Meet Tales Ordakji | Actor and Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tales Ordakji and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tales, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Since I entered kindergarten, I participated in several activities aimed at end-of-year presentations of my own free will, in elementary school. Around the age of 10 I decided to do theater without any intention of pursuing a career, I did it just for fun and passion. At that age, I had no idea that acting could become a profession, that I could make a living out of it. It was only in my sophomore year of high school that an art teacher gave the class a lesson on professions, which opened the eyes of the whole class to doing what we really like, not what is imposed on us, either by our parents or out of concern for making money, I thought a lot about what I was passionate about doing, and soon came to the thought that it was acting, I cleared some doubts and in the same class we went to the computer lab to research courses, and I researched performing arts courses at my city. From then on I discovered that my school taught circus, I entered and developed mime and contortion skills. Following that, I started acting in theater the following year and a year after graduating from high school, with enthusiasm on the surface, I entered two theater schools at the same time in 2015, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening. And even today, after graduating from both schools, I continue to seek improvement, both as an actor and also as a producer of my presentations and films. I discovered my passion for acting in cinema through a feature film called Sócrates, which won a category at the Spirit Award, considered the Oscar of Independent Cinema. From Sócrates, I met my current fiancée, Cibele Gonçalves, during the production of the film, where we set up a film production company in my city, aiming to create original stories and teach audiovisual to interested parties.
I followed this career because it is where I find myself alive, where I do what I was born to do. I was born to create, invent and make people happy with my creation, whether in drama or comedy, bringing the satisfaction of a well-told and artistically elaborated story is, today, one of the talents and gifts that God gave me to fulfill here in this world.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Creating original stories that engage the audience is one of the greatest challenges and joys in creating. I started my career as a theater actor and, little by little, I migrated to cinema and audiovisual, working as a screenwriter, director and producer. I work on my own projects together with my fiancée, Cibele Gonçalves, in our production company called “Atado no Ato”, where we try to portray fictional stories that come from our region, aiming, in addition to entertaining and generating reflection to the work, also to bring a feeling of belonging for its residents and dissemination of the history of these places to other people in the world. It is not easy to follow this artistic career, as well as any other career, being an emerging artist, who fights to have his space for creation in the era we are in is extremely complicated, there are several market and financial factors that, sometimes, are impediments to creation , but with joy and thirst to accomplish, we managed to overcome these barriers little by little and show the work we were assigned to. All practice leads to perfection (even if it is impossible to achieve it), practice, constancy and dedication make human beings fully realized in what they want to do. There may be times when we find ourselves discouraged by the adversities of life, but when that moment occurs to me, I soon remember that the bad times will pass, and that if I create and dedicate myself, regardless of what I feel, I will soon be happy and everything it will be resolved.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First, I would take you to visit the Submarine Outfall Quebra Mar, in Santos, where there is a huge sculpture by Tomie Ohtake and several sports and cultural activities happening simultaneously. Afterwards, I would take a cultural tour of the city’s theaters, theaters like Teatro Guarany, where I trained as an actor and we would certainly watch a show, and finally, we would have dinner at Street Tolentino Filgueiras, where there are several gastronomic options in the city, being recently elected Street of Santos Gastronomy.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my message first to God, through Jesus Christ, who without Him would not be alive and would not be able to do what I do. I also dedicate to my mother, who has always encouraged me to follow this path since childhood, to the Municipality of Santos, which offered (and still offers) free training courses in Performing Arts, every year, for interested parties, I am one of the graduates of this public policy focused on culture.

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talesordakji/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talesordakji

Youtube: https://youtube.com/atadonoato

Image Credits
L.F Mutti, Denise Braga, Cibele Gonçalves, Walkiria Ordakji.