An ‘Affair’ with James
I’M usually no kiss-and-tell but it has to be known: I slept with upcoming actor Jameson Blake. It happened only once but it forever is in my mind.
It happened in one, cold December night. We were on our way to a party where he, along with the other members of the now defunct The Hashtags, were the guest performers. We were in a spacious van. He started the conversation by borrowing my powerbank. We looked at each other’s eyes and when I reached over to give my charger, our hands touched. Being the holiday rush at the time, I decided to take a nap. I woke up and we were just halfway through our journey, I saw him sleeping too. So, yes, we slept together in the van. With the other Hashtags members. And the assigned driver. And even with a personal assistant or two.
OK, so you might say at this point that there’s nothing newsworthy about Jameson and why I am featuring him today. Well, he is now part of A Family Affair, ABS-CBN’S newest series which premiered this week and quickly rose to the top 5 most viewed Kapamilya show.
Starring alongside Jameson in A Family Affair is social media sensation Ivana Alawi along with Gerald Anderson, Sam Milby and Jake Ejercito. Set in a fictitious provincial town named General Luna, it tells the story of a beautiful girl named Cherry Red (Alawi), who mysteriously inherits a property when the matriarch of the richest family of their town, Carol Estralla, dies. Because of this, she becomes part of the lives of the Estrella family known as the Estrella Boys: Freddie (Edu Manzano), who is Carol’s husband, and their four sons—dave (Milby), Paco (Anderson), Seb (Ejercito), and Drew (Blake).
Cherry and the four brothers will grow up together. These men will develop a unique relationship with her, but most especially Paco and Dave who will both have romantic feelings for her. The two brothers will then fight over their love for Cherry, their father’s approval, and eventually the wealth of their family. The relationships within the family get even more complicated when the truth about Cherry’s inheritance is revealed, exposing deep buried secrets from the past. This ultimately tests loyalties and love they have for each other.
Jameson is elated to be part of the cast. His role as the bunso of the brothers also extends to behind-thescenes when shooting the series, as he treats Sam, Gerald and Jake as his kuyas. They help him and he is very grateful for their generosity. And he even shared that in between takes, they quickly go out of character and have fun. “Makukulit sila and masaya kasama,” he shares. “At first, I was intimidated kasi syempre kilala na sila and mas matagal na sa industrya sina Gerald and Sam but they are very nice.”
In preparing for the show, Jameson admits that he usually studies the backstory of his character— what his character’s struggles are and builds it from there. He considers A Family Affair very challenging because it’s a heavy family drama with elements of sexiness and suspense in it. There are many scenes he describes as exhausting even. “Playing heavy scenes, you really have to prepare for it. Somehow I’m going through something as my character, so I really have to put my focus, to stay in the moment as much as possible.”
A Family Affair can be seen on the iWantTFC app 48 hours before its TV broadcast. Viewers can also catch the series on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z, Jeepney TV, TFC IPTV, and TV5. n