Lou Diamond Phillips: The return of the native

You feel right at home talking to him.

He flashes a very Filipino smile, gives you a firm very Filipino handshake, understands the Filipino language (even if he hardly speaks it), has an appetite for Filipino food, exudes a very Filipino aura (no "Hollywood air" whatsoever) and looks, that's right, very Filipino.

Welcome home, Lou Diamond Phillips!

Lou, 37 (Feb. 17, 1962), breezed back home a few days ago upon the invitation of Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to grace the premiere (Friday night at Glorietta) of his latest movie, Columbia Pictures' Bats (showing in Metro Manila starting on Feb. 23), a supernatural thriller reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Directed by Louis Morneau, Bats chronicles the path of genetically-altered bats which terrorize a sleepy Texas town.

Nominated for a Tony for his performance of the title role (as King Mongkut) in the revival of The King and I which he did on Broadway four years ago, Lou is as Filipino as adobo and pancit. His mother, Lucita Aranas, is a Filipina from Zambales. Lou is considered as the most successful Filipino actor in Hollywood today, having starred in more than 30 films and directed (and wrote) about half a dozen.

He's as cariñoso as most Filipinos are. During the following Conversation, Lou shows a flair for winning people with his natural friendliness, down-to-earthness and warmth. He's smiling all the time, and it's not a put-on at all.

How much Tagalog do you know? A sprinkling?

"A sprinkling?" (Breaking into smile) "No, a drop! A drip, tiny bits."

Like what drip of Tagalog words?

(Thinking awhile) "Nothing I can say in public!"

Oh, "dirty" words!

"When you're a navy brat, those are the words that you learn first."

Why, were you in the navy?

"No, my father was. He was stationed in (the former) Subic Naval Base from 1970 to 1974. I was actually born at the Cubi Point Naval Hospital. I don't know if many people know that."

So this is not your first visit to the Philippines.

"No. It has been a strange and some kind of erratic presence here in the Philippines. I was born here; we left before I was a year old; I came back in 1970 when I was eight years old and stayed for four years. After 1974, I never got back until I made Brokedown Palace (With, ehem, Claire Danes. -- RFL) in 1998. Hopefully, it won't be that long a stretch anymore. I hope to be able to come back every couple of years."

What do you remember from your childhood years here?

"I have great memories, wonderful memories. My mother's hometown is Candelaria in Zambales. They built a little beach resort out there in a tiny place called Pilar, also in Zambales, and I remember sleeping in the nipa hut and hearing the sound of the waves and standing out there with a lot of people from the town, you know, and pulling in the fishing nets. That was fantastic! When I was a kid, I would go out of the base and get the bolo knives, the butterfly knives. It's funny because all that practice (with the knives) when I was a kid is paying off in movies that I've done, like The Big Hit and Young Guns. As a kid, I was always using the knives."

I suppose you had your early education also in Subic.

"Yeah, I did!"

You were a Boy Scout.

(Somewhat amused) "Oh, you've done your research!"

Oh, yes, I came prepared.

"I was a Boy Scout and I remember that we commemorated the Bataan Death March. I did the jungle thing when I was a Boy Scout."

So you're familiar with the forest in Subic, with the monkeys and the snakes and all the other animals there.

"Oh, yeah, I was! We had a program called JEST -- Jungle Environmental Survival Training -- that the navy guys -- you know, the sailors -- had to go through. I also went through it as a Boy Scout. You know, if I were to be dropped in the middle of a jungle in Mindanao, I would survive."

You still remember the name of your school?

"Yeah, Binictican Elementary School."

How about your classmates?

"Absolutely! A lot of my classmates were mixed like me; they were half-Filipino, with Filipino mothers mostly. Fil-Americans. None of them joined showbiz, not like me. The guy who does most of my stunt work and coordinated all the films that I've directed, Jeff Carriente, is also Fil-American; his father is Filipino."

Are you still in touch with some of your friends and classmates here in the Philippines?

"Unfortunately, no. I don't have many relationships from the time I was here in 1974. Too much time has gone by."

It has been 25 years! Maybe they have families and children of their own, just like you.

"Right!"

Does your Mom stay with you in America?

"She has her own home in Las Vegas but she visits me and my family an awful lot. I have lots of relatives living all over California. I have a few aunts on my mother's side who live in Florida. One lives in Maryland. My Mom has six sisters and one brother."

What was your mother doing when she met your father?

"My goodness, I'm not sure if I remember! I think she was working at the Navy Base, at the exchange. She's a native of Zambales. She and my Dad, I think, met at the exchange; that's where they fell in love. Ever since then, after they got married, she was basically a housewife. She did an incredible job raising me."

You're a carbon copy of your Mom.

"I look an awful lot like her, yeah, which is very interesting. Just like a lot of Filipino women, she's very beautiful and very youthful-looking even now."

How are your brothers and sisters?

