Will This Guy's beat Praybeyt record?

MANILA, Philippines - In his latest comedy film This Guy’s In Love with You Mare, Vice Ganda figures in a love triangle with Luis Manzano and Toni Gonzaga.

Vice is Lester, whose love of his life Mike (Luis) is all set to tie the knot with his girlfriend Gemma (Toni). This prompts a desperate Lester to cook up a ruse by presenting himself as a formidable new suitor-cum-competition out to steal Gemma’s heart and ultimately, throw a monkey wrench into the lovebirds’ plans.

A co-production of Star Cinema and Viva Films, the Wenn Deramas-directed film’s premise had one reporter asking the comedian in a presscon if he could relate to his character.

“My role here is gay, so I don’t think I can relate that much,” Vice deadpanned, before quickly adding with a laugh, “Super relate, super!”

But aside from the obvious, Vice, whose courtship scenes with Toni are a riot, has real-life experience on wooing and winning girls over.

Hard to believe now, but Vice revealed that he experienced having not just one but at least “four to five girlfriends when I was in high school (and) college.”

“I can understand why you find it gross,” he deadpanned again when the revelation elicited laughter.

“Until now, I can still appreciate the beauty of girls,” answered Vice, whose girl crush is Kaye Abad, to another question if he does. “But only up to that point. (Because) I’m really gay. Di na talaga ako magbabago.”

Asked if he could pull off a straight guy role in a future project, Vice said, “Feeling ko.”

“Although, in what I wear, pinipilit kong magpa-girl, I’m still a guy. I have a lot of friends (like) Toni and other people like Anne (Curtis, his It’s Showtime co-host) who say na ang asta ko raw, lalaking-lalaki pa rin. So, I think I can pull it off. Just no kissing scene with a girl please!” he laughingly said.

Vice with co-stars Luis Manzano and Toni Gonzaga

But back to the film: This Guy’s In Love With You Mare is Vice’s third movie collaboration with direk Wenn after Petrang Kabayo and last year’s Praybeyt Benjamin, which holds the record as the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time, raking in a box-office gross of more than P330M.

“I never pressured myself to be a box-office star. But I just pressure myself to be a great performer all the time,” Vice said when asked how is he handling the expectations of topping the success of Praybeyt.

Direk Wenn had said that Vice as an actor was at his most relaxed self when doing This Guy’s In Love With You Mare.

“Actually, tinanong din ako niyan noon kung hindi raw ba ako nape-pressure na ang susundan ko, No Other Woman (the Viva-Star Cinema release prior to Praybeyt). That time, No Other Woman was already declared as the highest-grossing film of all-time. But I said no,” Vice said.

 “(I said then that) if Praybeyt Benjamin would earn P20M, I’d already be happy — as long as daily. Then it actually happened. On our first day, we had P23M,” he adds. “(So) I’d say we will go for P400M (gross) this time. I think there’s nothing wrong if you claim it. I believe in the power of words.”

Vice admitted though to feeling the nerves because This Guy’s comes on the heels of the box-office success of the Bea Alonzo-John Lloyd Cruz starrer The Mistress (note the trend — heavy drama followed by comedy), which earned P140M on its first week alone. But he also can’t wait for it to roll into theaters, beginning Oct. 10. “This movie makes me proud. Kampante ako. This is the best movie I’ve done so far.”

Meanwhile, Kris Aquino has backed out from her and Vice’s film entry to this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), still to be helmed by direk Wenn.

Star Cinema has yet to release an official statement, but Vice said that “if you follow Kris on Twitter, she said it herself that she backed out due to a (health) problem. Kris has nodules. I just learned about it.”

There’s talk that Ai-Ai delas Alas is being eyed as the replacement. Interestingly, Ai-Ai and Vice had an issue in the past. That’s settled now, shared Vice, but he thinks he will still feel a certain uneasiness if ever he gets to work with Ai-Ai. “I’ll still feel uneasy because I’m scared of offending her and that she might not like me. Whatever good thing is going on between us right now, I just want to take care of that.”