Ejay wants to go back to school

MANILA, Philippines - Ejay Falcon wants to return to school. 

“I really want to go back to school,” the 23-year-old star of ABS-CBN’s Carlo J. Caparas’ Dugong Buhay says in Filipino in an interview with The STAR. â€œI want to study at UP. I want to take up filmmaking or management.”

His dream school is UP because “para sa akin, sa UP lahat galing ang magagaling. Marami akong nakausap na taga-UP like direk Laurenti Dyogi and direk Malu Sevilla.” 

Ejay actually reached freshman year in college, studying Hotel & Restaurant Management at the University of Manila, although initially, his main reason for traveling from his hometown in Mindoro to Manila was to look for his mother. He eventually dropped his studies because of financial difficulties and went back home. 

 Ejay found his way back to Manila when he joined the teen edition of the reality show Pinoy Big Brother in 2008, of which he became the winner. It took him some years before he got his biggest break yet, this topbilling role in Dugong Buhay, and had he not gotten it, or had he not gotten any worthwhile project at all, he claims he’s ready and willing to return to his simple life in the province. 

“I’m willing to go back because I was already happy with my life then. I’m not ashamed of my background. Yes, it was tough. But what’s important is that I’m with the people I grew up with, my family, relatives. I know I won’t go hungry and I know my family loves me more than ever.”  

Ejay goes home at least twice a year and he admits the treatment of his townmates has changed since he entered showbiz. “Iba na ang treatment. May naiilang, may iba kulang na lang pupunasan pawis mo. Pero ayoko talaga ng ganun. Lagi kong pinamumukha sa kanila na ayoko ng ganun, na ganun pa rin ako.” 

Still, it can’t be denied how much he has changed personally. He recalls, “I’ve changed so much. When I came out of PBB, I couldn’t say a word. I didn’t know how to socialize. I didn’t know how to speak to the media. Dati, naiiyak na ako pag tinatanong ng tao. Pero sa pagiging aktor, naging mas malawak ang kaalaman ko, ang mundo ko.”

Meanwhile, Ejay is happy that Dugong Buhay is getting positive reviews from viewers, which he reads online, but perhaps nothing is more important than the comments of his own father, Tatay Erning. 

Ejay says that his father calls him up whenever he is antagonized by the villain characters in the series. “They get affected, they get carried away,” he muses. 

He adds that his father is a man of few words, but “I know he’s proud of me.”  

 Ejay is getting acting pointers from the senior actors on the set, particularly Ronnie Quizon with whom he shares a lot of scenes. “He guides me because the scenes are getting more and more intense.” 

Ejay says that the constant advice to him is to lose himself in the scenes. “Kailangan ko lang maramdaman lagi yung eksena. Kailangan kong tumingin sa mata ng ka-eksena ko.” 

In the series directed by Toto Natividad and Mikey del Rosario, Ejay plays Gabriel de Lara/Victor Bernabe. The series will see intensifying developments in the lives of the characters, foremost of which is whether Victor will push through with his plans to destroy the De Laras or if his anger will subside as he grows closer to the family he grew up hating. Dugong Buhay airs weekdays.