"I don't have any; I'm an only child."

How was it growing up an only child?

"Very interesting because, I think, that's one of the reasons why I tend to be loyal to my friends today, why I pull a lot of people close to me."

It's a very Filipino quality?

"Exactly! Exactly! I cook a lot at home and I want to invite a lot of people to my home. I love to entertain at home, which, I think, is also a Filipino trait. I think that's also the result of being an only child. I now have three children and we want to have at least one more. I think that comes from my desire for them to have playmates because spent a lot of time alone as a child."

Was it a lonely kind of childhood?

"Oh, it wasn't really lonely. But I guess that's probably one of the reasons why I'm an actor today. I use my imagination a lot. I like playing characters different from what I am."

I understand that you're close to your mother and she has had great influence on you. Were you brought up the Filipino way?

"We certainly a lot of values and morals which come from a very strict Filipino background. We were moving around so much and I consider myself not only a navy brat. But you know, in that respect I was raised very American. My lifestyle is very American. When I look at Filipinos who have done extremely well in the United States, or Asians in general, I can see a certain aggressiveness that I don't see in other people."

You must be proud of your Filipino heritage.

"Oh, certainly. Absolutely!"

I've read a lot of articles about you and you always emphasize your being half-Filipino.

"It comes up a lot because when people look at me, they don't have any idea that I have mixed blood; I'm very hard to pin down. I've been fortunate in Hollywood in that respect because I can play all sorts of roles -- Latino, Native American, Eskimo, etc. I'm constantly asked what my ethnic background is and I'm always happy to offer up the fact that I'm a Filipino."

Do you bring up your children the way you were brought up? You know, part-Filipino and part-American.

"It's interesting because my Irish-Italian wife from New Jersey makes good adobo. I'm half-Filipino and I also have Scot-Irish blood and a little bit of Cherokee on my father's side, a little bit of Indian."

Being Asian, was it hard for you to break into Hollywood? Was there any discrimination against Asians as Black actors claimed there was against colored people?

"I think being an actor of color in general, whether you're Japanese-American or Korean-American or Filipino-American or Alfro-American, you know, you have a harder time than somebody who is blue-eyed and blond-haired. You have to work a little bit harder; you have to try hard to stay at the top of the game. But surely, there's a lot for everybody in the business no matter where you're from or what the color of your skin is. When I first started, playing a lot of bad guys and gang-members and being pigeonholed as an actor of color, you know, the fact that I played such a sweet character in La Bamba changed a lot of people's mind about me. For a while, everybody thought I was Latino. Then I did a couple of American roles and everybody thought I was an Indian."

You're very adjustable; you fit into any character.

"Exactly! In Bats, for instance, it's, I think, a breakthrough that somebody with my background can wear cowboy hat and boots and talk like that. I guess I've been fortunate throughout my career to be able to break out and redefine my image quite often."

The La Bamba role was the right vehicle at the right time.

"A lightning in a bottle, yeah!"

Did you audition for it; fight it out, sort of, with other aspirants?

"Yeah, I had to! There was a nationwide talent search and there were about 500 of us who auditioned. They cast in L.A. and New York and then theys went to Chicagos and Miami. The last auditions they held were in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio (all in Texas). I auditioned in Dallas. They put me on videotape which they sent to California. Two weeks later, I was in Hollywood for the screen test. It was a real Cinderella story."

What do you think made you clinch the role? Your looks? Your Latino aura? Or your singing ability?

"I really don't know. I guess it was my acting ability; it wasn't my singing ability. The music was already recorded and it wasn't my voice, it was somebody else's, David Hidalgo from Los Lobos."

Oh, you're honest about it!

"Absolutely! I mean, I did my own singing on The King and I on Broadway. You know, I'm capable of singing but in La Bamba, they already did the deal with Los Lobos before I got in. I think it was my understanding of the role and the fact that I was new and fresh, that I brought some innocence into the character that made me, as you said, clinch the role."

Did you have any formal training in acting?

"Yeah. Actually, I have a degree in theater, Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas. I had also taught acting; I was an associate director at a university in Dallas. I had a long scholastic approach to acting. From the beginning, I've been serious about acting. I studied it and I taught it."

Did the inclination toward performing arts also come from your genes?

"I guess it's part of our culture. When I was doing The King and I, I saw a lot of Filipinos in the cast (Including recent Manila visitor Paolo Montalban. -- RFL). When I look at my family, I see this inclination toward the performing arts. In every Filipino party or function that I go to, there's a lot of singing and entertaining going on. It's part of our culture, isn't it? You can't break out the karaoke machine out of a Filipino family, can you?"

Has anybody in your family been into showbiz?

"My mother was a beauty queen; she won a couple of beauty contests."

As Miss Zambales?

"I don't know what the title was but I saw her picture, with a crown on her head and that sort of thing. One of my cousins on my mother's side, Fernando Ramagino, is a wonderful singer-songwriter in California."

