Direk Cathy: To direct young stars, you must be young at heart

MANILA, Philippines - In this presscon teeming with screaming fans rooting for Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, director Cathy Garcia-Molina looks like she’s one of them.

She is playful like most of them, she speaks their language which is strange to this senior citizen and she shares incessant laughter with them as though she holds the key to their common secret.

But as a mother of two, direk Cathy is obviously no teenager. She joined showbiz in the summer of 1992 as a continuity script assistant of director Chito Roño. She was later promoted to assistant director and given a directorial break in one episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya in the late 1999.

With the onset of the new millennium, she megged several blockbusters that broke records, among them Close To You, One More Chance, A Very Special Love, You Changed My Life and Miss You Like Crazy, wherein she worked with the country’s box-office stars like Bea Alonzo, John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo, among others.

Thus far, the youngest love team she has handled is the KathNiel tandem.

“On the whole,” she rues, “I treat actors I work with as part of my family. I treat Daniel (Padilla) as my bunso as John Lloyd (Cruz) as my panganay.”

Doing She Is Dating The Gangster is a totally new human landscape for her as she is dealing with teenagers with their own mindset and concerns.

Direk Cathy points out: “For one, our main material is straight from a best-selling book patronized by teenagers who are the main market of this love story. Since we are adapting it into film, which is another medium, we have to change a few scenarios, add more inputs to make it more interesting on screen. So we ended up with a more expanded story and a more exciting product for cinema. I straddled points of interests and I made sure that even non-teenagers can relate to the film. I like moms like me to be able to watch and enjoy it as well without looking silly.”

Working with a playful cast on the set, she had to look playful as well lest she be mistaken for a strict aunt on the set. “This generation of young stars is a playful lot. They are more makulit but they add to the gaiety on the set. Being a director is like playing psychologist as well. I treat members of the cast as my siblings and I have to be able to see through their individual characters and relationships. I make sure I get to know them well and fast as the shooting goes on.

“Surrounded by teenagers, pakiramdam ko naging bata na rin ako. I was able to adjust to them and they in turn were able to adjust to me. I cannot say I’ve seen them grow but I have seen the beginning of that growth. They have achieved a certain level of professionalism that I can be proud of. But to be able to direct young stars, I’d say you have to be young at heart,” she says.

Direk Cathy is not inclined to single out her favorite output. “Every film I do is different and in all of them, I invested blood, sweat and tears. But for some films I did stand out because of some interesting reactions. I heard of a couple who told me they patched up and started anew when they saw my film. All my films are memorable but each has its own peculiar share of memories.”

So what does Direk Cathy enjoy as a box-office director?

 “Every film is an adventure with its own share of suspense and expectations. After 22 years in this business, I still find it a very difficult job with a lot of responsibilities. There is the usual opening-night jitters. Will my film make it? Will it live up to audience’s expectations and more importantly, will it deliver the much-needed gross receipts? I take them one at a time. If they like it, it’s a bonus. If it made money, now that’s an extra bonus. The thing is you did your best to make it acceptable and enjoyable to your movie audience.”

(Star Cinema’s She’s Dating the Gangster opens on July 16 in theaters nationwide.)