Dexter Doria in a lead role
After four decades, she plays her first major film role in Paki
The Best Picture of the 2017 Cinema One Originals Film Festival, Paki, directed by Giancarlo Abrahan, stars Dexter Doria as a fed-up wife who ends her marriage after 50 years of putting up with a philandering husband. “How can I refuse the role of a lifetime? Ninety percent of the movie, I was there,” reflects the AB Humanities University of the Philippines graduate. “This is the perfect time. Indie films give you a chance.” Paki also won Cinema One’s Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Ricky Davao.
To act without shedding tears is something new to Dexter and, all throughout the film, Abrahan’s battle cry to his actors was to “act” with no melodrama. She was accidentally discovered by the late director Emmanuel “Maning” Borlaza. She brought her friend, actress Nympha Bonifacio, to the set of The College Girls (1976). When Borlaza saw her, he told the crew to have her made up, to replace an actor who was absent. At that time, Dexter was working for a company that produced car parts and mufflers. Though she was in a hurry, she agreed to one scene, but “after my scene with Eddie Gutierrez, I had to leave and go back to the office!” Dexter recalls.
Borlaza wanted to add more scenes and, realizing that Dexter was gone, he was infuriated. “Sabi niya, ‘Lahat ng artista nahawakan ko na: Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos, Hilda Coronel, Pilar
Pilapil, walang nag pack-up ng sarili nila (He told the crew, ‘all the actresses I’ve handled, not one abandoned my set),” recounts Dexter.
But all’s well that ends well. Dexter met Borlaza again at a friend’s house and he recalled her being nice to him. “Sabi nya,
‘Ang bait, bait mo sa akin,’” she muses. “You were trying to entertain me, but you didn’t even know that I was a director.’ So Nympha and Borlaza concocted a plan to make her an actress. “And Nympha never told me.”
For four decades, she has played minor roles until Paki landed on her lap. How does one sustain the longevity in the entertainment business? “Pakikisama (camaraderie). For me, it is knowing your place,” stresses the 1978 FAMAS Best Supporting Actress nominee for Inay (1977).
Being a diva or having grand illusions that you were born a star is a no-no for the veteran actress. “For every actor or actress, there are about 5,000 or more, so you can be replaced in a heartbeat.”
Is her character, Lola Alejandra who waited 50 years to end her marriage, anything like her? “Me, just two days. First offense, that’s the last,” she laughs. “If after the first offense, you give him a chance, he’ll do it again. Once I’ve moved on, I’ve moved on. No looking back.” The “single again” actress has no plans of getting into complicated relationships anymore. C1 Originals 2017 will have an extended theatrical run until Nov. 28 at Powerplant Cinema and Black Maria Cinema.