Not your usual love story from Maja & Dennis
Direk Chris Martinez has many things going for him when he entered showbiz.
First of all, he is a playwright who can dissect characters inside and out and second, he is familiar with stories with unusual variations and third, he is a screenwriter who knows what will work on screen or not.
He once intimated earlier: “Directing and writing are two different animals. As a writer, I try to be very concise and detailed about the script. Everything has to be there. When I direct, I try to separate myself from being a writer. As a director, you aim for a more visual result rather than too many dialogues. As a director, I go beyond the output of the writer. You are concerned with how to make the film more inter - esting and how to make it visually appealing as well. It’s like having two persons in one human being.”
When he learned from Regal Films that the cast for You’re Still The One is final, he went out to review the script and was a bit alarmed when the character given to Maja Salvador will get into a lot of beds scenes and lots of body exposure not just for Dennis Trillo but for Ser Chief Richard Yap who has a very wholesome image.
The director wondered there and then, “Will Maja agree to do everything indicated in the script?”
The first order of the day for him is to have a one-on-one meeting with the cast to take up the delicate scenes in the script.
One thing he will ask the actors is: Will you give the role everything you’ve got, lot of skin exposure and all?
For Dennis, there is no such thing as giving the part only a token percentage of his acting ability. “I like giving everything to a role if it will contribute something meaningful to the movie. I know I work better when I trust the director and when I know I can define the role even beyond what the script will call for. Being thoroughly involved with your role is the only way anything can work in any project.”
Dennis knows whereof he speaks because televiewers still recall how real and intense he was as the lover of Tom Rodriguez in My
Husband’s Lover and far more riveting as an obedient police officer in The Janitor.
Those roles simply erased his matinee idol image and like it or not, he joined the league of the most reliable actors in Philippine cinema.
For Maja, working with Dennis and direk Chris was both a challenge and a chance to learn more about actor-director collaboration. “At one phase of my showbiz career, I dreamed of someday working with Dennis Trillo. It was a big thrill that I will not only work with him but he will be around as my leading man for the project. When you admire an actor, naturally you have more adrenalin to tap to make the best out of this partnership. Because it doesn’t happen all the time. As for direk Chris, I have worked with him in It’s Complicated and he’s a joy to work with because of the all-out trust he gives his actors. In the beginning, you have to find out for yourself how he works and what he expects from actors. In this latest project, it is a breeze because we are more open when it comes to discussing delicate scenes. When you get that kind of trust from your director, you are, of course, inspired to go beyond what is asked of you for the sake of a good portrayal.”
Direk Chris adds: “You work with actors always with the thought that every actor is different and every scene doesn’t always call for hysterical confrontation. Hindi lahat na oras humihingi ako ng luha (It’s not all the time that I require tears falling from actor’s faces). But the story in You’re Still the One is one hell of a challenge because you deal with early love and then transitions and the parties earlier involved met again and realized they still have something left for each other. It’s a challenge how you can make this work on screen and more of a challenge how you can motivate the actors to give their best. Because this is not your usual love story. When stories like this come, you accept it and hope you can make something memorable out of it on screen.”
One asks Maja how she treats past relationships and do they make one a better actor when reel and real-life stories merge in one project?
Maja rues: “Of course, you learn something from any relationship even when out of the blue, they end like anything else. You enjoy it while it lasts. You savor every sweet moment while it’s there. When suddenly it ends, I like to remember the good moments and just bury the sad ones. I move on very fast. But when my relationship ends, I make sure my partner will remember that I was — at one stage of his life — really worth loving as a woman.”
You’re Still The One, starring Maja and Dennis and directed by Chris, opens on May 27.