Sara Sampaio On 'Superman' & How Modeling Prepared Her For Acting

Sara Sampaio, bombshell — it’s the word she’s been unable to shake for the past decade. She’s worn the bra, fronted its namesake perfume (Bombshell Intense, still available at a mall near you), and done a makeup tutorial for Vogue on how to get her “easy bombshell makeup look” (2.4 million views and counting). It’s a word that pays off big time when you’re one of the top Victoria’s Secret Angels and an in-demand runaway and campaign model. But when you’re trying to make it in Hollywood, it’s an albatross around your neck.

“Because of my background in modeling, I do get [sent] a lot of arm-candy roles, or prostitutes, and usually, there’s not a lot of substance in them,” Sampaio, 33, says. “I always say that I look sexy until I open my mouth. I look like a femme fatale, but I don’t really take myself too seriously and I don’t see myself as this sexy man-eater that a lot of the times I portray in the photos.”

Sampaio had her sights set on performing ever since she was a kid growing up in Portugal. “I’ve just always loved putting myself in other people’s shoes,” she says. “It’s almost like I get to live so many lives in this one life that I have.” She even planned to study acting at university, until her family demurred. “Obviously, my parents were like, ‘Just go take a normal degree and then we can do that on the side.’ Then I started modeling and neither happened.”

After she was discovered at age 16 in a local modeling contest, Sampaio’s career hit warp speed when she walked her first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2013. She quickly gained official Angel status and spent most of her 20s as the face of the brand. But in 2018, she decided to move to Los Angeles to get back to her original dream. Two years later, COVID shutdowns offered an unlikely assist. “In a way, it just gave me a little bit of time to really focus on it because a lot of the classes became online,” she says. “I was actually able to commit time to it without feeling guilty that I’m saying no to jobs.”

While the industry regained its legs after lockdown, Sampaio found herself in the rut of reading for the arm candy. Then came an unexpected script. “It came under a crazy name, but we all knew what it was for,” she recalls. “They had the code name, but I knew what character I was auditioning for, so it was like, OK, well, it’s Superman.”

Specifically, James Gunn’s Superman reboot, then, and still now, two weeks from its official release, one of the hottest commodities in town. The role: Eve Teschmacher, personal assistant and love interest to the villainous Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult).

“I think everyone should go blond once in their life.”

“I remember getting this audition and thinking, ‘Oh, I know exactly who this person is. I knew exactly how I would play her,’” Sampaio says. “But at the same time, I was like, ‘They’re probably going to go with someone more experienced.’”

In fact, she recognized her competition at the callback — “I left the room and saw this other girl who was way more experienced,” she recalls — but knew she crushed it anyway. “I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so proud of myself. I did the best that I could. And I have a feeling like I might book this.’”

“I look like a femme fatale, but I don’t see myself as this sexy man-eater that a lot of the times I portray in the photos.”

Teschmacher is a fairly new character to the Superman universe, having first appeared in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie. Because Teschmacher lacks the detailed comic-book lore of other characters, Sampaio sensed an opportunity to “give her depth” in the film.

“She is so fun and extra, and those are the characters that I just love to play. There was a lot of comedy timing in the way it was written. But there’s more than meets the eye,” Sampaio says. “It almost mimics where I am in my life, where everyone sees me as this sexy model, but I don’t really feel like that. In a way, this character was a therapeutic way of me playing into the way I am perceived and the way that I am really.”

“I’ve just always loved putting myself in other people’s shoes. It’s almost like I get to live so many lives in this one life that I have.”

The key to bringing Teschmacher to life? Dyeing her hair blond. “That was the hardest part,” Sampaio deadpans. “I’m joking, but it is funny because throughout my modeling career, I’ve said no to being blond so many times because it was never the right project. I’d be like, ‘I’ll go blond if you pay me a lot of money — or it’s for a movie.’ And then my first big movie: ‘Actually, we want you blond.’ The first two weeks, I kept looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘Who is that?’ In a way, I almost had a little identity crisis. But in the end, it was great. I think everyone should go blond once in their life.”

As Sampaio settles into this new era of her career, she’s found a community in fellow actors, including Hoult — whom she first worked with years ago on an Armani campaign — and her boyfriend, Ray Nicholson, son of Jack. But Sampaio, as it turns out, was more prepared for the job than she thought. “There’s so many facets of modeling, and my favorites were always when you really get to be creative,” she says. “I remember doing this French Vogue shoot where I looked like a little boy, and then the next day, I had this crazy makeup, and it’s still one of my favorite shoots. You’re creating little characters, but it’s still superficial.” Acting allows her to take those little characters and make them big.

Plus, “if anything, what modeling really has prepared me for is just how comfortable I feel in front of the camera,” she adds. “When you’re in lingerie in front of hundreds of people, there’s not much left to be ashamed of.”

Top image credit: Coach shirt and jacket, Talent’s own jeans