There's this story about you... you know, after La Bamba was released, you disguised as a bell-boy to get into Robert De Niro's hotel room.

(Laughing) "It happened in France during the European premiere of La Bamba. I'm a big fan of Robert De Niro. I'm very proud to say that we're friends now. It's true. I borrowed a bellboy's outfit, ordered a bottle of champagne from Room Service and wrote a long note telling him that I'm a huge fan of his, how much I admired him, and delivered the whole stuff to his room myself. I didn't say anything when I was face-to-face with him because I was afraid he might get that I sneaked upset, into his room. But I did tell him about it the next day; I wrote him a note."

What about the incident involving Sigourney Weaver?

(Laughing some more) "Sigourney Weaver? Oh, you've really done your homework!"

I did! I read somewhere that you went backstage (after a show) and sought out Sigourney Weaver.

"It happened after Alien came out. She was doing Shakespeare in the Park in Dallas; I believe she was doing As You Like It at that time. After the show, my college friends and I waited at the stage door for her. Everybody else was saying, `We love you, we love you!' and asked for her autograph, I waited to be the last. When I shook her hand, I said, `We're going to do a movie together one of these days.' She was very gracious and said, `I look forward to it.' Years later when we were both nominated for Golden Globes, me for Stand and Deliver and she for Gorillas in the Mist, we sat at the same table and I told her about that incident. She was so amused."

You're here for the premiere of Bats (held last night for the benefit of a project of Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who invited Lou over), I know. Are you visiting friends and relatives on the side? (Lou and the Vice-President, together with her husband Mike Arroyo, met in L.A. late last year.)

"I've always said that Hollywood producers make great movies in the Philippines but the Philippines never get the credit for it. I was telling that to Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when we talked in L.A. When I did Brokedown Palace, I was here in and out for only a week. She said, `You should go to the Philippines; we should have a premiere of your latest movie...' and so I'm here. I'm also helping promote her foundation which helps underprivileged children."

What about relatives and friends here?

"I still have a few left but unfortunately, I don't have enough time to visit them." (Lou is going back to L.A. today. -- RFL)

What's your favorite among the films you've done (aside from, of course, La Bamba)?

"Courage Under Fire (with Denzel Washington) is one of those I'm very proud of. I'm also proud of Ambition simply because I wrote it. One of those little rare gems that people discover once in a while. The Big Hit was fun to do. There's also Young Guns."

After Bats, what your next projet?

"I'm doing Better Than Ever, starring Tom Berenger. I'm directing it. My other film, Supernova, with Angela Basette, is opening in the United States this week. There's also the Woody Allen film Picking Up the Pieces, with Sharon Stone, which is opening soon."

Has stardom changed you in any way as far as your being a family man is concerned?

"Hopefully it hasn't changed me at all. Early on, I said to myself I wouldn't allow fame to get in the way of my life. I was going to remain the same person I was before I became an actor. I still enjoy going to the grocery in L.A. I just wear a baseball cap and sunglasses. I go and buy my own cereal, you know. I don't allow stardom to put me in an ivory tower. I love living life."

With your feet flat on the ground.

"Yeah, pretty much. But there are certain concessions that you have to make being famous. There are certain places that I can't go. If I go to Disneyland, I'm gonna get mobbed, you know."

How are you as a father?

"Hopefully I'm a very good father. I make time for my kids. This last year I did four films on location. In one of them, In a Class of His Own, my wife did my make-up. When I was working in Toronto, I would fly home on weekends to be with my family. I call home everyday when I'm away. Just this morning, I called my daughter Grace. It's important to me to be a constant presence in their lives. I don't want them to be wondering why I'm not there during important occasions in their lives."

Would you allow your children to join showbiz?

"Certainly! I love acting, I love the business. But I think I would be instructive to them in having a lot of respect for the profession. It's a craft, an art form and I'm extremely proud of it. It takes a lot of hard work to succeed in the business. Unfortunately, in Los Angeles a lot of people just want to be famous, they just want to be stars, they don't have respect for acting, they don't study it, they don't pay their dues really. If my daughters were to go into acting, I'd make them pay their dues, I'd make them take acting classes and audition for roles. I won't try to make it easy for them."

Would you like to do another movie here?

"I'd love to. I would absolutely love to come back and stay longer."

What pointers can you give Filipino aspiring for Hollywood?

"As I told students and aspiring filmmakers at Ateneo on my first day here, first of all they should believe that they can do it. They must believe in themselves and in their talent. But then, as I was saying about my daughters, you must study, you must have respect for the profession. No one can teach you patience, so don't give up. Don't go to Hollywood; stay here first and work on your resume. Work on your experience, make movies here, do theater here, do a lot of movies. It's exactly the same thing I tell people in the States who are asking for tips. Go to Hollywood when you're ready."