas Augusto dos Santos Claro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Thomas Augusto, how do you think about risk?
I believe risk taking is something every person should do in life, and multiple times. I know that it’s much easier said than done, and it can be scary, of course, but after overcoming the challenges, the reward can be so much bigger than the fear of taking the first step towards the risk. I always thought that I should do what I wanted as a career rather than choosing to stay in the comfort zone and follow an “easier” and safer path. I want to be an artist, I want to entertain, I want to be able to express myself, feel other emotions, be other people, play different characters. Risk taking is really worth it, because otherwise, we would never know what could have happen and how our lives would have been if we just played safe, afraid of the discomfort. We would never know how happy we could be by following our dreams and the life choices we truly want in our hearts. And even though taking this type of risk might not be encouraging, and many people might talk us down and change our minds, our life is ours only and we deserve to live it going after our objectives, no matter how risky our choices might be to go after them.

Taking risks have played such an important role in my life and career. I know there are other risks I want to take, and many more fears and challenges I want to beat, but the biggest step I have ever taken so far has been the decision to move to the United States from my country, Brazil, to pursue an acting career. I have decided to come here and to go to college to study what I wanted, which was theatre. Leaving the city where I lived almost my whole life, in Brazil, was a huge move to me. I remember all the mix of thoughts and emotions, and how this decision was important for my future and my entire life in general. And now, here I am, living in the United States, and I don’t see myself moving back to Brazil, or any other country. I am happy to be in this country, and to be able to build my life here. This important decision I had to make was, probably, by far the biggest risk I’ve ever taken, but it was so worth it. Now I am much closer to my goals than I would be back in my home country. Only one risk I decided to take was enough to change my whole life and get me to start the career I always wanted to have. If one decision caused so much impact and changes in my life, who knows what else I can live by making other choices and taking big risks again? I can’t wait to find out!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well, I am an actor, so my art is all about storytelling and bringing emotion and life to someone who is not me, but is who I have to find in all the details and clues a script provides. My art involves my style of playing and becoming a character from the information on the pages of the project I am doing. I like experimenting and thinking outside the box to do something different, but at the same time, what is the vision of writers, directors, producers. I love having creative freedom to give my interpretation of what I understand from the story and its circumstances. I have been in many productions that I had the pleasure of acting in. They include many films, web series, instructional videos, plays, and more. Some of the work I acted in has received awards from festivals, including international ones. I also helped produce some of the projects I was in. In all of my jobs I had the chance of playing a range of characters, from drama to comedy, and I could play with different emotions, which was amazing. I continue to have classes and I constantly seek the improvement of my craft and the range I can play. There are still a lot of stories I want to tell, and I want to be prepared to always do my best. I have many ideas in mind of the types of characters I plan on portraying, and I want to have fun doing it, while I do a great job.

What sets me apart from others is my background and the experiences I’ve had so far in my life, that shaped me and taught me to be who I am today. I had the opportunity of living in two different countries with completely different cultures. I lived most of my life in Brazil and got used to a lifestyle that I really enjoyed, but when I came to the United States to live here for the first time, for a year, as an exchange student, I already liked the cultural shock and what I learned. When I moved to the United States, I had the opportunity of living the differences again, and it was a great experience. The combination of the “two lives” I’ve had so far, in Brazil, and here in the United States carry a lot of experiences, situations, emotions, and moments that I can use in my art. A lot of my acting is based on personal memories that I use to connect to the characters I play and to make them real. What I lived in my life is mine, and nobody can take it or change it. And it’s the same with every other person in the world. Every artist is unique. What makes art so special is this characteristic of being so personal. And this is why every actor is unique, like myself, because we are artists, and we bring our interpretation of life to the stories we tell. This is what sets me apart from everyone else.

What I am most proud about is how much I learned and evolved since I started pursuing acting as a career. My attitude changed a lot, and I am working more and more to reach my goals. I have been studying constantly to improve my craft, dedicating a good amount of my time with classes, study of scenes for self-tapes, auditions, editing my own clips, and it makes me really proud. I learned editing, which is something I had no idea how to do before I started acting, I found all the information I needed on how to become an actor, I found Facebook groups, courses, people to network with, and I had a lot of progress since the beginning. I know I will be even prouder when I learn more about the show business. The next step I have in mind is to write, direct, and produce my own short film, and to act in it, of course. I want to do it and then submit it to festivals. When I stop to think, there is a lot of I have done that makes me proud of. What I am excited about at the moment is the near future and how much I will grow in the industry. I have short and long-term plans, and I am working on them a lot, so I am excited to see what happens next and what I will achieve in the near future.

