Teresa Loyzaga herself is the first person who would downplay it.
"Extra lang ako doon," she said during a brief chat with Funfare. "I don’t even have a speaking line."
So brief is Teresa’s "role" that, if you blinked while watching the Keanu Reeves starrer The Matrix Reloaded, you must have missed her. Or if your eyes were glued on the screen all the time, you must have caught a glimpse of her (didn’t she look familiar?) and wondered if she was "it".
"In the scene where they’re having a forum," Teresa pointed out, "I’m one of the security guards. You would hardly recognize me because of my costume. I might get better exposure in the third one, The Matrix Revolutions. One scene shows me walking towards the camera; I stop in the foreground and I point to something on a diagram. I hope they don’t cut it. Sana huwag ma-edit."
During the 15 days that she shot for the two Matrix movies, Teresa didn’t have a chance to talk to, or even say "Hi!" or have a souvenir picture with Reeves.
"Bawal," said Teresa. "You’re not supposed to stare at him, much more maki-chika-chika. You’re not allowed to even get his autograph. From afar, I noticed that Keanu was quiet and aloof; he seemed to be very, you know, into himself."
At one point, Teresa spied Will Smith on the set visiting his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (cast as Niobe, a member of the human rebellion and former paramour of Morpheus).
"I stopped on my tracks," Teresa recalled. "And then, I kind of playfully winked at Will Smith. He smiled back naman. On the set, Jada was not so friendly. She hardly smiled."
Teresa was paid per hour, per day, but the talent fee ("Good enough," she said) was secondary. "Just to be in a Keanu Reeves movie, and Matrix at that, was more enough."
How did she get into Matrix?
"I have an agent in Australia where I’ve been based (in Sydney) for three years now. There were thousands of us who showed up for the casting, not auditions because the parts required no dialogue, and we were judged more by our looks. Another Filipino named Dennis, also based in Australia, was also taken in, playing one of the security guards. But even if we didn’t have any speaking line, kahit extra lang kami doon, kailangan din ng acting."
Matrix wasn’t the only Hollywood movie Teresa tested for. She also did for The Great Raid (produced by Miramax, topbilling Benjamin Bratt) in which her former boyfriend Cesar Montano plays a key role as guerilla leader Juan Pajota. "They found me too foreign-looking," sighed Teresa. "What they needed were native-looking women."
Now living happily – and peacefully – in Sydney with her two sons, Joseph (14, by her former husband) and Diego (8, by Cesar Montano), Teresa is here for a 35-day vacation which ends on Thursday, June 27, when she flies back to Sydney (where her parents and other relatives are now staying).
"Australia has been very kind to me," said Teresa. "It’s true, I miss showbiz; I miss my craft and my friends. But then, I had to make a choice. I had to sacrifice my career here for my children. They’re growing up and I don’t want them to be exposed to the intrigues in showbiz. I don’t want them to grow up feeling insecure and confused."
She disclosed that she had just quit her job as a teller at the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney and is just waiting for a call from Qantas Airlines where she applied as a flight attendant. "I’m on the short list," said Teresa (who is a house guest here of her sister Bing Loyzaga and husband Janno Gibbs). "I will know by July or August if I’m in."
While here, Teresa is guesting in TV shows (Magpakailanman, Boy Abunda’s Private Conversations, SIS, Showbiz Sabado, Ok Fine! Whatever, etc.) but she refrains from talking about Cesar and his wife Sunshine Cruz lest she stir another controversy.
"I‘m happy," she said, "and that’s what matters, di ba?"
In closing, Teresa clarified the rumor (coming out as "blind items," including in this corner) linking her to Gardo Verzosa.
"I have kids and so has Gardo. We are special friends; nothing more, nothing less. There’s nothing romantic between us. Gardo is a nice guy; even his mom is nice to me. He’s the type of friend na puwede kong yakapin maski sa kalye ng walang malisya. He understands me. I understand him. We’re soulmates. Ganoon lang kami."