I’m very pleased and honored that my very first “interview” is with my friend Stelio Savante. Enjoy!
Stelio’s Bio:
Audiences are most familiar with Stelio from his critically lauded portrayal of gangster Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria in AMC’s miniseries “THE MAKING OF THE MOB: NEW YORK, his ensemble lead character ‘Bull Brittles’ in SONY’s STARSHIP TROOPERS, his recurring role as ‘Steve’ in ABC’s UGLY BETTY, his role as French art thief ‘Stefan’ in Disney’s Suite Life On Deck (the Life of Zach & Cody) and from his recurring ‘Faster Than Light’ character in the CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE videogame. New York and Los Angeles theater audiences also know Stelio from his role as Bolivar Arellano in ‘110 STORIES’, starring opposite James Gandolfini, Samuel L Jackson, Melissa Leo and Susan Sarandon at the Public Theater and NYU Skirball and opposite Ed Asner, Michael Beach, John Hawkes, Mira Sorvino and Diane Venora at The Geffen Playhouse and Ebony Rep Theater. Stelio will next be seen opposite Brian White in the drama MEDIA produced by Cathy Hughes & Sheila Ducksworth, premiering on Feb 25th on TV One and in the feature JO THE MEDICINE RUNNER starring opposite Matt Dillon and Jim Caviezel.
This American Movie award winner, SOFIE winner, Golden REMI winner & SAG Nominee was born & raised in South Africa. For his portrayal of gangster Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria in AMC’s miniseries “THE MAKING OF THE MOB: NEW YORK”; Previously TV’s Sarah Bunting stated ‘Stelio is reminiscent of James Gandolfini, I liked a certain gravitas-emblance that I saw in Stelio’. His portrayal was also praised by The Examiner’s Diane Zoller Ciatto. Further lauded reviews in South Africa & the UK for his portrayal of a ruthless policeman in the South African film COLORS OF HEAVEN, premiering on Netflix on Feb 15th. A recurring cast member of AMC’s THE MAKING OF THE MOB, ABC’s UGLY BETTY, & NBC’s MY OWN WORST ENEMY, with a healthy staple of guest star roles including opposite Bradley Cooper, Alfred Molina & Angela Lansbury on LAW & ORDER SVU.
Stelio can now be seen in five new films most recently released in theaters & on VOD/Netflix/iTunes: Rudolf Buitendach’s African film, WHERE THE ROAD RUNS OUT, Level 33 Entertainment’s BLOOD IN THE WATER, Lionsgate’s family film ARMY DOG, Peter Greenaway’s EISENSTEIN IN GUANAJUATO (Golden Bear Nominee/Berlin 2015 ) and South African film COLORS OF HEAVEN. He has a long list of Off-Broadway credits, & lead & supporting roles in studio films & US & world-wide distributed indies &, in Rudolf Buitendach’s sex trade thriller SELLING ISOBEL premiering at Raindance & in Peter Bishai’s high concept thriller RAPID EYE MOVEMENT opposite Francois Arnaud & Reiko Aylesworth.
Additional video game credits include: Command And Conquer Red Alert III and Uprising opposite Jenny McCarthy, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Mass Effect, Uncharted 3, Uncharted 4, Midnight Club, Army Of Two and 40th Day. Stelio lives in Los Angeles with his wife & daughter.
Our Conversation:
1) You have a project premiering on TV One this Saturday, February 25th at 8/7c called MEDIA. It stars some very talented people, including yourself, such as Brian White (Scandal, Chicago Fire), Gary Dourdan (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Being Mary Jane) and Penny Johnson Jerald (24, Castle). And Pooch Hall (Ray Donovan), he’s awesome.
Can you tell us a little about what MEDIA is about? Yes, but I’m going to use a blurb from TV One as it is far more eloquent than anything I could say to answer your question: Directed by Craig Ross, Jr., “Media” is described as a riveting story of a wealthy family battling the competitive challenges of keeping their status and position in the communications industry. Passion, intrigue and murder become a lethal recipe for powerful matriarch Jackie Jones and her children. Portrayed by Penny Johnson Jerald, Jackie is the founder of Jones Universal Media Properties, known as JUMP, the world’s premier urban media conglomerate. A family tragedy forces her son, prominent lead city attorney and prosecutor Michael Jones, played by Brian White, to abandon his political aspirations and take over the company, just as a ruthless rival challenges JUMP’s longtime domination of a lucrative industry. Michael is confronted by sins of the past, and the dangers of the present when Jabbar Randolph (played by Gary Dourdan), CEO of JUMP’s biggest competitor, is released from prison. Grabbing back the reigns from his brother, Will, played by Stephen Bishop, Jabbar embarks on a mission of revenge, betrayal and corporate intrigue.
