Meet Fernanda Vilela

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fernanda Vilela. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fernanda below.

Hi Fernanda, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?

Hi, my name is Fernanda Vilela, and I’m a Brazilian actress living in LA. To answer your question, I must look back a few years before I was born.

In 1990, Brazil was trying to solve its major economic crises, mainly caused by the dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. The people and the media called one of the recovery plans the “Collor Plan” (made during the presidency of Fernando Collor de Mello); this plan had as one of the main pillars the confiscation by the government of the money deposited in bank accounts and savings of every citizen who had stored more than, what today would be around $1.500. With the promise that the money would be slowly returned after 18 months (it wasn’t), thousands and thousands of Brazilians lost everything, and my family was included in that.

My parents married in 1997, and they had me in 1998 when things were still economically horrible (for the lack of different wording). As I grew up, I watched my parents work day and night, 24/7. My mom was trying to build her career as a lawyer (working in an office 9-5 and teaching at night), and my dad worked in a paper company in the quality management department; later on, he went back to college to get his degree to become a lawyer as well.

My first contact with the idea of self-discipline happened then. My parents wanted a better life and fought for it. After my dad graduated, he and my mom decided to get a bank loan to build a law office together. It was tough, and it didn’t work; they were about to go bankrupt when God interfered and helped them and all their employees to get a new job in a new firm.

They started working there, and things began to settle. My mom wrote a few books related to her work, and my dad was growing as a lawyer. Both were still working a lot, teaching seminars on the weekends and traveling around Brazil to conferences, workshops, etc. And then, they hit a curve: my parents found out the company owner they were working for was not honest about their paychecks and was not following the agreement they had previously signed. They parted ways and decided to build a new firm. With that, they decided that they were going to be the best lawyers possible; they both learned 3 or 4 new subjects (all by themselves) to complement what they already knew about their law specialty; they wrote more books, gave more lectures, and, with all the hard work and sweat, achieved all their dreams. Their firm has won” Best Law Firm of Brazil” for several years, and I couldn’t be more proud.

Now, about me, after seeing all of that happen to them and seeing firsthand all the struggle and effort necessary to build the life they have today, it is impossible not to believe in self-discipline. After all, the hard truth is that no one will do the work for you; you are pretty much on your own.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I had known I wanted to be an actress since I was a kid, but I went to law school instead because I didn’t believe I could make it; I was too scared even to vocalize that this was what I wanted to do!! I used to self-doubt a lot, something I learned today to be useless and a waste of time.

A year of law school passed, and I realized I couldn’t avoid my dreams anymore. I had to give it a try. I grew up listening to my mom end her lectures with the saying, “I didn’t know it was impossible, so I did it,” and that’s what I was about to do.

I was studying in the morning, working in the afternoon, and following my dreams at night. It was exhausting but worth it. I felt alive, and there is no better feeling for an artist than the feeling of your “creative juice” working.

Five years passed, and I finished law school, passed the BAR exam in Brazil, named OAB, and worked as a lawyer for a year and a half. Then, at 22 years old, I decided to move to LA to pursue acting full-time and to really dedicate myself to the craft.

It was my first time living alone and abroad, and this experience made me grow a lot as a human being. I faced a lot of challenges, from “easy tasks” such as opening a bank account and finding a place to live to deal with racism. Those experiences made me stronger, and they made me understand the world outside of my parent’s wings a little better.

I learned a lot from my excellent professors (professionally and personally). Still, nothing taught me to believe more in myself and to be more self-disciplined than one comment I heard from a person I considered to be important in the industry.

This person approached me and asked about my plans for the future. When I answered that I planned to write a short film, send it to festivals, win awards, get recognition, and have people write about me, I was mocked and laughed at. I was told that that was not my story, that it was too unrealistic, that I had to come up with a different plan, and that things like that would not happen to me because I didn’t have ambition.

Excuse me??? I was shocked. It was the first time I had ever heard something like that about myself; it was the first time I had ever met someone so concerned about my dreams without knowing anything about them or me. Thankfully, if there is something I learned from my parents and my other teachers in LA, it is that “you have 24 hours to be upset. Give yourself a day to feel it, but then you pick yourself up right after; you do it again, and even better.” There will always be many people telling you what you can’t do, but it only takes one person to prove them all wrong, and this person is you, AND ONLY YOU, which, if I’m honest, increases the satisfaction once you finally do it.

