Cesar asking James Franco to visit Phl

A close friendship developed between Cesar Montano and James Franco while they were shooting the 2005 Hollywood movie The Great Raid (with Joseph Fiennes among their co-stars) for several weeks in the jungles of Australia.

“I can’t forget when we were at a boot camp for two weeks,” Cesar recalled to Funfare. “That was before the shooting started. It was winter. One day, James and I were tasked to look for tick on each other’s head. We were partners. Luckily, we didn’t find any. We hadn’t taken a bath for two weeks and we could smell each other, hahaha!!!”

Cesar’s memory was refreshed when I told him that I was going to New York City to interview James for The Deuce, an eight-episode original drama series which premieres on Monday, Sept. 11, on HBO Go starting at 9 a.m. simultaneously with the US debut. (While you are reading this, Your Funfarer should be having a one-on-one with James and co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal, along with the creators David Simon and David Pelecanos of the series directed by Michelle MacLaren. More on them in future issues.)

Titled after the local slang for New York’s fabled 42nd Street, The Deuce chronicles that moment in time when sex went from being a back-alley, brown-paper-bag commodity to a billion-dollar universal attraction in American life, a moment when ground zero for the earliest pioneers in the flesh trade was the midtown heart of the nation’s largest city, the New York’s Times Square.

In Episode 1, James is introduced in dual roles as brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino, one a double-shifting bartender with two kids and a wayward wife in Brooklyn, and the other an insouciant gambler with piling mob debts. They navigate their way through the rough-and-tumble world of 1971 Time Square.

While Vincent plots ways to improve his situation and pay off his brother’s debt, he crosses paths with other midtown denizens including two veteran hookers (one of them Candy, played by Maggie), young streetwalkers, smooth-talking pimps as they ply their trades under the not-so-watchful eye of the NYPD.

It’s a demanding role fit for Cesar who will surely enjoy watching how his good friend James will tackle it. Since The Great Raid, the friends have gone a long way. Cesar resumed doing action flicks back home and then starring in TV soaps, and is now head of Tourism Promotions Board (TPB). James went on to get bigger breaks — as the titular role in the James Dean biopic that won him a Golden Globe Best Actor in a Motion Picture Made for Television and a nomination for an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award; playing the villainous Harry Osborne in the Spider-Man franchise and myriad other characters, while pursuing a course in English (specializing in fiction-writing) at UCLA.

“James is a committed and passionate artist,” noted Cesar, “and a good man, too. I knew that he would go a long way and certainly leave a huge mark in the industry.”

When Funfare interviewed James in 2007 during the Spider-Man junket in Japan, I asked him about his impression of Cesar.

“He’s a very serious actor,” said James, “and a very, very nice guy. Before we began filming Great Raid, we had to do two weeks of boot-camping training in the wilderness with other actors playing soldiers. Cesar is a very sweet man. I heard that he’s running for a public office.” (Flashback: Cesar did run not just once but twice, first for senator and then for governor of Bohol, but luck was not in his favor.)

“I smile when I remember that boot camp,” added Cesar. “We would jog five miles every morning. We were trained to live in the jungle and taught how to stage an ambush and other tactics. We addressed each other not by our real names but by the names of our characters. I played Capt. Juan Pajota, a guerilla, and James played Capt. Prince.”

After the shoot, James sent Cesar a letter (being reprinted here from that 2007 story) that read: Cesar, I wanted to let you know what a joy it is to work with you. Your reputation preceded you and you have done nothing but fulfill the excellent name you made for yourself. You and the rest of your squad are a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to be around. I appreciate greatly your work ethic and the wonderful, easy spirit that each of you possesses. I am honored and grateful to be on this movie with you.

“I’m looking forward to working with James again,” said Cesar. “I have three offers for him: 1). to host/narrate a documentary series for Discovery Channel, to be shot in the Philippines; it will showcase our country’s tourist destinations; 2). I’m inviting him to do an ocular tour in the Philippines which could be a perfect location for his next movie, The Bells of Balangiga, which he’s directing; I can be his second unit director; and 3). To star in a romantic-comedy with Manny Pacquiao, Asia’s Next Top Model Maureen Wroblewitz and Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, which is about a Filipina tourist guide helping a broken-hearted traveler enjoy his stay in the Philippines.”

Then, addressing James, Cesar added, “It was indeed such an honor working with you, Capt. Prince.”

Asked what his message was to James, Cesar texted this: “Please tell James that anytime he wants to come to the Philippines, I will assist him and show him around. I will sponsor his visit.” (Signed Capt. Pajota)

Message relayed…promptly!

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)