Rodiney Santiago finds his groove on "The A-List"
Red-hot Rodiney Santiago has come a long way since first getting our attention as the "eye candy" on the arm of "The A-List: New York"'s Reichen Lehmkuhl. Logo's reality-soap chronicled the crash and burn of their relationship, which culminated with Rodiney moving out on the weepy Reichen on the first episode of the new season. Although break-ups aren't easy, for Rodiney it turned out for the best.
So if it hasn't already become obvious, Rodiney is taking the new season of "The A-List: New York" more casually, and with more control. He's comfortably immersed himself in the New York scene, no doubt helped by his top-selling pin-up calendar that has earned him a legion of fans. There is another one on the way shot exclusively by his "A-List" cast mate Mike Ruiz.
Meeting Reichen
His life of obscurity immediately spun a 360 the minute that the "A-List" cameras were positioned on him, but it wasn’t as if Rodiney hadn’t already been working hard on his career. "I moved to Miami in 2008," he tells me. However, working the sun-drenched sands of one of the hottest fashion capitals in the world wasn’t as exciting as he had initially hoped. "I’ve always been more of a fitness model, doing swimsuits, y’know - not so much fashion. But I wasn’t very happy."
He always fancied something bigger for himself and left Brazil in pursuit of better work and financial opportunities in the States. The agency to which he was contracted kept him busy enough in Miami, but he was eager for something more.
"I was thinking of moving to LA. I wanted to do some acting... but I had to work on my English first." Santiago was well aware of some of his limitations, but he wasn’t lazy. "I came to this country with dreams - I wanted opportunities. I’m the kind of person that dreams big." He could have challenged himself by remaining in his native Brazil and establishing his celebrity, but he recognized that his ambition was drawing him to a success that could only be achieved in the United States.
"At about that time I met Reichen," he recalled. Lehmkuhl actually convinced Rodiney to give LA a shot. He suggested that Santiago come out with him to California for a month, take some acting classes, and perfect his English in order to give stardom a shot on the West Coast. However, as fate would have it, Reichen was cast in the off-Broadway play "My Big Gay Italian Wedding" in New York City.
Had his reservations
It was when Rodiney accompanied Reichen to the casting for "A-List: New York" that the show producers recognized him from a hosting stint Santiago did on Logo’s travel show "Bump" (which features the talented Charlie David). "They asked if I wanted to do it too," Rodiney revealed. At the time Santiago and Reichen were already seriously into their relationship. The pair undoubtedly looked appealing to the casting directors, who were searching for a diverse cast to accurately depict the "gay world". Santiago was about to add an additional spice to the still evolving cast list.
He had his reservations. "I’m a Pisces and we go with the current. I live like that - I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but this is me." And the second the cameras started rolling, the scrutiny begun. "I had no idea what was going to happen," Rodiney insists. There were fights. There was jealousy... bitchiness and cattiness - and oh yes... bodies were hurled and fists were swirled! Notably, in the first season’s most notorious episode, Rodiney and Austin were in a brawl that sent the other cast members scurrying.
Newest guilty pleasure
All this drama has turned "The A-List: New York" into the newest guilty pleasure next to the "Housewives". Yes... (as the show’s ads express) these housewives have balls.
"I didn’t expect all the negativity that came out of the show," Santiago confided. Immediately he and most of the cast found themselves blindsided by the considerable backlash the show engendered. "People attacked me for no reason." The cast mates became the targets of harsh critics who felt the show was an over-indulgent, mean-spirited caricature of the gay community in America. "Some people are jealous," Rodiney suspects.
But Santiago quickly became acquainted with the dishonesty of ’reality’ TV. "When I started to do the show I didn’t know any of these people." And unlike real life, in the reality world you don’t get to choose your friends. He says, that perhaps, his cast mates’ impressions of him were colored in an effort to increase the drama. His relationship was dissected on a weekly schedule by millions of viewers. "People will think that my relationship was a hell," he says, "but that wasn’t all of my reality." The cutting room floor is undoubtedly littered with the tender moments that Santiago says perhaps didn’t appeal to the producers of the show.
A lot of pressure
After all, the show’s ratings depended on the indulgent, excessive, and overtly dramatic nature of their lives.
"It’s sometimes a lot of pressure," Santiago says about the fact that the show insists that its cast indulge in "A-List" lifestyles. "And who is to say that we’re ’A-List’? I really am myself on the show." And he insists, "I work very hard." He’s referring to the first season’s depiction of him as a struggling model, but Santiago never took advantage of Lehmkuhl during their relationship - emotionally or financially. They both struggled. "New York City is tough," he states in a matter of fact way. With his ambition and self- belief, Santiago progressively strove [especially during the show’s hiatus] to turn things around for himself.
As for the critics that have cited the constant subtitling that is used to "clarify" what he is saying on camera, he also takes that criticism in his stride. "Someone had said to me that it was humiliating," he says about the subtitling, "but I don’t see it that way at all. You have to be pretty special to still be on television [in America] and be speaking in English with a heavy accent." Incidentally, along with still mastering English, Santiago speaks his native Portuguese and Spanish. So he’s actually trilingual... as well as bisexual.
Yes, you read that correctly, Santiago is equally comfortable playing on either team! Although "switch-hitting" while in a dating situation is not Rodiney’s style. He prefers to keep things as uncomplicated as possible in his relationships. "We’re a very sexual people," he says of his Brazilian culture. The single-life, as Season 2 will reveal, is treating him very well.
And with that new season all ready in full swing, Rodiney is emerging as a much more defined and articulate personality. Without his relationship distracting him, he’s focused on being happy. "Nobody on that show is better than me," he says with a smile. "We’re all the same." Santiago is prepared to take the golden ring handed to him, and pursue his wider ambitions. And if anyone dares to get in his way: "Bitch please!" Well let’s just say, Rodiney Santiago’s is a formidable force to be reckoned with - who looks good when he’s getting down and dirty (as the upcoming calendar shoot will reveal). Stay tuned!
To keep up with Rodiney and the rest of the ’A-List’ cast check out "The A-List: New York" on Logo every Monday night at 10pm. Check your local listings. And to stay up to minute on Rodiney’s life behind the cameras, visit his website at www.rodineysantiago.com.
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