Get your first look at MEDIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1lPgnhlXM
MEDIA trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv7QPRuUuvw
2) What about your character on MEDIA? What’s can you tell me about him? I’m portraying Howard Boston. An imprisoned underworld power-broker that has a long history with Michael Jones (Brian White) and uses that history and his contacts as leverage to work a deal playing the system that might have screwed him in the first place. Howard is highly intelligent, international (wait and see) and not your ‘run of the mill’ villain.
3) You recently attended the NAACP Image Awards with the cast. What was that like? It was an honor, a huge honor to attend such an important show with my fellow cast. I’m so grateful to TV One, to Cathy Hughes and all her producers for having me as a guest. The day was filled with humor, love and emotion, greatly moving speeches, it was classy, sexy, exciting, educational, and wonderful seeing friends from over the years, just an awesome experience…I felt so incredibly alive. I’d been to the SAG awards before as I was nominated with fellow lead cast on Ugly Betty, but the energy, the electricity in the air, the appreciation of great artists whose voices have needed to be heard…that was much more so evident at the NAACP Image Awards.
4) MEDIA is a TV movie but I heard that it now may be made into a television series. Is that true? Yes, that is true. As you’ve probably now seen and heard from several reliable sources and interviews; Media is now a series. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks but I can confirm that Media is definitely now a series.
5) How has it been filming MEDIA with this cast and crew? A rich, highly memorable and rewarding journey. I’m blessed to part of this for many reasons. We have a visionary, supportive producing team (Cathy Hughes, Sheila Ducksworth, Susan A Banks, and more), creative team (Craig Ross Jr and Kevin Arkadie) and cast and crew. Everyone took their job seriously but not themselves. There were no egos, just a collaborative team effort in the pursuit of artistic integrity and excellence that I’m confident will elicit a great response from the audience based on several screenings and Q&A we’ve already had. I’ve known Brian White for a while now, and what a stand up guy. Former pro football player, Wall Street broker, successful and talented actor and producer with a great brain, a family man, he has it all. And we got to mix it up a little…I enjoyed taking many risks working with him in our scenes, thanks to our amazing director Craig Ross Jr and gifted writer, Kevin Arkadie.
6) How is MEDIA different from other projects out there? Media is defined by its honesty. The audience is brought into a world where all the characters speak in their own language, and have a journey that is expressive and unique to their culture without having to apologize for it; and without having to be defined or mischaracterized or stereotyped by someone outside of their culture. Hats off to the entire producing and creative team. Craig brought it home as our conductor!
7) You recently had a movie you shot in South Africa, your original homeland, premiere on Netflix here in the US and the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand called Colors of Heaven. Yes and Netflix Latin America too. Can you tell me a little about it? Colors is based on the true story of Muntu Ndebele whose life was changed forever by the Soweto Uprising of 1976. It takes place over a few decades and deals with his friendships and love interests; and it is ultimately a story of love conquering hate. Shot on 35mm film, directed by NY based Canadian director Peter Bishai which I thought was a brilliant choice (not having an SA director because it needed to be provocative and made for a US audience). Too many South Africans on both sides have a complex about Apartheid and are very immature about putting it into art; because they expect to see it told a certain way. So they have a complex about Apartheid the same way that the US did about Vietnam. But out of complex based on atrocity rises the art that is Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon. And in SA’s case; Colors Of Heaven. We’re excited to be on Netflix and are very grateful for the tremendous critical support from journalists and film festivals alike. I would sum the film up as Slumdog Millionaire meets City Of God with a hint of Romeo and Juliet.
