Eddie puts gay character in right perspective

Years back, Eddie Garcia played a screaming faggot in Paru-Parong Buking (with George Estregan and Eddie Rodriguez, both deceased) which you, if you’re insomniac, can catch in later-night TV re-run. Recalled Ricky Davao (as Eddie’s lover), “Tito Eddie was very playful. When the director shouted ‘Action!’ during our bed scene, he slipped his hand into my private part and pressed it.”

In Bwakaw, an entry in the 2012 Cinemalaya, Eddie again plays a gay character but this time quiet, reserved and gentle, reminiscent of Colin Firth’s gay in A Single Man and that of Christopher Plummer in Beginners who won a Best Supporting Oscar for it.

“I love the role,” Eddie told Funfare Update in a one-onone. “Pag titingnan mo, lalaki siya; hindi siya mukhang bading. It’s as good as the pasaway old patient I played in ICU No. 7 in Cinemalaya 2005, and in the two other indies I did not for Cinemalaya, Ika-10 and 100 Years.”

All four indies were directed by the new breed of directors. Himself an A-list director, Eddie toes the line, so to speak, and gives input only when very necessary, take it or leave it, no hard feelings.

“If I feel that a scene may be done better,” said Eddie, “ibinubulong ko na lang sa direktor ko. It’s up to him to follow it or not. I don’t impose.”

The gay Eddie plays in Bwakaw is an old unmarried man in his twilight year, living by his lonesome with only his pet dog as companion and preparing for his final farewell by buying his own casket, sorting out his personal effects in boxes tagged with names of receivers.

Starring with Eddie is Armida “Tita Midz” Siguion-Reyna