As a mannequin who has coated numerous magazines and walked style week runways from New York to Milan, Sara Sampaio is not any stranger to the transformative energy of hair and make-up. However she all the time had one rule: “I’d by no means colour my hair.” That’s, till she landed the onscreen function of Eve Teschmacher in James Gunn’s Superman movie. “Once I was modeling, I might all the time joke that I’d solely go blonde for a job,” Sampaio tells Observer. “Then, clearly, my first huge function, they’re like, ‘Truly, we wish you to go blonde,’” she laughs.
Born in Portugal, Sampaio’s lengthy, brunette hair was a part of her signature look as she climbed the modeling ranks—from her very first Victoria’s Secret Trend Present in 2013 to her function as Armani Magnificence ambassador in 2018. But modeling was by no means a part of her plan. “I’ve needed to behave since I used to be a child, after which modeling sort of occurred and I took on the chance,” she shares of prioritizing her work as a mannequin for practically a decade. Shortly earlier than the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Sampaio determined to maneuver to Los Angeles to pursue her childhood dream, enrolling in appearing courses that might shortly change to Zoom periods in the course of the peak of the pandemic. “In a approach, it allowed me to catch up and actually deal with dedicating myself to studying the craft with out feeling responsible that I’m lacking out on jobs,” says Sampaio.
After a handful of roles in smaller movies and tv collection, Sampaio received the decision for her largest audition but in the summertime of 2023. “I bear in mind studying the half and being like, ‘I do know precisely who this character is,’” Sampaio says of her introduction to Eve Teschmacher, assistant to and girlfriend of Lex Luthor, performed by Nicholas Hoult. “I labored on it with my coach, and I had a number of enjoyable with my self-tape, however I knew the possibilities of me getting it had been very slim.” A number of weeks of silence adopted earlier than Sampaio—who was in Portugal launching her seltzer model, Phunk—heard any information. “I flew again to L.A. to do my chemistry learn with [director] James Gunn and Skyler Gisondo, and I believe the subsequent day I discovered that I received the job.”
Whereas many of the film was filmed in Atlanta, Sampaio’s on-set expertise started in a extra distant vacation spot. “We spent about 10 days in Svalbard, which is a bunch of islands within the Arctic Ocean close to Norway. That was the very first thing we filmed, and it felt like winter camp,” she says of assembly her castmates. “It was a very cool expertise, and it was an excellent bonding second as effectively.”
Earlier than heading to Svalbard, the place the film’s Fortress of Solitude scenes had been filmed, Sampaio needed to do some character analysis. “For me, it was all about constructing her backstory and the motivation behind why she does what she does and why she likes who she likes,” Sampaio says of the selfie-obsessed Teschmacher. “Eve isn’t actually within the comics; she’s from the Richard Donner motion pictures [1978’s Superman and 1980’s Superman II],” she explains. “I watched these motion pictures, and I fell in love together with her. Though this Eve is so trendy and she or he’s a really comedic character, I nonetheless needed to maintain that harmless, child-like character that the unique Eve [played by Valerie Perrine] has.”
Additionally serving to Sampaio tackle the function of Teschmacher was her blonde hair. “I went to Jacob [Schwartz], and it took 11 hours,” she says of the single-session course of, which primarily consisted of highlights. “It will be so bizarre to look within the mirror and never acknowledge myself,” recollects Sampaio. “I do know that most individuals can be like, ‘It’s simply hair,’ however it’s all the time been such an necessary a part of who I’m as an individual. It was a little bit little bit of an identification disaster, however on the similar time, it actually helped me to get into the character.”
Now again to brunette, Sampaio jokes that she’d gladly go blonde once more for extra Superman. “The film has a lot coronary heart, and it’s one thing that we’d like proper now; one thing optimistic, and galvanizing, and longing for all ages,” she says. “I took my nieces, who actually loved it, and even my grandma—she’s virtually 90, and she or he fell in love with David [Corenswet]. Days after Superman hit theaters, Sampaio shared her present necessities—from the Erewhon smoothie she will be able to’t dwell with out to the face masks she turns to for an at-home spa day.