Colors of Heaven Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXQDIOncvKY
8) You’ve been acting for some time now and have a large body of work. Yes, there were over two decades of theater and dedicated studying of the craft from a raw level to a far more refined form of storytelling in NY before I moved to LA. In Deborah Kampmeier, Robert X. Modica and Bill Alderson, I’ve been lucky to study with the best of them. Although I was born and raised in South Africa, I did no acting there. I studied and learned and continue to study and learn my craft here in the States. Around 80 or so film/tv projects and probably close to 100 plays in the last 25 years (I just finished another production of the play 110 Stories, this time with Mira Sorvino, Robert Forster, Mark Pellegrino, Nicki Micheaux, Diane Venora and others) and I have NY and LA to thank for that.
a) what character do you feel was the toughest for you to change into? Three roles where I’ve portrayed real people. Bolivar Arellano in 110 Stories, Joe Masseria in AMC’s The Making Of The Mob, and David Sarnoff in Nat Geo’s American Genius. There’s such a fine line of feeling the responsbility of bringing authenticity (of the pulse and the heartbeat of the core of the real men and what drove them); and then making it my own and leaving everything else behind. But I embraced the terrifying cliff fall and ultimately it set me free in the role everytime.
b) what is the most extreme change you had to make for a role (personality, body weight etc)? For the role of Joe Masseria on AMC’s The Making of The Mob I gained around 25 pounds. I was so so close to playing the same role on Boardwalk Empire but my reps told me that at the last minute, someone closer resembling Masseria got the offer. I didn’t want that to be an issue this time around.
c) what is your favorite role that you have done? Tough one to answer. Toss up between the Martin character in Where The Road Runs Out now showing on Netflix (I got to improvise and be loose and silly and not care) and the Nate character in the upcoming film Avalanche (the character is not the usual alpha male that I play; he intellectualizes everything first and I liked going against the grain of the natural instinct of most of the characters I’ve played the last twenty years).
9) Can you tell me of any upcoming projects you have? Yes. Several soon to be released films. Jo The Medicine Runner opposite Matt Dillon and Jim Caviezel, directed by the brilliant David L. Cunningham. No Postage Necessary opposite George Blagden (Vikings, Versailles), Michael Beach (The 100, Pitch) and Charleene Closshey (An Evergreen Christmas) directed by Jeremy Culver. Rapid Eye Movement opposite Francois Arnaud (Blindspot, The Borgias) and Reiko Aylesworth (24) , directed by Peter Bishai, and the above mentioned Avalanche opposite pals Gideon Emery and Autumn Withers and written and directed by Todd L. Green. Moving forward I have an offer on a series shooting in Colombia for a week but cannot share anymore info than that. I’m also a recurring character on Call Of Duty named ‘Faster Than Light’ and I’ll be taping that for months to come.
Anything else you’d like to add? Yes. A big thank you to Danielle Reaume. For being a real person. For caring, for listening, for being there. You haven’t asked any questions about my struggle with Celiac Disease and Hashimotos disease which have not only changed my physical appearance, but also presented huge challenges with struggles in the form of major depression and suicidal tendencies (thank you Hashimotos disease for that). But you were there for me in my darkest days, my wrestle with self-hatred, my struggles with my demons, and in my days of recovery after my solitude. Thank you for that Danielle, thank you for being you. Thank you for your heart. I would recommend to anyone with depression, specifically artists….request a brain chemistry test. Learning about your serotonin and gaba levels can change your life for the better.
Lastly, a little fun. I call it “Take Five”
- Three words YOU would use to describe you? Unpredictable, passionate, spiritual
- Favorite animal? Elephants
- Favorite book? The Bible and Animal Farm
- Favorite non-work related thing you like to do? Traveling, Hiking, but quality time with my daughter dwarfs everything else.
- If you had a piece of biltong (South African beef jerky), would you share it with me? Heck no, I don’t share my biltong or my droewors with anyone lol.
Stelio can be found on the follow social media sites:
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767445/
IG and Twitter: @steliosavante
Facebook: www.facebook.com/steliosavante
A short montage of 15 clips of Stelio’s work can be found here: https://vimeo.com/204115827
And there you have it, folks. Directly from the man’s own lips…err…fingertips.
I want to thank Stelio for his honest and informative responses, and for kindly accepting the position of “guinea pig” for my first Kit ‘n Kaboodle conversation. He is one of my favorite people on this planet, and I wish him nothing but health, success, joy, love and peace for the future. And always.
Incidentally…I’m fine with Stelio not sharing his biltong. Yuk! 🙂
Until next time, thank you for stopping by. Feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think.
And if you know of someone in the “arts” – actors/actresses, musicians, screenwriters, literary writers – and you’d love to see them interviewed, please have them drop me a note or send me their contact info.
Blessings to all.
The Kit 'n Kaboodle 