Dolly de Leon honors OFWs with portrayal in Cannes’ Triangle of Sadness

MANILA, Philippines — Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s social satire Triangle of Sadness won over the weekend the Palme d’Or, the highest award at the ongoing 75th Cannes Film Festival in France.

One of the film’s main cast members is Filipina actress Dolly de Leon, who plays Abigail, a toilet manager working on a cruise ship who finds herself stranded on a deserted island, along with her bosses and guests.

Triangle of Sadness also stars Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Vicki Berlin, Charlbi Dean and Hanna Oldenburg.

This is the second time that the director bagged the prestigious award, following his satirical film The Square in 2017.

Dolly was proud of her role, what it represents and signifies in society. “I think from my perspective as a Filipina, there are a great majority of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who were domestic helpers in other countries, so I feel like the piece was very important. (In the movie,) there is that person who has a very little advantage but one day takes over a society and she’s the one in power, people look up to her and depend on her,” she said during a virtual press conference at Cannes.

“So, I thought that was very important. And I thought it was really fun to play someone like that. That part alone I was already sold in it. I thought it was really a fantastic idea. To bring us up in a place, where we don’t normally feel like we’re in because we come from underprivileged families and we’re a developing country,” she added.

Early on in the film festival, Dolly was lauded by foreign press for her performance in the film and touted as a strong contender for the Best Actress prize. (The acting award eventually went to Iranian actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi who won for her role as a journalist trying to catch a killer in the thriller Holy Spider.)

In fact, Dolly was also featured in a lengthy article in the Hollywood entertainment news outlet Variety by Manori Ravindran.

The theater actress from the Philippines is a mother of four and played the lead in Erik Matti’s episode for the HBO Asia series Folklore. She also won the Best Supporting Actress award at the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards (FAMAS) for the Brillante Mendoza-produced movie Verdict in 2020.

In the Variety article, Dolly was described as someone who “doesn’t get very far in Cannes without being stopped in the street by enthusiastic fans. The scene-stealing Filipina actor stars in Ruben Östlund’s festival sensation Triangle of Sadness where her every line has so far prompted cheers in press and public screenings alike.”

While doing the interview for Variety, a passerby interrupted and told Dolly, “You gave a fantastic performance,” as mentioned in the article. She was asked by the interviewer, “Does this happen (to) you constantly here?” Dolly replied, “Yes, it does. It’s wild. It’s wild.”

She was further asked, “Does this not happen to you in Manila?” She answered, “No! No, no. They look at me like this. (De Leon squints her eyes and looks at me, and then quickly looks away.) And then they keep walking. They’re like, ‘I think I’ve seen her before. Did we go to school together? Ah, anyway!’”

She told Variety, “To be honest, I have not broken out in the Philippines. I have not. I play bit roles — lawyers, doctors, the mother of the lead, the principal of a school, or the psychiatrist.”

Dolly “doesn’t have an agent, represents herself and found out about the casting call for Triangle of Sadness through Manila’s close-knit acting community.”

“They were specifically looking for actors in the Philippines. The casting director came to the Philippines and was there for a long time, looking for actresses to play Abigail,” she recalled to Variety. “She would film us and then send the footage to Ruben, and he would choose. Then he asked to meet all of us and we met on Skype, and talked individually to see if we can understand each other. I auditioned the three scenes in the film: giving the octopus out, the scene with Carl and Abigail in the boat, and the scene where they left the fire to die.”

The team searched for a specific actor in the Philippines for that role, “Because there are a lot of Overseas Filipino Workers all over the world,” said Dolly. “We’re the biggest domestic helpers in other countries and Ruben is well aware of that. In yachts, ships and cruises, there are a lot of Filipino workers there. There are people working in the kitchen, toilets, dining halls. There are a lot of us who are out there, working.”

Meanwhile, PLAN 75, a Japanese, France, Philippines co-production, under the Un Certain Regard section, bagged the Camera d’Or Special Mention award. As per synopsis, the film is “set in the not-so-distant future where Japan’s elderly populations have become detrimental to the country’s growth” and where a government funded program is set into motion, “in which retired seniors — and other citizens deemed unproductive — are efficiently and systematically eliminated on a volunteer basis.”

PLAN 75 is helmed by Chie Hayakawa, co-produced by Filipino producer Alemberg Ang and by Filipino production company Fusee, headed by Will Fredo. It also stars Filipina actress Stefanie Arianne who plays a caregiver to the elderly.

Mike de Leon’s restored film Itim was screened at the 75th Cannes Film Festival as part of the Restoration World Premieres under its Cannes Classics category.