What Alfred has to lose for Bonifacio

Like other actors dedicated to the craft, Alfred Vargas drastically lost 15 pounds before he started shooting Ang Supremo in which he plays Andres Bonifacio for the second time.

“When I saw his picture, I was surprised how thin he was,” recalled Alfred who’s also producing the movie under Alternative Vision Cinema which he put up with his brother PM. “So I decided to shed pounds so my face would shrink a bit. I did it by having a crash low-carb diet.”

Take a closer look at Alfred and imagine him brandishing a bolo, standing beside the Bonifacio monument in Caloocan City and you will mistake him for The Great Plebeian. (It’s an image that needs to be corrected, according to Prof. Ferdinand Llanes of UP’s History Department in a radio interview with Joel Reyes Zobel on dzBB last Friday [Nov. 30, Bonifacio Day], because he said that Bonifacio carried a gun and never a bolo.)

The first time Alfred played Bonifacio was in the indie Ang Paglilitis, directed by the late Mario O’Hara for the 2010 Cinemalaya, which chronicles the trial which found Bonifacio and his brother Procopio guilty of treason, ordered by a war council to be executed on a mountain. In her recent Live Feed column, Bibsy Carballo (who visited the movie’s set) mentioned that it happened when the faction of Bonifacio as head of the Katipunan clashed with that of Emilio Aguinaldo who was head of a new revolutionary government.

Ang Supremo, directed by Richard Somes (Yanggaw and Corazon Ang Unang Aswang) whose style Alfred described as “passionate” compared to that of O’Hara which was “lyrical,” continues what Paglilitis has left off…rather, goes back to the time before that controversial paglilitis. It was shown at a premiere last Friday to commemorate Bonifacio’s 149th birth anniversary and will start its regular run exclusively in SM Cinemas nationwide tomorrow, Dec. 5.

“This movie shows a different side of Bonifacio,” continued Alfred, “not just the Bonifacio who led the Philippine revolution in 1896 but the Bonifacio who was a devoted husband, brother and friend. I was inspired to make this movie because I was really struck by Bonifacio’s courage and resilience at the time when everything seemed hopeless for the country,” added Alfred whose fascination with Bonifacio started in his History class in school (he’s an AB Management Economics graduate from Ateneo). “Bonifacio is my personal hero and I want my fellow Filipinos to follow his example and to honor his great contribution to our country.”

With the movie, Alfred also hoped to correct certain wrong impressions about Bonifacio.

“Many people know him only as somebody who was short-tempered, who was poor when actually he was not even if he had to sell fans and canes to help support his family when he was orphaned at age 14. He came from a middle-class family, a self-made and self-educated man. He was very intelligent…a poet, a songwriter and a Mason, a man who was passionate about everything he did. He even wrote articles for La Liga Filipina organized by Dr. Jose Rizal (whom he idolized) and of which Bonifacio was a member. He was a bookworm who loved to read books about great men. He read Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.”

Bonifacio died at age 34. Alfred is 33.

“I want to live longer than he did,” said Alfred half in jest. “I still have a lot of work to do,” obviously referring to his obligation as councilor of Quezon City where he’s running for congressman in next year’s election.

Asked which historical figure he would also like to play, Alfred said, “Manuel L. Quezon. His life was just as colorful as that of Bonifacio.”

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