Marvin right on target

Marvin Agustin has always aimed for the stars. When he played a disturbed character in Kutob, he shut himself from the world and won the Best Actor trophy in the 2005 Metro Manila filmfest soon after.

Now, he would like to add one more feather to his well-decorated cap. This time, he wants to be known as a professional archer. And not just any archer, mind you. He wants to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

You read it right. Marvin is going for broke (as if he hasn’t done that time and again, and succeeded), this time as an athlete. So hooked is he on his new-found hobby he takes his bow and arrow first thing in the morning, strides over to his 18-meter range at home, aims and shoots for all he’s worth.

He spends all of an hour in his favorite sport and is ready to start the day soon after.

The result, he says, is amazing. Marvin swears he can focus more on those demanding roles and memorize his lines faster.

“Archery boosts my analytical abilities,” Marvin gushes. “It requires more than just aiming and shooting. You consider many factors, like wind direction. And it doesn’t have any height nor age requirement.”

Archery, like swimming and golf, allows you to move at your own pace. It doesn’t require you to be part of a team and adjust to your fellow athletes the way other kinds of sports do. You only have to deal with yourself.

For someone with a busy schedule like Marvin’s, moving at his own pace is important. He doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for others to show up before a game or a simple match begins. He is off to the TV set faster than his would-be opponent can say “Hi!” Then, he’s on his way to yet another taping.

The dizzying pace is just fine with Marvin, who vows, “I would like to be an actor forever.”

The idea is far from an impossible dream, with Marvin shuttling thrice a week between the sets of GMA 7’s Dear Friend with Jolina Magdangal and Gaano Kadalas ang Minsan, where he takes his archery equipment with him to practise on during those long taping breaks.

Marvin’s twins, Sebastian and Santiago, have seen their dad act on TV so often, the latter once announced, “I want to enter the TV set!”

The boy, who turned three last Aug. 16 with his fraternal twin, is so active and naughty, like those his age, Marvin must sometimes put his foot down. He makes Santiago and Sebastian face the wall and do time out when they overstep the line.

But Marvin doesn’t have to resort to this kind of punishment all the time. Sometimes, all it takes is a warning look from him to make the boys toe the line.

Marvin doesn’t enjoy it, but he knows he has to be a dad first. There’s plenty of time to be friend when they grow up.

“At first, I wanted to be a cool dad,” he reveals. “But nobody will discipline the boys except their mom (Tet Dy) and me.”

Like children of estranged couples, Santiago and Sebastian shuttle between their dad and mom’s homes as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

The twins stay with Marvin in his White Plains mansion on weekends; with their mom on weekdays.

But even if fatherhood fits Marvin to a T, the GMA Artist Center talent thinks the same thing can’t be said where marriage is concerned. At least not yet.

“Marriage is not a matter of when,” Marvin points out. “It’s a matter of who. It will come when I’m already settled. As it is, I’m enjoying my freedom so much.”

Does that freedom mean being at liberty to date Katrina Halili and Diana Zubiri?

Marvin suddenly turns evasive. He finally replies, “Katrina is a friend. We check on each other now and then. As for Diana, I think we’re being linked simply because we’re working together.”

Work — especially taping for teleseryes — is keeping Marvin so busy he is not that hot to do another movie soon. In fact, he has just auditioned for a game show whose title he refuses to divulge. Suffice it to say that other big names have also tried their luck at the hosting job.

But don’t count Marvin out of the movie game yet. “I can still do a film if the project is good,” Marvin qualifies.

Otherwise, the Calayan endorser would rather focus on TV work and his seven restaurants, the latest of which will rise at Greenbelt soon. This time, it will be an Italian-American restaurant called Marciano, named after undefeated boxer Rocky Marciano, favorite athlete of Marvin’s business partner.

As if seven restaurants are not enough, Marvin plans to put up more in the next few years. He enjoys sampling new dishes himself, and has even created one — Salpiwow — for his customers.

Like the savvy restaurateur that he has become though, Marvin will make sure he doesn’t put up so many branches lest he spread himself too thin and start neglecting them. This, he knows, can send his business spiraling to its doom. Everything he has worked so hard for all these years will go pfft.

There are more lessons in store — as actor, entrepreneur and father — for Marvin. As usual, this fast learner can’t wait to turn them into springboards for growth, for himself and his sons.