Joel Trinidad: Like Father, Like Son

Acting is probably the most unstable profession in the world. Unless you’re a Harrison Ford or a Julia Roberts, you can’t be sure where your next pay check will come from. More so in the Philippines where an actor cannot survive on talent fees alone unless you’re Vilma Santos or a Robin Padilla.

This is the briefing stage actor Joel Trinidad got from his dad, veteran comedian/character actor Noel Trinidad, when he was plotting out his career. Joel got interested in theater after watching his dad in several plays.

"I watched him from the wings and in the audience," he recalls. "It looked like fun. So I joined school plays and just fell into it." He was determined to follow in his footsteps but his dad dissuaded him from pursuing his dream.

"Get a real job," Noel told him. "Acting is not a stable profession. Thus after getting an AB Psychology degree from Ateneo de Manila University, Joel worked with an advertising agency, first as an account executive, later as a copywriter and acted on the side. This went on for nine years until he finally decided to quit.

"They kept promoting me until it reached a point where I got so diyahe about my sidelines," says Joel. "I was actually doing a pretty good job. I worked hard but my heart was really never into it. I won several industry awards. I never accepted them. I never went to industry parties. It was just a job for me."

Joel says he doesn’t miss advertising though he misses the people he worked with. It is interesting to note that this is exactly what his dad went through before. Noel had a job with an ad agency and he quit to devote full time to his acting career.

Joel has not regretted his decision. Though he admits that there is no security in an acting career compared to a 9 to 5 job, "I’m making more money now than in my former job." His income, however, comes not just from appearing from plays but also from voicing radio commercials and appearing on television and in the movies. No actor has ever made a living just from performing in stage plays alone.

The movie and TV assignments have not made him a household word yet although part of his resume includes a bedroom scene with sexy star Ara Mina in a TV soap. He laughs when I mention that to him. "Someone asked me if I wanted to do a bedroom scene with Ara and I said yes right away. I didn’t even ask what the talent fee was. So we’re both in bed. I’m watching TV in my boxer shorts and she’s asleep. Imagine my disappointment when the sexiest thing I ever did to Ara was tapping her on the shoulder and saying ‘Gising na, gising na!’"

He’s done two international movies. One was The Great Raid, which starred Benjamin Bratt and featured Cesar Montano as a Filipino guerrilla assisting the Americans in freeing prisoners of war in Cabanatuan. Joel comes out briefly as a collaborator but he was impressed with how the production outfit treated the members of the cast. He was given a room of his own in a five-star hotel in Shanghai and a production assistant was always around to help him prepare for his scene.

He also came out in Noriega starring Bob Hoskins, another international picture portions of which were shot in the Philippines. He’s done local movies like Mumbaki and Deliryo but most of his acting experience is on stage.

What satisfaction does he derive from being an actor?

"It’s the fact that I am paid to play. It’s like being a child who plays at being a pirate or a fireman or a cowboy and getting paid for it. The applause, of course, always gives me a high. There’s no better sound in the world."

He also likes the idea of playing somebody else. "I’m very uptight and disciplined in real life. When you’re acting, you’re playing someone else. So you don’t have to think about consequences. Consequences happen to the character and not to you. It’s liberating. When I’m onstage I’m free. In real life, hindi."

Does he find it hard to shift from his character on stage to his real self?

"No. Sometimes, a role will seep into real life. But not to the extent, that I would need therapy. Maybe if my character swears a lot, I might do that offstage."

Joel finds it easy to switch off when the curtain falls. "You shout, you cry. You swear. Then the curtain falls and you switch off. You’re fine again. You’re just exhausted. You feel a catharsis but I don’t go to a corner and brood. There are people who do that. I don’t."

Joel doesn’t believe in Method acting. "I’m not ma-technique. I just go out and do it. Most of the time it’s the text that moves me. Like if I were doing Romeo and Juliet, I ask myself, ‘What is like Romeo in me? I’d never kill myself over a girl but I have to find a part of me that would."

2005 has been and will be a very busy period for Joel. He has finished a run of Little Shop of Horrors and is currently appearing in Repertory Theater’s Whose Wife is It Anyway by Ray Cooney at Rep’s Globe Theater at Greenbelt 1’s Onstage in Makati. The play premiered April 7 and will run until April 24. The play is about a Member of Parliament in England who has a tryst with a secretary. Things get out of hand when they find a dead body in their suite.

For the first time, Repertory is experimenting on adapting the play to the local setting. Although the play will still be in English, the setting will now be Manila and the legislator is now a congressman. Joel plays his assistant who has to extricate his boss from the mess that he finds himself in.

Repertory is where Joel’s professional career started 18 years ago. He was part of the chorus in Kismet, a musical. Since then he has come out in close to 30 plays not just for Rep for other companies as well. Although his debut was in a musical, he’s done mostly straight plays. He considers himself an actor who can sing rather than an actor/singer. He’d like to sharpen his singing skills and do more musicals.

Joel also wants to get roles that are "not bagay to me." He would like to play villains once in a while because he usually plays wholesome characters. That’s why he was so happy when he appeared in Shakespeare’s R and J in Singapore. In the play, all the characters were portrayed by four actors. He acted out Mercutio, Friar Lawrence, Lord Montague and Lady Capulet. The actors did their roles without the usual period costumes and relied on dialogue and body movement to get their characters across. Joel had a great time portraying a woman in a serious play.

Joel has not limited himself to acting. He has just finished writing a musical comedy, Breakups and Breakdowns with four characters, reminiscent of the TV series Friends. There’s a geeky guy, whom he wants to play, a playboy, a sexpot and a sensible girl. There are 17 songs in the shows with music by Ronnie Fortich.

He is now looking of financiers. So he can devote fulltime to the production, he’s saving money this year so he can afford to take off for several months next year.