Variables referencing level actors not content browser actors.

There is no such thing as an Actor instance in Content Browser. The Actor Blueprints in the content browser are the equivalent to classes.

If you want to reference a blueprint your property should be either a TSubclassOf< ASomeBaseClass > or TSoftClassPtr< ASomeBaseClass >.

You can use that class to spawn an Actor that you could assign to an instance property like you currently have.