The Invincible Anita Linda

MANILA, Philippines - We cannot remember when we first met Anita Linda. That now seems so long ago when she was one of the favorite actresses of director Lino Brocka in the ’70s. Even Anita herself finds it difficult to count with her fingers the many films she made with Brocka. Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, Tatlo Dalawa Isa, Jaguar…..

But we remember distinctly when we met her again after a long period. It was two years ago somewhere in Mandaluyong, the garden venue of director/production designer Brillante “Dante” Mendoza. Our ward Ricky Davao was shooting a commercial and we thought of dropping by. It was a shoot for adult Pampers, and the talent was Anita Linda. Anita tells us today this was the first time for her to meet director Dante. It was also our first time. This was before we joined him in Cannes for that historic competition entry Serbis. This was way before he brought the surprise entry for competition topbilling Anita Linda to the Venice Film Festival titled Lola.

On that day of the commercial shoot, Direk told Anita he had a story for her in his mind that developed later into Lola. It was the story of two grandmothers Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio — one whose grandson had been killed, and the other whose grandson was the killer. He asked her to choose which role she wanted to play and she chose that of the victim.

Anita Linda was born Alice Lake on Nov. 23, 1924 to a full-blooded American soldier and a mother from Iloilo. While watching a stage show at the Avenue Theater starring Leopoldo Salcedo, Lopito, among others, Anita, then a teenager remembers being called backstage by director Lamberto V. Avellana and asked if she wanted to become an actress. There must have been something in her that the renowned director could glimpse as she sat watching the show.

She demurred that being Visayan she couldn’t speak Tagalog. The director, nevertheless, told her to report for rehearsals for the next show and when she didn’t appear had her fetched. That is how she became a stage actress and later a movie actress.

Anita shares with us how she never got to start as extra when she did High School with no dialogue, then Biyernes sa Quiapo with Jaime dela Rosa as her leading man, then Aksesorya with Leopoldo Salcedo onstage. Avellana gave her the screen name Anita Linda and cast her in Tia Juana, her first film at LVN Pictures. She was later offered a contract by Premiere Productions where she did Sekretang Hong Kong with Pugo and Togo, and her first lead role in Alyas Sakim with Pol Salcedo in 1947 directed by Moises Cagin.

Her most memorable films at Premiere, however, were in the early ’50s with master director Gerry de Leon in Sisa where she won the Maria Clara (FAMAS) Best Actress Award and Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo which also gave her a FAMAS Best Actress nomination the following year.    

There was no stopping her. In the ’70s she won a FAMAS Best Supporting award for Brocka’s Tatlo Dalawa Isa, while being nominated in the URIAN for Jaguar. In 1982 she was given the Natatanging Gawad Urian ng Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino. 

She was further noticed in the ’80s and ’90s in Mike de Leon’s Sister Stella L., Chito Roño’s Itanong mo sa Buwan, Brocka’s Gumapang ka sa Lusak, William Pascual’s Takaw Tukso which gave her a Gawad Urian Best Supporting trophy, and Mario O’Hara’s Ang Babae sa Bubungang Lata of 1998 where she won Best Supporting Actress from both Star Awards and FAMAS, and set a record as the oldest actress to ever win a FAMAS at age 74.

Ten years later, although active in significant support roles, Anita was given what its director Adolfo Alix Jr. calls his tribute to a screen legend in the indie film Adela which opened the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival In 2008. The film essayed the loneliness of a woman celebrating her 80th birthday alone when her children fail to visit her. This gave Anita the Best Performance award from the Young Critic’s Circle, and Best Actress at Cinemanila’s Southeast Asian section. Recently, Anita was given the ENPRESS Lino Brocka Lifetime Achievement Award.

Suddenly Anita was visible once again especially after she joined the recently concluded high-rating ABS-CBN teleserye Tayong Dalawa starring Jake Cuenca, Gerald Anderson, and Kim Chui where she played Kim’s ruthless Chinese grandmother.

And now, comes Lola to confirm Anita’s claim at age 84 that she is not ready to retire. The demands of the shooting venue at the eternally-flooded Ilog Sitio in Malabon during 10 days of the rainy season in late June were grueling on the actors and the two lolas who played the leads. Anita’s grandson had been murdered after his cellphone is stolen. She starts her drive for justice. Rustica, on the other hand, must find ways and means of rescuing her grandson from the hell he has gotten into.

Anita’s house is in the midst of the flooded area. She tells us that the scenes on the banca they need to use as transport vehicle were the most difficult for her. Linda Casimiro who wrote the script and had submitted the storyline to direk Dante as three years back confesses she was afraid Anita would get sick. The actors were always drenched with rain and floodwaters, from morning till early the next day.

We ask Anita if she ever felt ill. She told us that somehow she found strength whenever she was shooting. She quoted a line from Albert Camus she had read somewhere and has since become her byword: “In the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer.“

(E-mail me at [email protected])