I know where he (yes, it was a man) was coming from; words are just words, and dreams are dreams without a plan of action. So, I created one. In my opinion, one of the keys to being self-disciplined is organization; you have to make a schedule you know you can follow. Finding a balance between being strict and kind to myself was what worked for me.

So I did it. I wrote, produced (for the first time), starred in, and submitted my short film to festivals. The name of the short is Amentalio (@amentalio.shortfilm), and it has been doing pretty well in the world of festivals. We have just begun the submission process, and we have already been selected by festivals such as Southport FilmFest (UK), Islampur International Film Festival (India), CKF International Film Festival (UK), Best Shorts Competition (US), Cannes World Film Festival (FR), Luminax International Film Festival (UK), Top Shorts (US), Los Angeles Film Awards (US), International New York Film Festival (US) and European International Film Awards (SK) and I have already had the honor to win nominations and awards as Best Actress just like I always dreamed (Birsamunda International Film Awards, Poombukar Independent Film Festival, Top Shorts, and Korea International Short Film Festival).

The short tells the story of a couple expecting a baby when suddenly their plans are destroyed. It was a movie made for women who have been through a miscarriage with the sole goal of making them feel less alone. After intense research and interviews, this beautiful project came to life, embracing the raw emotions of this specific type of grief.

The whole process was very challenging, but it was worth it, and it was worth it in so many ways: it is something I believe will help others; I proved to myself that I can do whatever it is that I set my mind to; I learned a lot about this industry and how a lot of things work; I improved as an actress by learning how to believe in myself and in my work; I met amazing people; I learned a lot about myself and found things that I still need to work on and improve; and the list could go on and on.

I am very thankful to my family for teaching me by example that no one will or should fight for my dreams more than myself (thank you, Mom, Dad, and Sis!). Self-discipline always pays off. It is a long and tiring game, and you might lose some battles (because that’s how life goes), but in the end, you will win the war. I’m only beginning to build my path, and I know there is much more to come, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

One of the things that helps me a lot is my insane passion for acting, creating, and living different lives. It is so prominent in me that it hurts to imagine a world where I’m not doing this. If you dream like that, you most certainly give your dream a chance.

Again, without wanting to sound like a broken record, self-discipline also helps me a lot. An acting job will not knock at your door if you don’t go after it first. To start in this industry, the initial work is, I would say, 99% your responsibility: it’s up to you to find an excellent class for you that will improve your skill; it’s up to you to find a good headshot photographer; to build up your reel; to send a hundred emails to different agencies and managers seeking for representation; to learn different dialects so you can stand out; to prepare for every audition without giving up after more rejections than acceptance; to keep going against all odds and opinions; etc. In my head, to be an established actor, you need two significant things: preparation and luck (be in the right place, at the right time, in front of the right people, in the right circumstance). Self-discipline helps with the first one, and you will want to be ready when the second one happens.

The third and most challenging one, but one that really helps and saves time, is to believe in yourself. This was not something I had before; it came with the process and life, but I wished I had it in me before starting this journey. If you believe in yourself, you are already much ahead of half of the people. It can take you further and much faster.

If you are just starting out, no matter where you are, know that you are enough to make all of your dreams come true. Be unique; don’t try to fit in, be cool, or blend. Be yourself, let your personality shine, and that will be your most powerful weapon. And just keep in mind that small wins are still wins and that they deserve to be celebrated.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

Anxiety hahaha
I think this little monster comes inevitably with the job, especially if you live in a country that is not yours. I was lucky to have only encountered this evil (with that high of intensity) at the age of 24, but now that I have, I’m not going to lie—it has been hard.
I’m very priviledged to able to talk about this with my firends, I have found a great support system here in the US; they pick me up and calm me down and I hope to do to the same with them.
Anxiety comes with the “fear of the future,” and something that helps me when I feel anxious is to think, “I’m doing my best. There is nothing I can do about this right now. I can’t control everything.” This sort of mantra has been essential in my daily life, and so has remembering things I’ll never lose or things that I’m grateful for.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fernanda.vilela23 @amentalio.shortfilm
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits

The first 4 pictures are from Mateo Gamer. @mateogamero123