A new spin on Sam

MANILA, Philippines - I’ve been seeing you around town… spinning, lately.” It takes the few beats in between “town” and “spinning” for it to be palpable that Sam Milby isn’t entirely comfortable, being the center of your attention. “Spinning” comes as a welcome reprieve, a reminder that I am not a fan, but the lifestyle journalist he met a couple of months ago, on a Samsung press trip to Singapore.

“Ako yung tipong tao na pag may project na dapat i-present in class, nanginginig ako sa hiya,” he says. “I was super shy. I had stage fright so this wasn’t something I wanted to do.”

And yet, here he is, six years into a career that has transformed him from another reality show also-ran to one of the country’s most prominent leading men, playing opposite top actresses like Anne Curtis, Toni Gonzaga, and now, KC Concepcion.

Before we get carried away and get into the usual career-appraising celebrity profile, let’s go back to the start. Let’s go back to spinning.

Almost four months ago, Sam started “messing around” with his controller. Eventually, he started spinning music at clubs, playing at Republiq and Kyss, during the Azkals’ victory party. “It’s just something I enjoy,” Sam says.

SUPREME: It makes sense though, cause you have your music career? You might even use it for your albums. Anyway, is music something you’re still pursuing?

SAM: Well, I’m supposed to have done an album already, naka-dalawang kanta, naka-record na. Wala pang nabalita na tatapusin yung album, or anything like that. Walang balita kung ano mangyayari.

How about motocross then? I’ve been seeing some articles about you and motocross.

Yeah, I started maybe mga 15 pero yung first dirt bike ko, 11 or 12. Dun ako nag-start. I just fell in love with riding motorcycles and dirt bikes and trail bikes. Yung motocross, 15 or 16. I rode tapos may nagnakaw ng bike ko. So for about 10 years, I haven’t been riding, until last year.” It seems, Sam Milby is doing everything —everything, that is, except for the things we know him for, the music and the movies.

Do you have any movies coming out? Maybe we can talk about?

There’s a movie with KC…. We’re shooting two weeks from now. No title yet pero light drama siya. We don’t really know what it’s about yet… It’ll probably be a romantic movie.

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If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Sam Milby is tired of the celebrity grind. And with interests as varied as sports and spinning, one might even deduce that he’s a little distracted.

That’s the thing with someone like Sam Milby. Growing up athletic and stage shy, he was thrust into the spotlight almost suddenly. On vacation in the Philippines, from the States, where he used to live, he was encouraged to model and try to crack showbiz, by people who said that his looks could be lucrative here. With the lure of modeling and commercials, he decided to stay. “Ganon lang,” he says. From there, he joined Pinoy Big Brother and he became unstoppable, the unassuming snowball rolling down the mountain, gaining in mass (appeal) as it rolls down the mountain.

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Would you say you’re passionate about this? You kind of fell into this by accident. Do you actually like acting?

I really do enjoy it. I mean, it’s challenging. It’s fun to be someone you’re not. Sometimes, I’m not good at it. A lot of times, I just end up being me… [But] I don’t want to be a star lang. I want to be like Heath Ledger. You look at Heath Ledger na heartthrob after A Knight’s Tale tapos yung performance niya sa Dark Knight, talagang actor na. Same as Leonardo DiCaprio. When he did Titanic, heartthrob tapos pinakita niya yung craft niya in other movies. That’s what I would like.

Making that transition, though, they all had to deconstruct whatever image they had to start from scratch. I mean, Heath Ledger had to go through a lot of flops just to kill the tag.

Flops? Bad movies like?” Insert me enumerating all post-Tale, pre-Brokeback movies. “I didn’t know that.” Exactly. “The only movies I know in between are Brokeback and Casanova.

Same with Leo. He had a couple of lost years.

He did? I didn’t know that.

He did… So are you willing to go that far? Like Ryan Gosling also…

Yeah, Ryan. He’s been M.I.A. sa acting matagal na.

But there’s Blue Valentine!

Huh? I don’t know that.

He got some Oscar buzz befor it. It’s with Michelle Williams… Anyway.

I don’t know if that would work here. Dito kasi iba eh. Ako if that’s what I need to do to get to acting talaga… Gusto ko talaga matuto umarte eh… Pero ditto sa Pilipinas, pag flop, flop. Mahirap na ibalik yung status kahit magaling umarte.

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Maybe one day, Sam might muster enough Ledger-like indifference to star status, and get to where he needs to be, artistically. But for now, good intentions might be enough. The desire to want to be a better actor is good enough. He cares enough.

He is, for example, making a deliberate attempt to unroll his R’s and sound more like a local. And while that might seem like a savvy career move, Sam Milby might actually care, about learning the language, about the quality of the movies he stars in. It’s what has endeared him to Filipinos. Because, really, in the end, why not care about someone who gives a f*ck?