Filipe Valle Costa on Scoring His Big Break with ‘Snowfall’ [Exclusive Interview]

When Snowfall makes its debut on FX this Wednesday, audiences will be introduced to Filipe Valle Costa. Though he has had some small parts on shows like Blue Bloods and Gotham, Costa says that Snowfall is basically his “big break.”

I recently got the chance to talk with Costa about Snowfall and what it was like to find out he scored his first big role.

“It’s my first series regular opportunity. It’s the first time that I’m shooting nine out of ten episodes,” he said of the John Singleton drama. “It doesn’t really get any more fun and exciting than this. I grew up watching his movies.”

Snowfall is set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles. Costa plays Pedro, the son of the leader of the drug cartel.

According to Costa, Pedro may seem “cocky and showy” in the pilot, but viewers will get a different perspective on episodes two and three. “You get to see what’s underneath instead of what’s just on the outside,” he said.

Through Pedro, viewers will get to see what it means to grow up as the son of a powerful man and what he has to do to live up to the image of a cartel boss.

“I guess my character ends up compensating in all the wrong ways, which is a fascinating journey to go on,” he mused. “It’s not a predictable one. It’s very exciting.”

Getting a job as a series regular on an FX drama was big news for a guy who came to the United States as a teen, insisting to everyone he was going to be an actor.

“I left Portugal at 17, telling everyone I was going to go to Hollywood,” he recalled. “I was young, and it felt like a silly dream, and it also felt very much like something I could achieve.”

Costa studied at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa and the University of Florida, where he received is Masters of Fine Arts in Acting before heading out to New York. There, he worked as a tennis coach and at Applebee’s while auditioning.

“When you’re in Iowa or Florida, it is very easy to dream. But once you arrive at the reality of New York, and you wake up every day and do sixty auditions and never hear back…then it’s your reality, and the dream sort of fades away,” Costa said.

“This is one of the most beautiful jobs in the world, and I couldn’t see any other way.”

Fortunately for Costa, his hard work and persistence paid off.

“When I first heard that I got [the role on Snowfall], it was the same day that Portugal had won the Euro Cup. To be perfectly honest with you, I was running around the streets of New York with the flag of Portugal, and all of a sudden I got the call from my manager saying I got it,” shared Costa.

“My girlfriend was there, and she started crying. It was just a really emotional moment. I couldn’t believe that those two special things were happening at the same time.”

However, Snowfall’s premiere isn’t the only one Costa is looking forward to this July. He is a huge Game of Thrones fan and would love to play a Stark on the show.

“That family just shattered my heart,” he said. “When Sansa and John saw each other finally, and they finally meet — I was a baby. My girlfriend had to hold me in her arms. This family has gone through so much.”

Be sure to catch Filipe Valle Costa on Snowfall premiering this Wednesday, July 5th at 10/9c on FX.

*Featured image credit: JSquared Photography

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