2016 was a year worthy of a standing ovation for Manila’s cinematic talents. And better yet, this memorable year for Philippine film looks like it’s maintaining steam with the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) that’s chosen indie creations over mainstream features.
PeopleAsia is proud to say that it’s featured a number of the silver screen talents that star in some of the MMFF’s highly anticipated films like the legendary Nora Aunor, hunky Jericho Rosales and beauty Rhian Ramos. Here, we give you an insider’s look on these thespians’ innermost thoughts, musings and aspirations.
Nora Aunor
(Photography by Mau Mauricio MAU MAURICIO)
(Nora Aunor is sure to make another hit with the film Kabisera | Photo from the Metro Manila Film Festival’s official Facebook page )
Once upon a time, life was hard for her and her family that there was one Christmas Eve that she and her four other siblings (she is fourth in the brood) just shared a piece of pork adobo, which her father Eustacio, a stevedore at the train station, brought home, for Noche Buena. Her mother Antonia was a seamstress.
“My parents taught me to always be respectful, not to say bad words about other people,” Nora says of the wisdom she learned from her parents. Silently, they taught the young Nora to always be there for her family. “I became giving, very giving in fact, because I learned it from poverty.”
Always, always, it is her eyes that would always be noticed when she acts. Those eyes run a gamut of emotions. Dialogues, many times, do not do her justice. Nora is loudly heard when she is silent, when she just conveys her feelings of joy, despair, envy, hatred and loneliness through her eyes.
“I have made a total of more than 160 movies,” Nora says. She also conquered the legitimate stage for the PETA productions of Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo and DH (Domestic Helper). Nora is known as the actress who would request for a retake even if the director was already content with the intensity of her acting. “I am a perfectionist,” she says. – Büm D. Tenorio
Jericho Rosales
(Photography by SARA BLACK)
(Jericho Rosales is part of this much awaited sequel | Photo from the Metro Manila Film Festival’s official Facebook page)
Showbiz aficionados and chroniclers have closely monitored how this muy simpatico hunk from Marikina City made his mark in the industry from his debut splash in a male personality TV contest to being one of the hottest, leading dramatic men in the circuit.
“More than all these awards and accolades, what has more meaning is when you know your purpose in life and realize that you have reached out to people, that you see how your portrayals and interviews have moved and touched them. It’s winning their hearts that proves to be more inspiring and motivates me to do better in my craft,” the screen heartthrob reveals.
Being a tourism honcho, a producer and a director is also in his wish list, having worked on a couple of music videos in the past.
“I do and accept work that will inspire people and avoid projects that will cause them to stumble. My goal is to show them that life is good because it is God’s plan for me to be here. I want to share it with people that life doesn’t just end; it’s knowing your part in society, your part as a human being, and knowing the reason behind your existence that makes me driven,” he shares.
“I crave for more wisdom. I would like to think that a lot of these blessings are coming as bonuses, as gifts and as rewards. I try to enjoy them and just continue to serve my purpose in life and do what I do best,” he concludes with a flash of his pearly whites. – Greggy V. Vera Cruz
Rhian Ramos
(Photography by FRANK HOEFSMIT)
(Rhian Ramos in MMFF 2016’s Saving Sally | Photo from the Metro Manila Film Festival’s official Facebook page)
Rhian broke into the scene more than half a decade ago, as the apple of the eye in some popular fast food commercial. Soon after, she found herself transformed from commercial model to one of the small screen’s most prominent ingénues, the type that many a hated villainess has dunked into a toilet to complete her melodramatic fits of rage.
All that changed though with her starring role in GMA Films My Kontrabida Girl (My Antagonist Girl), where she plays the meanest villainess of them all, opposite matinee idol Aljur Abrenica. And while the two leads’ chemistry is easy on the eyes (at the very least), it is Rhian’s highly anticipated faceoff with Philippine Cinema’s quartet of sheer, female evil, Cherie Gil, Maritoni Fernandez, Gladys Reyes and the legendary Bella Flores that keep tongues wagging.
It was a welcome breather for Rhian who often plays the role of the aggrieved lead, in some tearjerking evening drama. “It was a good challenge for me, because usually ako ang sinasampal, nilulublob sa toilet (I’m usually the one being slapped, dunked in the toilet). This time though, it’s my turn,” she says with a naughty grin.
And as many would remember, Rhian became subject of a much hyped internet scandal in late 2011.
But it’s often said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Yet for Rhian, not even life, in all its maladies, was able to turn her heart to stone. And if her clothes, and newfound love for colors like salmon, corals and whites are any indication, one can say that Rhian, then 21 at the time of this interview, has started to embrace her womanhood for all its strengths and weaknesses, assets and flaws.
“Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and I’m surprised at how I look. And I can’t help but tell myself, ‘There’s something different about you, and I just can’t put my finger on it,” she concludes, as the smile of a woman in peace breaks on her face.
Indeed, this girl has turned into a woman, and what a woman she promises to become. – Jose Paolo Dela Cruz
(The MMFF 2016)
