The Actor for All Seasons

Call time for the press conference for ML, his latest movie, was 11:30 a.m. but at 10:30, Eddie Garcia was already sitting pretty at a private room of Max’s restaurant on Scout Tuason St., Quezon City. In all his 69 years in showbiz, with more than 600 films to his credit, Eddie has always been punctual on the set (or any appointment for that matter), ready with his costumes, his lines and all things else.

“If I have a shoot scheduled early the next day,” Eddie once told this writer, “I don’t stay up late.”

Another guideline: “Kung ano ang kailangan mong gawin ngayon, gawin mo na para bukas may magawa ka pang iba.”

I’m not sure if he still does but when I interviewed him in 1984 for Weekend, the Sunday magazine of the Martial Law paper Daily Express, Eddie revealed that he was taking 19 vitamins and that he would undergo a regular check-up.

“Ang ibang tao ayaw magpatingin sa duktor, natatakot malaman na may sakit sila,” he said then. “Ako iba. The sooner I discover an ailment, the better, para magamot kaagad.”

For somebody his age (no doubt the oldest man standing in show business, enduring and durable), Eddie doesn’t look it even if he’s sporting a bushy moustache and beard that add a new dimension to his already multi-colored and multi-layered personality.

Asked about the secret of his longevity, Eddie broke into his all-too-familiar smile (that has melted the hearts of a hundred women), “It’s no secret at all. I exercise, I sleep well, I eat the right food.” And, may I add, he enjoys life to the hilt. The actor for all seasons is a man for all reasons.

Unlike other actors, Eddie doesn’t give a “no comment” even when the media pries into his personal life.

Has he ever let another man, uhm, touch him?

“Yes, I have. I was 16 then and it happened in Juban (Sorsogon), my birthplace. But it never happened again.”

Is he still active, uhm, sexually?

“Once in a while. Matanda na ako, eh. When you are older, bumababa ang iyong libido. But, yes, paminsan-minsan, sige pa rin! The rule is, if you don’t feel it, don’t do it. Huwag mong pilitin.”

Being a gentleman par excellence, Eddie doesn’t kiss and tell.

“I handle women with care,” he winked.

He handles his career the same way — with dignity. He isn’t choosy with assignments.

“Whatever role is given to me, I do it well because it will be the best recommendation for your next project.”

No quibble with the billing (a matter of great import to many stars)?

“Maski hindi mo ilagay ang pangalan ko, okey lang sa akin. For me, moviemaking is just a job. There’s nothing highfalutin about it. Anything na inaalok sa akin, sinusunggaban ko.”

In his more than 600 movies, Eddie has played all characters in the movie book — a priest, a rebel, a beggar, a cop and even a closet homosexual (in the Lino Brocka classic Tubog sa Ginto) having an affair with a driver (Mario O’Hara) he has picked up from a street corner and a loud cross-dresser (in Mga Paru-Parong Buking).

With Tony Labrusca (right), Eddie’s co-star in the 2018 Cinemalaya entry ML (Martial Law) directed by Benedict Mique (left)

“But there’s one role that I haven’t played,” he quipped. “A leading lady.” (Any taker?)

Written and directed by Benedict Mique, ML (meaning Martial Law) is Eddie’s third entry in Cinemalaya (Aug. 3 to 12 at the CCP Theaters and select Ayala Cinemas Trinoma, Glorietta, Greenbelt 1, UP Town Center and Legazpi Cinema in Bicol), the 14-year-old filmfest in which Eddie won Best Actor twice: for ICU Bed No. 7 (2005, directed by Rica Arevalo) and for Bwakaw (2012, by Jun Robles Lana). Will “lightning” strike thrice?

In ML, three teenagers, one of them played by Tony Labrusca (in his movie debut), get more than what they bargain for when they learn about the dark days of Martial Law from an old retired soldier.

Shared Eddie, “I play a retired Metrocom Colonel with a slight dementia, that’s why I believe that we are still under Martial Law and I think that the kids are activists. The film is very timely and it’s good if the youth of today will watch it and learn what happened during the Martial Law years.”

Direk Benedict has been in the entertainment industry for 19 years, starting as a script supervisor at Star Cinema before he moved to ABS-CBN where he worked on various programs such as Maalaala Mo Kaya (MMK) and Tabing-Ilog, and then joining the GMA creative team, from 2003 to 2008, and then on to TV5 as creative consultant, head writer and director for various shows.

Currently, Benedict works as head writer for the ABS-CBN teleserye Since I Found You (starring Piolo Pascual, JC de Vera and Arci Muñoz). His other TV series include On The Wings of Love, Till I Met You and Born For You.

“More than two dozen young actors auditioned for the role that eventually landed on Tony’s lap,” revealed Benedict. “All I asked them was, ‘What do you know about Martial Law?’ Of course, they didn’t because they were not born yet at that time.”

Even if he hardly had any idea about those “dark days” because he was born and raised abroad, Tony is eternally grateful for bagging the plum — and the singular honor of working with the Eddie Garcia.

“He’s the man, he’s the legend,” gushed Tony. “It was such a humbling experience for me. I must admit that at first I was intimidated. It’s an experience that I will recall years from now that?‘I did a movie with Eddie Garcia!’ He’s a joy to watch. Any (piece of) advice that I got from him? He told me to use my eyes in showing emotion, that your eyes can do a lot of acting.”

Perhaps Tony and young actors like him will be glad to know more about Eddie who holds the distinct record of winning 39 awards (local and international) and the only Filipino actor who has been elevated to the FAMAS Hall of Fame (as Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director).

Eddie cleared a little confusion about his age.

“I am really 89 years old,” he said without blinking. “I was born on May 2, 1929. In 1979, when I was 50, Ike Lozada interviewed me at ang nilagay niyang edad ko ay 60. When Ramon (Revilla) read it in the tabloid, he told me, ‘Bakit sinabi mong 60 ka na. Mas matanda ako sa’yo ng dalawang taon, baka sabihin nila 62 na ako. I-correct mo ‘yan’.” 

Eddie embarked on a movie career at age 20 quite by accident.

In 1949, while on furlough after serving for three years as a Philippine Scout, Eddie stayed with an aunt whose house was right across the Sampaguita Pictures Studios. He recalled that he would watch a shooting from the window of his aunt’s house. The late director Eddie Romero, who was then doing a movie starring Mario Montenegro, saw his namesake and encouraged him to try the movies. So, Eddie applied as one of the stars in Manuel Conde’s Siete Infantes de Lara.

“I was then already with the US Army, ready to go to Okinawa to enlist as a CID agent,” Eddie remembered in that Weekend interview. “I had a good record as a Philippine Scout and the provost marshal in Okinawa was going to recommend me for a scholarship at an officers’ school in the US. Who knows, I might have come back an officer after that?”

He got stuck in showbiz, sans regrets.

“Had I remained in the US Army, any of three things could have happened to me — six feet under the ground because I might have fought in the Korean War; at kung saka-sakaling nakaligtas ako, I might have fought in the Vietnam War and got killed just the same. Or I would be a retired colonel today, just like my role in ML.”

Remember the line “A winner never quits; a quitter never wins” popularized by Manuel Uy, the “winningest” sweepstakes agent?

Said Eddie, “For as long as they need me, I’ll be here.”

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