Alden and Kathryn have surprising chemistry

Director Cathy Garcia-Molina believes the pairing of Alden Richards and Kathryn Bernardo in Hello, Love, Goodbye has the potential to be as successful as that of John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo, who are not romantically involved but have chemistry onscreen.

MANILA, Philippines — They belong to popular love teams from rival networks, but Alden Richards and Kathryn Bernardo showed surprising chemistry in their first project together — Star Cinema’s Hello, Love, Goodbye. That’s what the film’s director Cathy Garcia-Molina and writer Carmi Raymundo said in an interview with The STAR.

Cathy and Carmi, who are the creative duo behind many of Star Cinema’s romantic blockbusters, including the 2018 The Hows of Us, the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time, also said that the two are worthy of a follow-up project after Hello, Love, Goodbye screens in cinemas starting July 31. The film about two overseas Filipino workers who fall in love was shot last April in Hong Kong, which has a high concentration of OFWs.

Chemistry is chemistry, it’s either you have it or don’t, but while it remains to be seen by the general public, the teaser trailer showed so much promise that it trended online. When Kathryn, in her character as the domestic helper/waitress Joy, said “I love you” to Alden’s Ethan, a bartender, to scare him away, and Alden replying, “I don’t love you so I’m staying,” we felt that. 

According to Cathy, it’s been awhile since she felt kilig over her films, but she experienced it with Hello, Love, Goodbye. “Hindi ako mapag-react sa mga kilig-kilig, pero ito talaga aaminin ko. Ito totoo. Nung nanonood kami, nag-mix kami sa Bangkok (referring to the film’s post-production in Thailand), duon ko lang nakita ng buo yung pelikula, may music, ako ay kinilig, nagtaka ako sa sarili ko. Ang tagal ko ng hindi kinikilig eh sa sarili kong pelikula,” she said on the sidelines of last week’s presscon for the movie at Dolphy Theater.

Said Carmi, “Of course, we were hoping that they had chemistry, otherwise it would be difficult for us. When I saw the rushes in Hong Kong, all of us were very happy, we were blown away. How did it happen? They’ve never worked together, they don’t know each other but grabe! I’m very proud of the film and I told direk, good actors can do this.”

Obviously, it was direk Cathy and Carmi’s first time to work with Alden, him being a Kapuso. But they have had worked many times with Kathryn and her perennial love team partner and real-life sweetheart Daniel Padilla — a.k.a. KathNiel to fans — starting with She’s Dating a Gangster (2014) for direk Cathy and Must Be… Love (2013) for Carmi, and the last one was The Hows of Us.

“Of course, when it comes to KathNiel, alam mo yung sanay na sila sa isa’t isa, grabe yung chemistry nung dalawa because they really know each other inside out. Automatic yung mga galawan, tinginan, alam na nila, ganun nila kakilala ang isa’t isa,” said Carmi.

“However, this film (with Alden and Kathryn), there’s magic that doesn’t come from (a real-life romance). Their natural chemistry comes from competence. One of the things I’m excited about is when people get to see how good they are to be able to play something out of nothing.”

Direk Cathy added the pairing of Alden and Kathryn made her believe that it’s possible for strangers to fall in love. “That’s tough, especially for a fan of Daniel. Ang hirap na tingnan ang ibang mukha na na-i-in-love kay Kathryn at si Kathryn nai-in love dun. Sa galing ni Kathryn, I didn’t see Kathryn and maybe that’s why it was easy for me. I saw Joy, that’s why it was possible that she fell in love with Ethan.”

During the presscon, Kathryn readily admitted it was “super weird” shooting her first scene with Alden and a big adjustment to be acting alongside a new leading man. “Maybe the biggest lesson I learned (from the experience) is trust. I would always tell him (Daniel) to trust because I also find it hard to work kung may mabigat sa loob mo (if you feel something heavy in your chest). Now, I have his full support, especially when he met Alden,” the 23-year-old Kapamilya star said. 

“I can understand Kath that it’s a bit weird because for the longest time, she was always with Daniel in projects,” Alden, 27, said, “unlike me po, I’ve been paired with a lot already,” referring to the different Kapuso actresses he got partnered with. And then, there was AlDub, his erstwhile “phenomenal love team” with Maine Mendoza.

Nevertheless, the actor is thankful that Kathryn, whom he described as “very nice and sweet,” allowed him to be nice to her. “It wasn’t forced. Nothing was forced on us. Nobody said, you should be like this off-cam so that the chemistry comes out. They just let us be, especially direk Cathy. So I’m very happy that it was that light, it was that easy — my working relationship with Kath, with direk and most especially, the whole Star Cinema,” he said.

Meanwhile, their characters’ first encounter in the story was also the first scene they shot together. It was very challenging and emotional, but it also proved that their team-up could work. Carmi recalled, “The character of Joy is really tired; she’s having a hard time. It’s a difficult scene because that’s the first time na parang nagsalita siya, so ang hirap nga na bigla yung shift of emotion ni Kath, dun niya binuhos lahat. Tapos, first time niyang nakatrabaho si Alden. So the vulnerability that the scene required was difficult to pull off. But it was also in that scene that you could see if there was chemistry or not between the two characters. That’s why kami ni direk, juskolord sana meron talaga, it was a make-or-break scene, and they were able to do it.”

Direk Cathy, for her part, said, “Magaling sila dalawa! I didn’t know Alden is like that. I had no expectations,” also revealing that Alden “wasn’t a choice na ako ang nag-suggest. I won’t take the credit for that. It was Inang (Olivia Lamasan) talaga at si Roxy (Liquigan, head of Star Music). But I said yes because I got excited. Biruin mo, it’s something new because the story is about strangers and it’s just right since they’ve never worked together.”

The lady director believes the tandem has the potential to be as successful as that of John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo, lead stars of her several films, including the 2007 megahit One More Chance, which was also written by Carmi. “Ako sana, pag-napanood niyo, sana sa inyo manggaling (na masundan). Tama eh, John Lloyd-Bea. Someone told me, actually someone from Bangkok, who saw the film, (said) that it seems there’s a new John Lloyd-Bea who are not personally involved with each other and yet have chemistry onscreen.”

For Carmi, it’s the kind of onscreen chemistry that deserves a repeat. “That kind of chemistry, you would want to see over and over again but, of course, time will tell. Only time can tell, kung pwede pa ulit.”

(Hello, Love, Goodbye premieres in theaters on July 31 and lead stars Kathryn and Alden will be at the Gateway Activity Area stage at 4 p.m. today to promote the film.)