If it were a photograph, Star Cinema director Cathy Garcia-Molina would be dismissed as…a photo bomber? But then, she’s making an out-of-the-script “special participation” in the frenzied promo for Never Not Love You, the new JaDine starrer co-produced by Viva Films and Project 8 corner San Joaquin Projects directed by Antoinette Jadaone, so can she be considered a welcome sawsawera?
After making a grand annuncement that she’s retiring to devote time to her children…but only after she’s done with four more Star Cinema movies excluding the latest, My Perfect You, which is showing nationwide starring Gerald Anderson and Pia Wurtzbach…Cathy treaded “dangerous” territory when she issued an uncalled-for comment on social media that she would never direct James Reid and Nadine Lustre in either a movie or a TV series because, as she quoted her friend direk Antoinette, JaDine “was hard to work with.”
As JaDine die-hards began to vehemently (violently?) come to their idols’ defense, Cathy promptly issued an “I’m sorry” to those offended, and to Antoinette (and boyfriend Dan Villegas). Wasn’t it unfair for Cathy to be making “anti-JaDine” remarks since the release (on Black Saturday, March 31) of Never Not Love You overlaps with the extended run of her movie?
Some people said that the JaDine producers should actually thank Cathy for “helping” promote the movie by adding more noise to it. Earlier, I said that Cathy was treading “dangerous” ground because Never Not Love You is touted to be far different from the previous JaDine movies. This time, James and Nadine told the movie press that they were doing “something daring, something dangerous,” that’s why they were kind of scared. Check out the series of pictures on this page and you will see just how “daring” and “dangerous” James and Nadine are in what they described as an “experimental” screen caper.
The story (by Antoinette who also directed JaDine in the Kapamilya TV series On The Wings Of Love) is about how young, carefree and reckless love ends when the lovers’ dreams take different paths “and their life choices tear them apart,” only for them to cross paths five years later after so much has changed including the love they used to have for each other. James plays a graphic designer and Nadine a management trainee in an ad agency/direct-selling company.
At the presscon, James and Nadine admitted that they felt somewhat awkward pretending they were strangers since in real life, well, everybody knows how intimately they know each other. So they needed to act naturally as if they were falling in love for the first time.
The release of Never Not Love You (which was partly filmed in London) follows the sweethearts’ recent sold-out Valentine concert JaDine Revolution at the Big Dome, two years after their concert also at the same venue where James publicly told Nadine, ”I love you!” That augurs well for the movie’s box-office fate.
Meanwhile, let’s watch JaDine play Funfare’s “Who-What-Where-When-How” game.
Who
• Who is the more possessive (seloso/selosa) between the two of you?
James: Both of us.
Nadine: Both of us.
• Who are the big influences in your life (and career)?
James: My family. I literally wouldn’t even be in the Philippines if not for my family. They are really just the most important people in my life.
Nadine: My family. I get my strength and inspiration from them. They’ve always been there for me every step of the way. I don’t think I’d be able to make it without their full support and love of course. Even career-wise, my dad is very hands-on.
• Who would you be if you were not actors?
James and Nadine: No idea what to answer.
What
• What do you usually argue about or fight over?
James: When Nadine wears too sexy clothes.
Nadine: (No answer)
• What comes to your mind when you face the mirror in the morning?
James: That I have a lot that I still wanna do and accomplish in my life and career.
Nadine: That I am very blessed to have everything that I have in life right now and that I should take good care of all of it.
• What’s the best thing that you have done to each other?
James: Love and accept each other as much as we can.
Nadine: (No answer)
Where
• Where did you become close to each other?
James and Nadine: We just discover new things about each other every day since we are always together.
• Where do you go to get away from it all (together or individually)?
James: We really love going to the beach! There’s a whole other life there that we just can’t explain.
Nadine: We also love when we get to travel abroad and explore new places.
• Where do you feel most comfortable and at peace?
James: Again, the beach!
Nadine: At home.
When
• When did you feel real love?
James: I think falling in love with Nadine and staying in love with her has been the most real thing I’ve ever experienced.
Nadine: I don’t think I’ve known real love until I fell in love with James.
• When (if ever) did you experience being broken-hearted?
James: I don’t think I’ve ever really been broken-hearted.
Nadine: ‘Yung totoong broken-hearted? Parang wala pa.
• When is the right time for two people to live together?
James: When they’re ready to really commit to each other. When they’re ready to really know each other and accept whatever they’d eventually discover about each other.
Nadine: I think when they’re ready emotionally to share space and when they’re ready to give up part of their independence. It takes a lot of compromising kasi for it to work.
This series of scenes proves what James and Nadine said that the movie is ‘something different, something daring, something dangerous,’ so unlike their previous sugar-and-spice starrers
How
• How do you know that you are truly in love?
James: When you think about them first. When you’re ready to eat your pride for them and when you’re ready to accept and understand their shortcomings.
Nadine: When you’re ready to do everything just to please them but also when you’re ready to sacrifice your own happiness to make them happy because their happiness is more important to you than your own happiness.
• How many times a day do you say “I love you” to each other?
James and Nadine: Every time we feel like saying it.
• How do you make up after a fight?
James and Nadine: We talk sincerely.
(E-mail reactions at rickylophilstar@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)