COVER: Richard Gutierrez: The Comeback Kid
MANILA, Philippines - There is a certain serenity to Richard Gutierrez. It could very well be the lack of sleep that so many personalities in the film industry and in general adulthood bemoan — “I can’t remember the last time I had eight hours or more,” Gutierrez chuckles — but it seems to run much deeper. The man, with his strong stance and soft expressions, seems to be physically present while his mind wanders to a deeper place. He smiles when he talks about riding bikes in Zambales and photographing wildlife in unspoiled territory, but even his excitement, although palpable, is tempered. It’s hard to imagine Richard Gutierrez as someone who would ever put the sagad in Sagada, but it seems that the man who sits before us now is at a largely different point in his life where he feels that he is changed.
“Friends are telling me now that I’m a totally different person.” Gutierrez pauses, before saying with a huge laugh, “I’m not sure if that’s good!” Amusement aside, Gutierrez recounts going out frequently and constantly, never really wanting to go home and always looking for the next thing. “When you’re young, you’re in your mid-20s, and you have money and you have fame, it’s a bit hard to control, to take hold of your life. So I kind of experienced that, like a whirlwind,” he says.
Indeed, much of Gutierrez’s life has mimicked a whirlwind. His return to the Philippines in his youth, following studies in the United States, included scheduling showbiz for the weekends as he and his brother Raymond were meant to pursue further studies. Showbiz, however, had other plans. Before he knew it, Gutierrez was in deep and slowly but surely burning out from a life that was characteristically both high-pressured and routinary. “I really wanted, I really needed, a step back from everything,” says Gutierrez, and that’s exactly what he did.
The year off
Gutierrez took a year off from show business to set his priorities in order, which meant assessing friendships, investing more time in his family, as well as exploring a passion project that combines his love for nature and adventure. He loves traveling to far-flung areas, which he photographs, and has quietly been compiling an exploration of wildlife visible in these areas for a book. He comes alive when talking about it, saying it should be on everyone’s bucket list to go to Tonga Island in Oceania to swim with humpback whales, and his desire to explore Costa Rica and the Svalbard Islands in Norway. But once his feet are back on local soil, his greater adventure is with his relationship with his son Zion.
“I’ve heard that many, many times: ‘It’s going to change your life.’ But during the time that they were telling me, I was like, ‘How is that going to change my life?’ It just comes naturally. I think it’s just your responsibility, your love and your responsibility in one,” Gutierrez says about fatherhood. He talks about wanting to be a more modern parent, more relaxed and a warmer, less intimidating figure in his child’s life. “Sarah and I just want to be cool parents to my kid. We want to be his friend. I want him to consider me his buddy. If he has any problems, I want him to tell me. I’ll try to help him out in whatever ways I can, and also try to give him his freedom. I want him to have options; whatever his passion is, I’ll be supportive. I’m not going to try to control him towards something, I want to find out what his strengths are.” With all the time he was spending at home, Gutierrez calls himself a homebody these days, and does so with pride. “I can’t say that I have regrets. Of course, during the time that you’re making mistakes, you’re going to tell yourself, ‘Why the hell did I do that?’ But at this point in my life, I’ve accepted all of my mistakes and I think it’s shaped me now into who I am today, which I’m thankful for.”
The year ahead
It’s been said that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. At this point in Gutierrez’s hiatus, he had begun to believe that another whole life was meant for him professionally. His passion project was taking shape, he had slated 2017 to be the year he finished taking photographs that would be essential to the variety of content in the book, in order to publish and release by the summer of 2018. How odd, then, that a talent like Gutierrez whose name has been synonymous with GMA 7 for years and years, should get an irresistible offer from its greatest rival, ABS-CBN. The offer was juicy: it was to play a centuries-old vampire, the strongest of the lot, with a traumatic history that had turned him somewhat antagonistic and rather complex. It would be a series in the next installment of the network’s long-running Lobo franchise, called La Luna Sangre, directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina, already starring some of the biggest names in the industry today: Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, John Lloyd Cruz, and former Mulawin co-star Angel Locsin.
It is moments like these that are defining to an actor, as to whether or not they are truly actors. Most creative people at some point try to walk away from lives built around performance because it asks too much of their soul and takes too much from their bodies, minds, and hearts. But those who are meant for that life and that career find that it haunts them, the desire to create and to be a part of that storytelling process. Gutierrez was no different. He realized how much he missed the craft, and working with able directors and solid crew who cared about the stories they told, and creating characters that were practically a second skin to him. Compounding that piqued interest was the idea of being his own man outside of the GMA umbrella, which had been his home for so long, and seeing what life would be like on the other side of the fence.
Gutierrez muses, “To connect with a different audience, to connect with a different set of eyes; there’s a lot of loyal ABS-CBN followers that are different from GMA followers. And it’s nice to be able to connect to them as well. They have massive reach across the world, so a lot of Sarah’s family and friends in Switzerland are so happy to finally be able to see me there. That alone is something nice.”
Gutierrez is also slated to star in a romance film opposite Locsin, a reunion that has fans of the former love team abuzz. He seems to be taking it all in, and even seems surprised when we ask him about his social media presence, not realizing how intimate fans have become with their idolized celebrities, waking up to their most unfiltered moments on Snapchat and Instagram Stories.
His eyes widen hearing about how his co-actors Bernardo and Padilla have grown accustomed to being followed home by fans, and he exclaims, “And I’m playing the antagonist! I’m going to have to deal with that!” He laughs, but doesn’t seem too shaken — the mark of someone born and bred with skin thick enough to tackle his chosen career.
Now, more than ever, Gutierrez seems poised to become the actor he’s always wanted, after finally understanding what it means to fit in his own skin. We ask him if with all these changes, and with a new network to call home, if there are any particularly difficult challenges he’s faced. “Getting in the building,” he says with a laugh, of entering ABS-CBN. (Anyone who’s ever taken a meeting there knows it’s far more secure than Fort Knox, every corner equipped with security and RFID access.)
We quip that it’s easier to get into an airport than it is to enter the network’s offices, and he laughs even harder. “So far, that’s the greatest challenge.” And if that’s the case, if the hardest part is entering a building that’s opened its doors to his arrival, then this is going to be one hell of a comeback.
Photo by KOJI ARBOLEDA
Produced and styled by DAVID MILAN
Grooming by SYLVINA LOPEZ
Photographer assist by GIAN LATORRE