I got to where I am today professionally, first, thanks to my family and their support. They have been amazing to me and they believe in me. Family, to me, is one of the most important things in life, and it is a priority to me. Having my parents support my career choice and cheer whenever I get an acting job is the best thing I could ask for. The second reason why I got to where I am is myself, for having the courage to take the necessary risks to come to the United States and go after my goals, no matter what others said, what fears I had, or how comfortable it would be to stay where I was my whole life basically. Also, I had a great change in my approach to go after what I needed. I became more and more active, doing research, reading, learning, talking to people, making phone calls, zoom calls, going to events, all to bring me knowledge and ways of understanding the path I needed to follow, and the actions that needed to be taken on the way. I moved to the United States without any idea of how a production casts its actors, without knowing the basics of a talent agency, or a manager, without knowing the different types of classes we can take, and how the show business worked. Now, years later, I am really proud of myself and how I changed positively. How I know the ways of this career much better than I did before. And I enjoy helping some of my close friends that are becoming to act and work in productions now, with tips that helped me, so I can help them. I hope my friends reach their goals in this industry, and I am working to reach mine. I am at a much better place professionally than in the recent past, but the road is still long ahead, and there is much more that I want to do for my career, and many more places I want to go.

I definitely cannot say it was easy, because it was not. I overcame many challenges to get to where I am today, and the first one was definitely to choose if I should take a major moment of courage and enter an airplane to move to the United States. The months, weeks, days, hours, and the last minutes before I entered the aircraft were really tense, full of anxiety, doubts, fear, regrets, so many thoughts and visions of the possible future I would have if I stayed in Brazil, and the future that I knew was not gonna just come easily, but would be much more realistic and achievable with me living in the United States. After the airplane landed and I stepped out of it, everything became a little bit easier. The first two big challenges I had overcome; the decision of moving here, and the trip itself. After this, the challenges still came, but they were usually not so big as the ones previously mentioned. Other situations came, such as the need to meet people in my field and create relationships that could help me be in productions. This is something that we never stop doing in show business: connecting, meeting new people. But I have to say that the beginning was very challenging for me. Now, I have many friends and people I can count on all over the country. And even though there was a lot of anguish in the moments of uncertainty and doubts, every little thing that I could adjust and adapt to, or overcome, the feeling was always amazing. When we go through a complicated moment and the storm passes, the feeling of victory is one of the best things. So yes, there were many challenges and there are still many, but I am working daily to beat each one of them and keep looking ahead and going towards my goals, getting closer to reaching them, step by step.

The lessons I’ve learned along the way are to never give up on this career, no matter the challenges I am facing, because everything happens for a reason, and in uncomfortable moments is when we grow and become better. I’ve also learned to live with rejection and to get used to it. Actors are rejected all the time, from agents, managers, casting directors, producers. But sometimes it’s not because we are doing something wrong, but just because we are not a fit for a production, or we are not the type the reps are looking for to add to their roster. And that’s okay. The rejections happen a lot with all the actors, and they happen much more than the bookings of jobs. So this is an important thing that I have learned and I am getting more and more used to. We actors need to do our best, prepare as much as possible, give everything we can, and move on to the next audition or submission. I believe that getting used to the rejection and knowing a “no” sometimes is going to become a “yes” in the future, and knowing that the rejection is not something personal, is the biggest lesson I can learn in this industry. I have also learned that an actor is never done with training. Acting classes are really important to make an actor constantly evolve and become better and more skilled. Not only training is really helpful, but also working. Being on set is essential, because we learn the job by doing it and being in contact with the professional environment. These are all very valuable lessons I’ve learned in my journey.

