My Lockdown Romance: A welcome addition to the local BL scene

Admit it, Pinoy-flavored Boys’ Love has gone stratospheric that it is now dominating the content of series productions. But this is not bad news. This only proves the local productions are presenting male-male relationship stories to viewers in a manner appealing to viewers.

In fact, another welcome addition to the local BL flick list is Star Cinema’s My Lockdown Romance that has Jameson Blake and Joao Constancia starring in it. The two play central characters in the story about restoring friendships and reigniting feelings. It is written and directed by Bobby Bonifacio Jr.

In the story, Jameson is closeted gay guy Tom Amorado, who has a crush on his college best friend Kendrick Villaverde (Joao). But Tom prefers not to tell Kendrick about his feelings for fear of losing their friendship. The two eventually separated and lost communication when Kendrick migrated to Hawaii after graduation. Tom, on the other hand, works as a freelance accountant.

Five years later, Tom and Kendrick reconnect through social media and start exchanging messages and do video calls. The lockdown, due to the pandemic, makes it impossible for them to meet in person even when Kendrick returns to the country and volunteers to work as an errand boy for senior citizens in his community. As they become friends once more, Tom begins to question Kendrick’s true intentions, sensing the latter’s old and undesirable behavior has not gone away.

Jameson and Joao’s video call scenes can easily send viewers to a moment of kilig and excitement.

As real-life buddies, Jameson and Joao didn’t find that “perfect chemistry” too tough to build. Both felt at ease the moment they started working on the film.

However, Jameson didn’t deny feeling a bit hesitant the first time he was offered the role. He said he right away sought the opinions of his mom and his manager before giving his nod to the acting project.

“It was new to me,” he reasoned. “It’s a role that I’ve never done before and so, I had to think twice and I had to ask opinions like from my mom and my manager, what they would think.”

His desire to go out of his comfort zone led him to finally accept the role. “How can I grow as an actor if I’m not going to explore more roles, that’s what I thought. I was handed the script and read it. I liked it; it was also cute so I decided to do it.”

It’s a different case for Joao who didn’t have second thoughts about portraying Kendrick. “It’s a new experience for me and a new project for me to do. That’s why, I was really super excited to do it. Initially, I auditioned for it and then I got to talk with direk Bobby and other cast (members). I guess the best was tinuruan ako how to understand the character itself and they gave me the freedom to learn and portray my character.”

Both revealed that when it comes to love, they, too, have had their share of marupok moments.

“For example, me and my girl were dating and then we had a misunderstanding pero konting lambing lang n’ya sa akin, we’re okay again. For sure, that’s a simple marupok moment that everyone can relate to,” Joao said.

Jameson said it depends on the situation. “Honestly speaking, it’s been a while since (the last time) I’ve had a girlfriend. Well, siguro mga konting lambing, I’d already give in. Ganoon ako minsan but I don’t know now kasi wala pa akong girlfriend.”

(My Lockdown Romance can be purchased for P150 with several Cinexpress channels to choose from: KTX.ph, iWant TFC, Channel 190 and Channel 290 for HD on Cignal PPV and Channels 158 and 258 for HD on Sky Cable PPV.)