Conscious coupling

MANILA, Philippines - In the latest product of the ABS-CBN-Star Cinema movie machine, a young girl from the city falls in love with a simple boy from the province, yet circumstances around them prevent the two from coming together. It’s got all the hallmarks of the big studio’s formula — a popular lead actress in Sarah Geronimo, a strapping leading man in Coco Martin, a pesky third-party in Ruffa Gutierrez, and a title lifted straight from the lyrics of a Karaoke staple (it’s Maybe This Time — upon reading that, I bet the song started playing in your head).

Star Cinema, of course, churns out movies of this kind with the regularity of a woman’s period. It seems that every month, there is a new love team to peddle and a different set of cheesy lyrics to sing — so much so, that even ABS-CBN’s own reporters have to ask the actors what makes their movie different from previous films. “Pinag-hirapan po namin ito,” they all answer. “Kakaibang (insert actor’s name) po ang makikita nyo dito.”

But there is a tacit agreement between Star Cinema and its audience that what the studio offers is not new experiences, but familiar feelings — love, sadness, hope, kilig. People keep lining up for these movies in droves because they know exactly what they’re going to get from it — a filmmaking formula as over-used and yet as satisfying as the formula for Coca-Cola.

Playing Matchmaker

The main ingredient of that recipe is a conscious coupling, when the studio’s powers-that-be play matchmaker and cast two actors with the hopes of igniting a spark. For Maybe It’s You, the pairing of Sarah Geronimo and Coco Martin was field tested four years ago, in the teleserye 1dol. (Yes, that’s a number one in place of an “I.”)

“I think the management of Star Cinema and Viva saw good potential in our pairing, so the creative team of Star Cinema made a concept for us,” Coco reveals, as he and Sarah sit across from me inside a conference room at the ABS-CBN compound. It’s a familiar setting for us, having come here before to interview other artista pairings to talk about other films. But something here was different.

Perhaps it’s the way Sarah hit Coco on the shoulder when he confessed how intimidated he was by her at the start of his career. Perhaps it’s the way Coco covered his face in a look of “What the f***?” when we asked him to lie beside Sarah and rest his head on hers. But while we’re used to seeing love teams act like people in an arranged marriage (they act in love when the cameras are on, and act like strangers as soon as the studio lights come off), with Coco and Sarah, there is sincerity in their conscious coupling. They’re actors doing their jobs, of course, and there is nothing more to their relationship than a set of scripted dialogue — but in a weird twist, they struck me as being real.

Now, how could something real emerge from a formulaic movie machine?

Reality vs. Fiction

The trailer for Maybe It’s You begins with a beautiful shot of a beach in Bataan — we see crystal blue waters, glistening sand. So, I ask Sarah and Coco what their favorite beaches are.

“Hawaii,” Sarah answers. “Last year, I got to go to Hawaii with friends. Before, I used to go to Hawaii to play a concert, then I’d leave right away. So, I couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the place. This time, I got to spend my birthday there, and I fell in love with Hawaii.”

“How about in the Philippines?” I ask.

She pauses. “I got to go to Boracay but just for work,” she says. “I haven’t been able to appreciate the beach.”

This is the sad shadow of mega celebrity. It’s a gilded cage, where one isn’t free enough to enjoy even the simple pleasures a Philippine shore can bring. And yet we get the impression that celebrities live sweet lives, traveling for work, with a team to answer to their every whim. Are they ever able to smell the flowers?

“Hindi halos eh,” Coco tells me. “It’s only when we’re on set and we’re in character that we appreciate the beauty of our surroundings, but in real life, we’re on location from morning to night, it’s all work. It’s only when we’re in character that we allow ourselves to feel. I don’t really rest from work. In real life, I don’t really live. When I act, I experience life.”

Honesty

As we wrap up our interview, I ask Sarah and Coco about their acting process. How do they get the feelings of love, hope, kilig up on screen — feelings that their audiences expect from their films; feelings that should jump from script to camera to their audiences’ hearts?

“If you ask me, I don’t really know how to ‘act.’” Coco answers. “I have to feel what my character is feeling. If my co-actor doesn’t let me feel the scene, I can’t deliver. To portray kilig, I have to be kilig.”

“(It’s called) honesty. You become the character,” Sarah continues. “When I see Coco, I see Tonyo (his character in Maybe This Time).”

Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life? In Maybe This Time, a young girl from the city falls in love with a simple boy from the province, yet circumstances around them prevent the two from coming together. It’s got all the hallmarks of the big studio’s over-used film formula — but for two people at least, it’s their reality.