Rodrigo Junqueira Reis Santoro (; born 22 August 1975) is a Brazilian actor. He is known in Brazil for his appearances on local telenovelas, and internationally for his portrayal of the Persian king Xerxes I in the film 300 (2006) and its sequel 300: Rise of an Empire (2014). Other credits include Brainstorm (2001), Carandiru (2003), Love Actually (2003), Che (2008), I Love You Phillip Morris (2009), and Rio (2011), What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012). He also appeared on the television series Lost in 2006, portraying the character Paulo, and on HBO's Westworld (2016–2020).

Biography

Rodrigo Santoro was born in Petrópolis, the son of Francesco Santoro, an Italian engineer with origins in Paola, province of Cosenza, in Calabria and Maria José Junqueira dos Reis, a Brazilian artist of Portuguese ancestry.

Career

In 1993, while studying Journalism at PUC-Rio, Santoro entered the Actor's Workshop of Rede Globo. He went on to play parts in many of Globo's telenovelas, such as Olho no Olho (1993), Pátria Minha (1994), Explode Coração (1995), O Amor Está no Ar (1997), Suave Veneno (1999) and Mulheres Apaixonadas (2003), as well as the miniseries Hilda Furacão (1998), in the role of a priest. Santoro also voiced the titular character in Stuart Little and its sequel Stuart Little 2 in the Brazilian-dubbed versions.

His first major role in a film production came in 2001, with Bicho de Sete Cabeças (Brainstorm) from Brazilian director Laís Bodansky. By the end of the film, he received a standing ovation from the audience. He also went on to win the festival's best actor trophy. After Bicho, his reputation as an actor had been solidified and he was cast as the male lead in Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun), one of the nominees for best foreign film in the 2002 Golden Globe Awards. In the 2003 Hector Babenco film Carandiru, he played Lady Di, a transgender prisoner.

American director Robert Allan Ackerman signed Santoro for his TV production The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone after being mesmerized by his performance in Bicho de Sete Cabeças. Since Santoro did not have an agent in North America, Ackerman contacted Santoro's father. He spent two months filming in Rome, alongside such actors as Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft. Soon after he finished shooting for Mrs. Stone, he received an offer from Columbia Pictures for a part in the blockbuster Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. This role kick-started his career in Hollywood. After Charlie's Angels, he played Karl, an enigmatic chief designer and the love interest of Laura Linney's character, in the romantic comedy Love Actually.

Santoro began obtaining work in the advertising business as he appeared in a commercial campaign with Gisele Bündchen in 2002. He played the male lead in No. 5 The Film, a three-minute-long commercial for Chanel, directed by Baz Luhrmann alongside Nicole Kidman in 2004.

In 2006, Santoro joined the season three cast of the ABC television series Lost as Paulo, a survivor of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash. His first appearance was in the episode "Further Instructions", and his character was killed off in the episode "Exposé". He also voiced the character in the Brazilian-dubbed version of the series.

Santoro was cast as Persian emperor Xerxes I in Zack Snyder's film 300 (2006), based on the Frank Miller comic of the same name. The job had many special requirements, which included intensive workout for the physicality of the role (Santoro had previously lost to star in a Brazilian miniseries), extensive CGI work to portray the 6'2" Santoro as the seven-foot God-King, a four-and-a-half-hour makeup application process and the complete removal of Santoro's body hair first by waxing and then by shaving when waxing proved too painful. His eyebrows were kept intact, however, covered over with prosthetics and drawn in rather than being shaved. Santoro read the works of Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian, in order to prepare for his part. Regarding Xerxes, he has stated:

After playing the footballer Heleno de Freitas in the 2012 film Heleno, Santoro co-starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2013 film The Last Stand before playing Garriga in the Will Smith drama film Focus (2015).

Santoro played Jesus in the 2016 historical action film Ben-Hur and received personal blessings from Pope Francis for the role.

In October of the same year, it was confirmed that the actor would return to soap operas after twelve years in Velho Chico, written by Benedito Ruy Barbosa, playing the role of protagonist Afrânio in the first phase, alongside Carol Castro.

Personal life

Santoro was in Ribeirão Preto for the premiere of the 2011 film Meu País, directed by André Ristum. As the character Marcos, in the award-winning feature film, he emphasized his strong relationship with the city and the reasons that led him to select it as one of the locations for an avant-première: "My mother's entire family, Junqueira Reis, is from Ribeirão Preto. I've been coming here since I was little. I have a strong relationship with the city.

Santoro dated actress Luana Piovani for three years, from 1997 to 2000, until it was discovered that she was cheating on him with businessman Cristiano Rangel. He dated model Ellen Jabour from 2004 to 2008.

He has been married to actress and presenter Mel Fronckowiak since 2016. The two were purportedly introduced by an assistant director of the soap opera Rebelde, on RecordTV, in which Mel was one of the protagonists. After the soap opera, Mel was left without the flat provided by the broadcaster and, at Santoro's invitation, she started living in his apartment, in Leblon. The couple started dating in mid-July 2012 and kept their relationship discreet for 1 year. Santoro proposed to admit the relationship in public, at the launch of Mel's book, at Shopping do Leblon, in Rio de Janeiro, where the actor joined thousands of the actress's fans to receive his personal dedication in the book, on 25 August 2013.

In January 2017, Santoro and Mel announced that they would become parents for the first time. The couple's daughter, Nina, was born on 22 May 2017.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Other nominations and honors

• 2004: On People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful list 2004

• 2006: 12th position on People Magazine's 2006 Sexiest Man Alive

• 2008: 16th position on E!'s 2008 Sexiest man of the world

References

External links