Mother Lily woke up ‘like this’
Be positive! That’s Regal Matriarch Mother Lily’s mantra and it works. Good karma.
Thursday morning, Aug. 24 (after the opening day), Mother Lily “woke up like this,” to borrow the title of her company’s new movie starring Lovi Poe and Vhong Navarro, which took P5M (no padding, please!) at the tills. Waking up “like this” (a favorite expression of millennials) for Mother Lily was waking up with a big smile. Oh well, even when her movie doesn’t click, she still wakes up although only with a little smile. Be positive, remember? Better luck next time.
Two months short of her “exciting 80s,” Mother Lily showed her positivity by, well, “letting bygones be bygones” and included “old friends” on the guest list at her 78th birthday dinner (last Aug. 19) at the posh Choi Garden in Greenhills.
“Let’s all be happy,” said Mother Lily, “it’s toxic to be keeping negative feelings.”
The other night, Mother Lily and daughter Roselle Monteverde treated movie writers to a victory dinner at the newly opened District 8 Bar (also in Greenhills), celebrating the success of Woke Up Like This which has so far posted a P60M gross (and counting).
“I owe a lot to the movie press,” admitted Mother Lily. “Regal won’t be where it is without the help of the movie press.”
Vhong was present with his manager, director Chito Roño, while Lovi relayed her message in a video clip (she’s in Paris to grace the wedding of Dr. Vicki Belo and Dr. Hayden Kho today). Cora Waddell, Yana Asistio, Raikko Mateo and the movie’s director Joel Ferrer joined the celebration.
Chilean-born American actor Pedro Pascal returns in the third series of the gripping Netflix show Narcos reprising his role as Agent Javier Peña.
Narcos Season 3 is three times grittier as the series chronicles the real-life stories of the drug kingpins of the late ’80s and the corroborative efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. It details the many, often-conflicting forces — legal, political, police, military and civilian — that clash in the effort to control cocaine, one of the world’s most valuable commodities. Also known for his notable role in the immensely popular Game of Thrones as Oberyn, Pascal in the following Q&A (conducted by Netflix guys exclusively for Funfare) shares what it’s like to be back in the latest season of Narcos (available in Netflix starting yesterday, Sept. 1).
What is it about this character that really intrigued you and made you want to take on that role?
“It’s interesting that the experience of
becoming a part of the project was totally a gut instinct experience because I’ve been allowed to develop the character that I play who’s based on a real-life character who’s on the ground floor of the investigation for Pablo Escobar (a Colombian drug loard). It’s interesting to have been given complete license to interpret the tone of the character while staying committed to actual events and real history. I’ve never experienced anything like it because no one said, “Listen Peña is like this.” You know. There were circumstances that he’s absolutely tied to because it’s so fact based storytelling and there’s so much history involved in Narcos, but tonally we were given complete freedom to interpret it on our terms.” Does Season 3 feel very different?
“I think Season 3 is very different than Season 1 and Season 2 for our audience and for the characters involved, for the surviving characters involved. I think it’s as much of a surprise to Peña as it is to anyone that he is still here, especially for all the s--t that he got into in Season 2. And you know, to kind of break the rules as much as he did, and for that to turn out to be the very reason he’s promoted in, in a way is as much as a surprise to him as it will be to our audience.
“Being in an elevated position, as far as his environment is concerned, is also strange for him in that there is a fish out of water feeling for Peña because this isn’t a person who does his job in a tie, you know, or from an office. It’s just a different beast as far as the Cali Cartel is concerned. We’re not dealing with one king, we’re dealing with four. And it’s far more insidious and its reach is more expansive. And different for the characters because it’s just a completely new beast. So it’s a new fight, it’s a new war, it’s new tactics, new strategy and I think the characters are discovering that at the same time as the people watching the show.” Just talk a little bit about that perception
of you know, having taken down Escobar, how he feels after the death.
“I think that the death of Escobar is a very complicated issue for the character Javier Peña because, 1.) it is the achievement of the ultimate goal and 2.), he wasn’t there. There wasn’t anyone that could be more a part of it, and yet he wasn’t a part of it, which is true to the story. And I think that that’s somehow kind of like opens up a sort of midlife crisis,
kind of depression. And strangely opportunity that is bittersweet, and yet a chance for him to kind of redeem himself in a way.” Just talk a little bit more about who the Cali Cartel is and how they’ve been operating.
“I think the best way to put it is saying you cut the head off of a snake and three more appear. In this case, four emerged and the teeth are sharper. I’m very glad that that was highlighted because that is the best way to describe the Cali Cartel is a rival cartel to the Medellin Cartel that exists in such contrast, almost in every way to the Medellin Cartel, over which Escobar was king. Narco terrorism was being basically invented by the likes of Escobar and his Narco traffickers. Cali was different. The Cali people were ‘businessmen’ and they looked like it. They played the role very, very well.”
You mentioned that they’re like businessmen, what is it about this new cartel that makes them so dangerous?
“I think the most dangerous thing about the Cali Cartel is how insidious their operation is. Playing the role of businessmen so well is because they know what they’re doing. They have the entire city under surveillance, their operation works perfectly and for it to work perfectly their reach has to be very far. That means they’ve got to be in the pockets of politicians, they’ve got to be in the pockets of businessmen.” (E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo. com. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)