Direk

Count direk Rory Quintos as one of the (millions) of diehard Vilmanians who adamantly refuse to remove their idol, Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos, from the pedestal.

"I must admit that I was star-struck on our first day of shooting," admits direk Rory who has finally realized her long-cherished dream of directing Vilma in a movie, Star Cinema's Mother's Day (May 10) offering Anak, scripted by Ricky Lee. "Every one knows that Vilma is a seasoned actress (a Star For All Seasons), so I was very careful; so careful, in fact, that I was hesitant to give her directions dahil I thought baka ma-offend siya. I couldn't tell her to do this and to do that. That's it: I was completely star-struck."

But not to the point of being mesmerized, though.

"Soon," adds direk Rory, "it was Vilma herself who put me at ease. She's a big actress, all right, but I realized that she's not the type who would throw her weight around. She followed what I told her to do; may respeto sa direktor."

Direk Rory was so inspired not only by Vilma but by the movie's theme that after the principal photography was completed, she found out that the movie was two hours and 35 minutes long, trimmed down to two hours and two minutes after the director's cut and finally to only one hour and 52 minutes.

"The very first scene I did with Vilma," direk Rory recalls with a laugh, "was among those that ended up in the cutting room. It shows Vilma waking up on her first day back home after spending 10 years as a domestic help in Hong Kong."

The first family drama she's doing, Anak is direk Rory's seventh project, following Basta't Kasama Kita (Aga Muhlach and Dayanara Torres), Mangarap Ka (Claudine Barretto and Mark Anthony Fernandez), Sa Aking Mga Kamay (Aga Muhlac, Christopher de Leon and Chin Chin Gutierrez), Paano ang Puso Ko? (Judy Ann Santos, Rico Yan and Wowie de Guzman), the twinbill Ipaglaban Mo The Movie and Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay (Judy Ann Santos and Wowie de Guzman).

Anak is the story of a doemstic helper (Vilma) who comes home from Hong Kong only to find her home and family in shambles, with her daughter (Claudine Barretto) gone astray, her son (Baron Geisler) thrown out of school and her younger daughter (Sheela May Alvero) not knowing her from Eve. The movie was partly filmed in places (Statue Square, Causeway Bay, night market, etc.) in Hong Kong where Filipino contract workers usually gather.

At first, direk Rory was at a loss how to make Vilma look credibly like a domestic helper, initially having Vilma's hair dyed red-orange, an idea junked immediately after. The Vilma that the public will see in Anak is as authentic as the typical domestic helper in Hong Kong or anywhere else in Asia.

"More than 85 percent of the movie is real and true," says direk Rory who interviewed more than 20 OFWs (and their families) in the course of the research, while Ricky Lee himself interviewed more than 30. "Vilma's character could be any Filipino domestic helper working abroad. Totoong-totoo ang dating niya."

Vilma and direk Rory were the first (and only choices) for Anak, a story conceptualized for Vilma.

"Otherwise," says direk Rory, "if Vilma didn't accept the project, Star Cinema would have scrapped it altogether."

Like any true-blue Vilmanian, direk Rory has seen most, if not all, of Vilma's movies, listing down Ipagpatawad Mo (directed by Laurice Guillen) as her top favorite because it afforded her, as Laurice's assistant director, a chance to watch Vilma at work up close. (Direk Rory also acted as Laurice's assistant director in another Vilma starrer, Kapag Langit ang Humatol.)

"Actually, I started watching Vilma movies when I was in college (at UP), you know, Relasyon, Broken Home and many others."

However, her being a Vilmanian won't stop direk Rory from directing Vilma's kumare, Nora Aunor, in a movie.

"I did work with Nora at the start of (ABS-CBN's) Star Drama Theater for which I was an assistant director. Nora starred in the first few episodes of SDT."

Giving Behn Cervantes credit for her commitment to and discipline at work (Behn was her first mentor in theater back in her high school days at St. Paul's College), direk Rory resolved to be a director (not an actress) when she was six-years old, enraptured as she was by such musicals as Oliver, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins which "I have seen countless times and would like to see over and over again."

She names four directors as her role-models, namely:

1. Lino Brocka -- "Because of his socially-relevant films

2. Mike de Leon -- "Because of (his films') technical excellence and his willingness to attack any subject his own unique way"

3. Marilou Diaz-Abaya -- "Because the projects she chooses are big in scope and her daring-ness to go in the other direction," and

4. Olivia Lamasan -- "Not because she's my friend but because the characters in her films are very real and she's such a brilliant writer."

Direk Rory reserves more good words for some young members of the Anak cast:

On Claudine: "Even before Anak, I've worked with her several times, so kilalang-kilala ko na siya. She was a bit thin before the shooting of Anak, so Olive and I literally forced her to consume one pint of ice-cream everyday until she gained 15 lbs."

On Baron: "He's sensitive, makulit pero mahusay. When I wanted him cast as Vilma's son, they were asking me, 'Are you sure he can do it?' The finished product has vindicated Baron."

On Leandro Muñoz (as Claudine's boyfriend): "For a newcomer, he's very good. He's a natural. As soon as he's in front of the camera, he's the character he's playing."

On Sheela (picked from more than a hundred girls who auditioned for the role): "Cute, may innocent look that's needed for the role. Okay mag-deliver ng lines. And yet, she's turning only seven!"