Maja gives blood, sweat and tears to Thelma

MANILA, Philippines - Maja Salvador is one actor who takes her work seriously. Be it on TV or in film, Maja gives her full commitment to every role. She has done a number of acting assignments in the past, where she has obviously made her mark as an actress. The Salvador acting gene is definitely in her blood.

Maja is perhaps best remembered as the young girl with a third eye in Sukob, which gave her acting awards and nominations or the doctor who gets haunted by demonic visions in Shake, Rattle & Roll XI.

On TV, Maja earned raves as the daughter with cerebral palsy in a special episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya, where she got the chance to work with Vilma Santos.

Yet, Maja has always been pining for a more exciting and interesting character, something that she could sink her teeth into. She has turned down every indie film offer that came her way in the past until she read the script of Thelma, to which she readily gave her nod.

Directed by Paul Soriano, Thelma is about a young, competitive runner from the province and her relationships with the people around her. However, running, as explained by Direk Paul, is merely a subplot in the movie, as Thelma is also a story of dreams, determination and making the right decisions.

Direk Paul disclosed Maja is the first choice to play the lead in Thelma, being an artist who can really act and someone with an athletic physique that is perfect for a runner’s role. Asia’s fastest woman and track and field champion Elma Muros acts as consultant for the movie and also plays a special role onscreen as the running coach.

Thelma is something that Maja did with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. After all, this is also the first title role for the 22-year-old actress, although she has done a number of films in the past where she was given stellar billing.

To say that Maja gave her commitment to the indie project will merely be an understatement, considering the physical rigors that the actress had to go through. For instance, in the shoot in Ilocos Norte, Maja was rushed to a provincial hospital after she experienced severe leg cramps and muscle spasms while shooting. Direk Paul was the one who brought Maja to the emergency room.

The young actress reportedly collapsed after filming a running scene in the movie. In her training scenes, Maja had to run barefoot on concrete highways, the river and even on rocky roads.

Since most of the scenes entailed running, Maja often felt exhausted at the end of the shoot. “Maja literally gave her blood, sweat and tears to this movie,” said direk Paul. “We shot 14 to 16 hour days, with very little sleep, but she never complained. She gave her full commitment to this project.”

At times, Maja’s feet would bleed from extensive running scenes, but she hardly grumbled on the set. According to direk Paul, Maja would simply splash Betadine and rubbing alcohol on her feet, then she would start running again for a different scene.

In one take, Maja started screaming from pain before she collapsed. She was in tears when direk Paul carried her to a standby car that rushed her to the hospital, where she was immediately given treatment.

 Thankfully, Maja was not confined. Direk Paul told her and the staff to return to the hotel and rest for the remainder of the day. Instead, Maja returned to the set after two hours and demanded to work again, despite the pain she was feeling. She apparently didn’t want to be the cause of the delay in the Ilocos Norte shoot.

Direk Paul and the rest of the production staff and crew of Thelma were all praise with Maja’s professionalism. It was truly admirable working with her as the lead star of the movie.

In Thelma, Maja gets able support from Tetchie Agbayani, John Arcilla, Eliza Pineda and Jason Abalos, as the track and field teammate who develops a special bond with Maja (Thelma) as they train together.

Direk Paul is grateful to the farmers and other residents of Ilocos Norte for being extremely accommodating to the cast and crew of Thelma throughout the 10-day shoot in the province.

 They went on location at the Marcos Stadium in Laoag and also in Batac, Fortuna and Curimao. Moreover, the popular windmills in Bangui became part of the postcard-pretty shots in the film.

Every shooting day, there were more than 300 spectators who crowded the area. There were those who came from as far as Vigan and traveled for more than an hour just to watch the shoot and see Maja in the flesh.

Thelma is the maiden production venture of Time Horizon Pictures, with first-time producers Rino Que and Samantha Chavez-Que, in cooperation with Abracadabra Productions and Underground Logic.

Paul collaborated on the script of Thelma with Froi Medina and Rino Que. The movie will be shown early this year, with plans of screening it in international film festivals.