What I want the world to know about me, my career, and story is that it’s been a long way so far, but it’s going to be much longer ahead. And if I was able to travel this much, I know I will be able to go much further than I have. I want to make acting my main career and my focus, but I also want to experiment in the future with some other types of art, like writing forms, such as poetry, screenplays, books, and more. I want to keep telling stories in the most diverse ways possible, and contribute to the Film and TV industry in other ways as well, helping people produce their ideas, and creating my own. Also, I would like to encourage every person to also follow their dreams, no matter how crazy or seemingly impossible they might be, and take some risks, because it is worth it. Knowing you are in the right direction you are meant to be, and where you will feel the happiest, is priceless. It’s everything. And I really enjoy knowing that despite everything that was pushing me against it, I chose to do what I wanted for so long and didn’t have the courage to do before, and I finally took control and started going towards my goals. I will always be an artist and a storyteller. That’s what I am most certain about myself, and that’s why I am so confident that I am on the right track to fulfill my objectives.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend, who is a childhood friend from Brazil, was visiting the area, he would probably arrive around lunch time, so the first thing we would do is go to an In-N-Out Burger so he can try their amazing hamburgers. I would take my friend to Hollywood, because when I think of Los Angeles I think of two things mostly: The Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Hollywood Sign. These are two of the first spots I would show my friend. We would drive in Los Angeles to the Walk of Fame to find some stars of our favorite artists. Then we would see the TCL Chinese Theatre, since it’s there as well. After that I would like to show my friend the Hollywood Sign, one of the most incredible places because it makes me feel like I’m in a movie (of course). After seeing the sign, I would go to Griffith Park so my friend and I could hike to The Wisdom Tree and see the best view in the entire city, looking at all the buildings in the distance, the landscapes, and all the beauty of this amazing place that is Los Angeles. After appreciating the Burbank Peak, where The Wisdom Tree is, we would go back down and visit the Griffith Observatory. The outside of the observatory is already one of the prettiest places in Los Angeles. We would enjoy some time there, see the inside, and then after that, we would go back to Hollywood Boulevard to have dinner in Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood. This would be one of the best things I could do with my friend; showing so many places that I like. I would also go to Venice Beach on another day, walk a lot on the beach, get scooters and ride around the city a little. Then I would take him to the Santa Monica Pier. Another one of the best locations in Los Angeles. There, we could have lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Forrest Gump is one of my favorite films of all time, and going to this restaurant is a great experience and brings me nostalgia from the times that I watched the movie. Then we would walk more in the city, because I love the vibe of walking on the streets and leaving the car behind for a while. The scooters are also great, of course. Another place I would definitely take my friend to is The Cheesecake Factory there in Santa Monica. It’s one of my favorite places to have a dessert or a coffee with a great slice of cheesecake. I would have another day to drive to Malibu and enjoy the beaches there, the landscapes, and the beauty of that region. I would take my friend one day to eat at Johnny Rockets, which is also in Brazil, but I am not sure my friend ever tried it. If he did, we would go anyway, because I love it. I believe a tour through Beverly Hills would also be interesting, because it’s another famous region and I think it’s very beautiful. And, finally, I would visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with my friend. There is so much culture and history there, and I really enjoy spending hours at museums, looking at everything I can, and reading as much information about it as possible.

These would be some of the locations that I would show my friend. These places are the most fun, interesting, and have the most exciting people in the area. I like how diverse California is, in general, and it’s all reflected in the city of Los Angeles. I simply love the artistic vibe, the idea of freedom, the different tribes, and the amount of things that we can do in this amazing location to be entertained and have fun. I believe I mentioned a good number of my favorite attractions in the county, and some of the best places to eat, in my opinion. I would say some of these spots are a must for someone’s first visit to Los Angeles, and I would gladly be a tour guide to my best friends.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There is a group that I would like to dedicate my shoutout to. They are called Hollywood Winners Circle (HWC), a group created by Wendy Alane Wright, a Hollywood Talent Manager who developed a course and this community of actors, coaches, talent managers, agents, casting directors, and other professionals in the industry. There is a Facebook group where we share headshots, our wins, stories, ask questions, have our questions answered professionally by the industry specialists, we share monologues, scenes, receive critique, and it all helps us grow as actors. There are also weekly zoom meetings with experts in the show business, three times a week, and we usually have coaches, managers, casting directors teaching each class. The course is an amazing opportunity and a blueprint for an acting career, which helped me a lot to become more professional and competitive in this market. It is a great way to network and build relationships, meet actors from all over the places; different states in the USA, but also other countries. I now know actors in different states, and also in Pennsylvania, where I live. The actors from Hollywood Winners Circle have group chats on Facebook, which helped me record self-tapes for auditions, when I didn’t have anyone available where I live. We have a specific group chat to find readers and help one another. This is a great tool to have, because it allows artists to work together and even to collaborate in their own creative projects.

Who deserves a little credit and recognition in my story are Wendy Alane Wright, the creator of this community and main coach of the group, but also Sean Miguel Perez, who is an actor and talent agent from Australia, and one of the most important coaches we have, and who conducts many of the zoom meetings, being responsible to make them happen. Both of them are great people, so kind and helpful. I won’t forget when they helped me after one of the zoom sessions and spent a lot of time helping me choose new headshots. We went through the whole proof together, with hundreds of pictures, only to choose the best ones to be retouched. Both of them are really important to make my career happen. I chose a headshot photographer that was on a list of professionals they built, that has names and options of photographers from all the states. Thanks to them, I built an industry standard resume, and took other helpful actions they helped me and so many actors take, such as choosing some of the greatest acting schools and coaches to learn the craft and business of acting from.

Website: https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/ThomasAugusto

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomas_augusto_tom/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-augusto-actor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_tom_augusto

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomas.augusto.actor

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThomasAugustoActor

Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thomasaugusto

Image Credits
– My headshots (the ones I am wearing a flannel with a gray background, the ones I am wearing a rust-colored outfit with a brown background, and the one I am wearing all black on a dark background) were taken by photographer Roy Cox. – The photo where I am wearing dark blue, next to a bigger group of people, was taken by photographer Lafayette Bell at the set of the film Sleepers, by writer and director Mike Fox, Crystal Fox Films, and Unlimited Eminent Productions.