MANILA, Philippines - Is it his hair or is it his eyes? Maybe it’s his Filipino-Italian lineage — the same bloodlines of Casanova and generations of gentlemen who have mastered the harana running through Matteo Guidicelli’s veins. Maybe it’s his musical theater background that brings a ring to his voice. Bearing the physique of a winning triathlete definitely does not hurt. He has a wide repertoire of soap operas to prove his acting chops, with hosting gigs and endorsements to boot. But what does it take to be leading man material?
It helps that Matteo, also an erstwhile race kart champ, is living a life where he is given free rein to follow his bliss. He’s been earning his own keep since he was 16; it hasn’t always been easy, and he is thankful for the wind beneath his wings. “I’ve been lucky that my parents have always been behind me every step of the way to guide me, even with my finances,” he admits.
His character in the Cinema One and Philippine Star original series Single/Single, Joey has a more challenging twist of fate. Shoved into the real world after being cut off from a faux independence as a budding rock musician financed by his mother, Matteo gets an insight into making it on his own—but not alone, as it all begins when Joey moves in with Joee, played by Shaina Magdayao.
Sparking a connection
When you put one man and one woman together in a story, are they supposed to fall in love? “We have never worked together, we don’t have chemistry together,” Matteo recalls the challenge of being casted with Shaina. Initially intimidated by what it means to have as much seniority as she has in the business, all of this was broken down — and caught on camera — in a scene where he sings to her. It took an original off Matteo’s upcoming album — a pop-rock record with mostly originals that will be sung and played throughout Single/Single — to spark a connection which the two didn’t think they could have.
Matteo, however, offers that Single/Single is not a love story, and as evidenced by his off-screen love life (he is in a quite private relationship with Sarah Geronimo), there is more to two people coming together than a romantic union.
“It’s their adventure together,” he sums up the 13-episode series. Joee and Joey will be bickering and bantering, exchanging witty repartee as they learn what it means to be grown-ups—together, eventually.
YOLO and living the extreme
“Joey is the YOLO kind of guy, he likes to do what he wants to do, right away. Matteo is like that in a way, but Joey is the extreme. I like being Joey ‘cause I can live Matteo’s extremes,” he compares. But it is Matteo who gets the girl, and once Joey learns what Matteo has in his relationship with Sarah, he will, too. “Joey would stand up on the chair, tell the whole world, and sing for a girl. As for me, [being with someone is] not about winning them over. I was just honest and true with how I feel.”
The presses are hot with rumors of wedding bells, but Matteo publicly declared that while he does plan to marry young, he will only do so once everything in his life is straightened out and ready — when he can fully give his best self. Life, like a marathon, is fraught with challenges. But in his finish line, just like in this year’s Cobra Ironman Race in Cebu, victory is sweetest when he runs into the arms of the one he loves. In Single/Single, Matteo gives life to a different kind of leading man, but in real life, what matters is that in his core, he lives by the principles of being a good man.
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Single/Single is a wealth management project of The Philippine STAR in partnership with SunLife, Metrobank, Avida, Samsung, and Ford. It premieres tonight at 8 p.m., with replays on Sunday at 10 p.m. and Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Watch it first on Cinema One (Sky Cable and Destiny Cable Digital Channel 56 and Destiny Cable Analog Channel 37).