We were lucky to catch up with Rodrigo Borges recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Rodrigo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
“Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals”, created by Bitter Karella!
I had been a fan of their work for YEARS before they announced that a comedy podcast/radio drama would be holding an open call for its main cast, and when I saw that, I knew I had to give it my best shot.
Though I auditioned for every masc-presenting character, I ended up getting the role I wanted most– legendary American horror writer Edgar Alan Poe.
It was a dream come true; Poe having been my favorite horror writer growing up. I joined a cast and crew of extremely dedicated and welcoming people, who made me feel like I could do anything just by the virtue of counting myself among them.
The first Season we recorded was a dream. Phenomenally written dialogue supported by a one-in-a-million audio editor, as well as genuinely incredible vocal performances by my fellow voice actors pushed me to give it my all in every episode. I ended up not only performing the role of Poe, but also the great vampire himself Count Dracula in one of the episodes– a performance that helped me grow as a comic in ways I never expected.
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, we’re finally getting to work on Season 2, and another dream is coming true for me. I grew up extremely lucky; surrounded by as many books as I could manage to devour. One of these books was The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien– a body of work which changed my life back then and continues to serve as a foundation for everything I do.
It’s my pleasure to say that I’ll have the honor of playing Professor Tolkien himself in one of the episodes, and as an aside– it still doesn’t feel real.
Being part of a project based on a Hugo-nominated microfiction is not only a privilege, but also the kind of thing that pushes an actor to give 100% and beyond; especially when one is surrounded by such dedicated and excellent artists.
Being given the chance to do the work, to get down to the nitty-gritty of the intense research required to understand these REAL people and find a way to embody them in funny and heartwarming ways that would make them, above anyone else, laugh heartily at a respectful and accurate charicature is the greatest honor an actor could ever ask for.
Rodrigo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was born and raised in Brazil, and began studying English when I was three. Although I had always been an artistic kid, the day I was granted a scholarship to the New York Film Academy I was faced with a chance I’d never get again: the opportunity to become the first person in my family to come to America and receive an international college education. I knew I couldn’t let it pass. I arrived at LAX on January 2015 with two suitcases of clothes, 100$ in my wallet, and a place to stay alongside 3 other roommates whom I had never met before.
Eventually, I graduated top of my class from NYFA’s Acting for Film Course, and knew I had made my family proud. Since then, I have dedicated myself wholeheartedly to the arts. From screenwriting, to music production, and of course to acting– both on screen and as a voice actor. I also became a streamer on Twitch, and a content creator on TikTok, where I have recently accrued 10.000 followers, which is huge for me!
As a tri-lingual writer, actor, musician, streamer, director, and producer, I find myself in a very good position to tackle the arts from as many directions as I can possibly want at once, and I’m proud to stand not only as a Brazilian artist in the industry, but also a fervent defender of workers’ rights, no matter who they are or where they come from.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Society and Art are a symbiotic duo. You can’t expect a culturally-illiterate society to understand and absorb art, and you cannot expect art to truly touch members of a society if it doesn’t understand them intrinsically in return.
The road to expanding a country– and the world’s –culture starts in a place that seems to be more and more ignored by society at large: at school.
A child’s first experience with literature, be it classic or modern, be it conservative or liberal, traditional or radical, must be encouraged; to challenge a child’s notions of the world, to push them to question themselves, their surroundings and upbringing, as well as authority figures in their lives; all of this nurtures a critically-thinking, culturally-literate, highly-empathetic person who can not only understand and absorb art and its many messages, but also a person who can feasably undertake art as a career (as difficult as it may be) and be the disturber of the status quo they want to see in the world.
In order to support artists and creatives, society must support its own people and give them the time, space, and resources to wind down– to put down their labor and enjoy the fruits thereof for the purposes of enriching their own cultural, intellectual, and emotional lives.
In the Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx wrote: “The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt– your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.”
A society which does not, in both education and in art, pursue to think, love, read, and theorize more becomes slowly but surely illiterate to any message an artist might try to convey, and as such makes the work of an artist meaningless.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
As a Leftist and an Artist, nothing disgusts me more than the commodification of imaginary and meaningless forms of currency for the exploitation of the worker under the disguise of “supporting artists”.
The King’s Clothes are invisible and he appears naked, but here’s a token that pinky-promises us all that he– and only he –owns the clothes which he assures us he is wearing. As the King parades down the street, in his totally-real clothes, a passionate tailor goes hungry, because the King, fool that he is, chose to be the patron of a charlatan who left him naked and deluded, instead of an artist that might have revolutionized fashion in their time.
The lie that NFTs “support artists” stands on straw stilts, since anyone looking to support artists can, simply, support an artist. “Minting” a token that represents the ethereal ownership of some make-believe commodity or currency is an extra step created by money-hungry middlemen with the sole intent of exploiting everyone and everything that crosses their path– so atrophied are their own souls and personalities that they become the aristrocatic-charicatures of medieval Europe, and suck the blood of all they encounter like crypto-peddling vampire drug dealers.
If you want to support an artist, all you have to do is look anywhere on the internet for someone that touches your artistic sensibilities and look for their Ko-Fi, or their Patreon, or their PayPal– which they will undoubtedly have linked and prominently displayed on their social media profiles. From there, commission them– like a Renaissance Patron of Old, to create a work of art unique to you, that no one else will ever be able to own should you choose to keep it for yourself.
Everything NFTs pretend to be, art has already been for thousands of years. The only difference is that instead of having the Mona Lisa to hang on your wall, the “artist” gave you a paper slip that says you own it, even though the painting is at the Louvre.
NFTs make Kings of all those who buy them, none of which can escape their invisible clothes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rodrigoborges.my.canva.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecommanderrod/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigoborgespro/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TheCommanderRod
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommanderRod
- Other: https://www.twitch.tv/thecommanderrod
https://www.tiktok.com/@commanderrod
Image Credits
All images are mine.