Pepe Herrera believes in the supernatural due to some eerie real-life experiences.
“I believe in those unseen creatures, that it’s not only us living here,” Pepe matter-of-factly told The STAR during a media interview at the Regal Entertainment compound for his horror-comedy film “Bantay Bahay.”
“(I believe because of) experiences as early as five years old and I felt them many times in my life.”
Asked by this paper if he has the so-called “third eye,” which has been defined as the intuition or ability to “see things beyond what you see on surface,” he said, “I believe that all of us are born with a third eye but that it closes eventually because of external factors. Because I have two kids and both of them tumatawa and ngumingiti kung saan-saan (laughs). So, may mga nakikita sila, just like our pets, they see and feel things that we don’t. And I think sa panahon na ‘to, in this age, it’s now backed up by science. I think it’s what they call as the metaphysical.”
Continuing on the subject of the supernatural, we asked the actor more about his personal experiences.
“Our ancestral house in Caloocan, near Monumento, it has been there since the 1950s. It’s somewhat related to this ‘Bantay Bahay’ (film), marami ng nakitira na ‘di namin nakikita,” he shared.
“As young as five years old, in the afternoon, I (remember seeing), I wouldn’t call a child but a small creature with bushy hair (at our) Mama Mary grotto. I thought I was just sick, but it transformed into a little creature. Then, it went as we grew older. Even my siblings, different family members and visitors have either heard or seen it. When we sold the house, we had it blessed and the buyer seemed happy.”
Meanwhile, Pepe filmed at an actual old mansion in Quezon for “Bantay Bahay,” where he portrays a vlogger and podcaster who agrees to be “house-sitter” for his girlfriend’s ancestral home in the province. Unknown to him, the house isn’t only isolated, but it also has a dark history hidden like a well-guarded secret.
“It’s a character on its own in the movie. It’s very important that’s why it took us a while to get that location,” said Regal Films’ Roselle Monteverde of how important it was to find a house perfect for the story written and directed by Joey Reyes.
“Definitely, in Metro Manila, it’s gonna be so hard to find it. And luckily, because my dad is from Sariaya, Quezon, (we went there) and we were surprised that I knew the owner. She told me about the history of that house.
“That house was built in the 1900s, even before World War II. It has a basement, secret places like tunnels and they were able to preserve all the furnishings in the house.
“So what you see here, those are yung mga naalagaan nila na gamit that belonged to their ancestors. From the curtains to everything else, the furniture, these are by the original owners,” related Roselle.
As for Pepe, he didn’t have any weird experiences during the movie shoot.
“Surprisingly, wala naman (I didn’t sense anything), although medyo may kabigatan (there was a certain heaviness) because they have an underground. As the owner related to me, when the Japanese came, some Japanese soldiers lived in that house, and so they hid other members of the household, especially the women, in the underground,” shared Pepe.
“We also took a tour of the underground, and the atmosphere felt heavy. Even the caretakers themselves admitted that they get scared at night because there are things that make their presence known.”
How does Pepe deal with these things and not feel fear?
“Dasal, dasal talaga. You can call it prayer or mantra, whatever will make you feel light again and connect you to God again. Kasi ang sabi nga ng Kuya ko, who is also my mentor, kapag may nagpaparamdam sayo, usually attracted sila sa light mo, parang gamu gamo lang, attracted sa maliwanag (there are like moths attracted to light). So you just connect again by saying — this works for me every time — we all came from one source, which is God, ‘pag ginagawa ko yun, gumagaan yung pakiramdam ko.”
Lest we forget, “Bantay Bahay” is horror-comedy in genre, tapping into Pepe’s comic gifts that we saw steal scenes in the raunchy comedy “I Am Not Big Beard” and the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time “Rewind.” He also recently made his debut as a romantic-comedy leading man in “My Sassy Girl.” The STAR learned that “Bantay Bahay” was written with Pepe already in mind after direk Joey saw him in “The Hopeful Romantic” film back in 2018.
Interestingly, Pepe said that he cannot do straight horror. He explained to this paper, “I can’t do straight horror. Di ko kayang gumawa ng straight horror — for now — to protect my mental state. I’m okay with hybrid (films) like horror-comedy, or action-comedy, anything as long as it has traces of comedy. I’m okay with drama as well but straight action or straight horror, I try to do other things muna.”
In balancing the horror and comedy elements in “Bantay Bahay,” he said, “Actually, I put my complete trust in the director because it’s his vision. If there’s something I want to tweak, I always consult with the director. But more often than not, I give my complete trust to the director.”
Pepe particularly praised direk Joey, the newly-appointed Film Development Center of the Philippines (FDCP) chairperson, for his system in mounting film productions.
“Si direk Joey, aside from becoming my friend through this film, I can say, without bias, his system is the best I’ve experienced so far. Not only during the pandemic but outside the pandemic. We always start at 10 a.m., then we finish at 10 p.m. — if not earlier. The system is very smooth and sobrang ganda ng pre-production niya,” he said.
“I hope more productions will imitate or be inspired by or use this kind of system because, we can say, that it’s possible. There’s no excuse, as long as the pre-production is good. That’s why I’m very grateful that I got to work with direk Joey and I hope to work with him again.”
In response, direk Joey said of his lead star, “He’s professional, he’s theater-trained, you cannot get any better an actor, in terms of discipline and delivery. When he arrives on the set, he knows what to do and above all, hindi siya sagabal sa trabaho (he’s not a hindrance at work). He’s an asset and one of the best actors I’ve worked with.”