There was hardly any triangle of sadness seen on the forehead of award-winning international actress Dolly de Leon when she faced the local media shortly before the Gabi ng Parangal awards night of the first Summer Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
As most everyone knows, Dolly became the first Filipino actor to win at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and Sweden’s Goldbaggage Awards, their equivalent of the Oscars, for her role in Triangle of Sadness.
The Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film also earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund.
Dolly became the first Filipino to be nominated at the Golden Globe and BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards).
The fact that she announced she will be busy the entire 2023, projects apparently kept coming one after another for Dolly.
She admitted she learned a lot from her experience being on the international spotlight with Triangle of Sadness.
“That experience was valuable to me,” Dolly asserted. “I felt that I grew as a person and as an artist.”
“I didn’t wait for it to happen,” emphasized Dolly about her Triangle of Sadness experience. “It’s not about waiting for it to happen. I guess it’s all about just working and working and doing the best that we can do. The secret is not to wait for things to happen. You really need to work to widen your reach.”
She refused to quantify the offers that will keep her busy the whole of 2023. She just wrapped up the filming of Grand Death Lotto in the US (California) last March, with director Paul Feig at the helm and John Cena and Awkwafina as stars.
“All my scenes (in Grand Death Lotto), I finished filming that’s why I’m back here (in Manila),” she said. “But the cast is still there and they have to finish other scenes.”
“The more memorable experience for me was working with Paul Feig, our director. He directed Bridesmaids (2011). He is a very good director. That was a wonderful experience working with him and the whole crew. That was fun,” she added.
The UP Diliman Theater Arts major also finished Between Temples with Jason Schwarztman.
On the local front, Dolly is expected to work with Kathryn Bernardo in Star Cinema’s forthcoming offering, A Very Good Girl.
“I’m very, very excited about that,” Dolly said. “I’m a huge Kathryn Bernardo fan and she’s a lovely person, as well, although we have not met yet. I’m excited with the project. Petersen Vargas will be our director.”
“The project is not the usual story. It’s very unique and exciting to do. That will be my chance to really sink my teeth into a character, together with a great actress like Kathryn,” she shared.
They previously worked together in a teleserye. “She was still very young then,” Dolly recalled. “I was a teacher and she was my student. She played a young Marian Rivera. Kathryn was still with the other network then. I couldn’t forget working with Kathryn because that early, she was already very professional, very sweet and kind.”
Dolly refused to label herself as a Hollywood star, despite the projects and offers that she has been getting lately.
“I’m not very comfortable with that term,” she admitted. “I am an actor. I don’t consider myself a star. I’m just a working actor. I’m an actor who works everywhere. I’d like to think that way.”
Already, Dolly has started using her fame to drum up interest and support for her chosen advocacies. Apart from the UN Refugee Agency, she recently supported Project Hulmahan to help the Marikina shoemakers and other communities nationwide.
Over 700 artists from all over the country produced 1,500 wooden shoes and turned them in creative and beautiful artworks for auction. The display even included a pair created by noted visual artist Toym Imao.