Ipe ready for indie

MANILA, Philippines - Phillip “Ipe” Salvador is open to doing an indie film and he might even do it for free. “Just show me the script and if I like it, kahit libre, gagawin ko yan. I want to be handled by new directors because I will learn. It’s like going back to school, I will learn from them,” the award-winning actor told The STAR after the presscon of TV5’s new primetime action-drama series Undercover, which he stars in with Wendell Ramos and Derek Ramsay in the lead.   

It’s the season of the indies, especially with the Cinemalaya just around the corner (beginning July 26). Nevertheless, Phillip is no stranger to indie filmmaking; many of his films with the late National Artist of Film Lino Brocka, who was his mentor, were of indie budgets. He recalled that Lino would advise him of the limited resources before they would commence on a project but he knew that once Lino had set his sights on turning a story from script to screen, it was worth it.

Phillip recalled his “discovery” story: “Lino did a docu movie Gomburza (about the three Filipino martyr-priests executed during the Spanish colonization). My role was captain of the guards who arrested them. (Before he got me for the role) kinunan niya ako sa cathedral walking, walking, walking. Nakita niya ako dun lang. So, that’s how he discovered me — through my walk. Then after that, he offered me to do a stage play, Flores Para Los Muertos (the Filipino version of A Streetcar named Desire).”

Direk Lino and Phillip would make more than 10 films together (now considered classics in any Pinoy cineaste’s list). These include Jaguar (1979), which became the first Filipino film entered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival; Cain at Abel (1982), which gave Phillip his first-ever Best Actor award; another Best Actor honor for Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (1985); and Orapronobis (1989), which was “critical” of the human rights record of the government that it was reportedly banned by film censors.

“Masaya ako, wala akong regrets sa nagawa kong movies, especially the movies I did with Lino,” said Phillip, who has done roughly 80 films to date. “Can you imagine, we would smuggle out our movies just to have them compete in Cannes, kasi ayaw i-support ng gobyero, bina-ban ng gobyerno.”

Asked what kind of acting training he culled from those times with direk Lino, Phillip said, “He paired me off with the best” such as acting heavyweights Vilma Santos, Chanda Romero, Gina Alajar, Lolita Rodriguez, Charito Solis and Nora Aunor, among other notables. 

“I really miss those days,” added Phillip.

Nowadays, the 58-year-old actor is finding himself in the position of Lino, playing mentor to the younger breed of actors. After being tapped to be a mentor on the artista reality search Protege, whose “mentees” he has kept track by watching their TV shows and movies, he dreams of putting up his own acting school.

Derek, whom Phillip co-stars for the first time in Undercover (airing weeknights at 7:30), has called Phillip his “idol” for being very generous with advice, “even when it comes to my shots.”

“He makes me a better actor,” said Derek, adding that in their scenes together, their exchanges crackle with so much intensity that it’s just hard to let go.

During the glory days of Philippine action-drama in the ’80s, of which Phillip was one of the frontliners, movies of that genre could easily compete if not win over the Hollywood flicks topbilled by the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone at the box-office. The cast of Undercover hopes to revive the action-drama genre, saying it’s time for it to be back. 

Phillip’s Don Faustino (alias Amang) role is the “kontrabida” — the brains behind Manila’s organized crimes — to Derek’s Roy Velasco, a well-intentioned, decorated but cocky policeman whose life gets enmeshed with that of Amang’s when he busted his illegal operations and sent him to jail.

While Amang is “languishing” in prison, Roy gets mysteriously abducted himself and is held in captivity for six long years, stripping him off his life, liberty and loves, including his bride-to-be, who in his absence and mistaken death, marries his beloved brother (Wendell Ramos).

Could Amang have orchestrated Roy’s misfortune behind prison walls? Roy is suddenly released from his captivity and he wants definite answers as he tries to resume his rudely-interrupted life and gets entangled anew with Amang and possibly secret enemies.  

“Ang ganda ng character ni Derek. And we all know he’s a good actor, and he’s still improving to be a better actor because he’s hungry for more,” Phillip said of Derek, returning the compliment.

Asked how he now feels about being kontrabida this time, after so many years of being the lead star, Phillip said, “As they say, it’s the changing of the guards.”

He shared that he has turned down several roles recently, even in the bida mold, because “I didn’t see any challenge in them. It’s a job but I won’t be happy doing it (if ever). Why would I do something I’ll not be happy about? Kawawa naman yung character and production. I could do it for the (money), but I don’t want to fool myself. Direk Lino Brocka didn’t mold me to become that. He told me that time will come that you will do kontrabida roles. Although when I started with him, I did bida-kontrabida roles. So, ang advice niya, gawin mo basta ma-challenge ka, basta mayron kang magawa na maganda sa istorya.”

Meanwhile, during the presscon, Derek was playfully asked if, aside from acting techniques, he sought out lovelife tips from Phillip. It’s no showbiz secret that Phillip, now happily married to a businesswoman, has a colorful lovelife. So, inevitably, given the issue now surrounding his ex Kris Aquino, he was asked about Joshua (his son with Kris).

On Kris: “We haven’t seen each other, we haven’t talked to each other, but the respect is there. Nag-asawa ako, nag-asawa siya, iba buhay ko, iba na buhay niya.”

He said that despite the situation between him and Kris, he gets to talk to Joshua mostly over the phone. “He calls me dada. We have a special song. When I see his posters and billboards (the three of them including Kris and son Bimby), tuwang tuwang tuwang tuwa ako. Ang gwapo! My six-year-old son is a mini-me of Joshua,” said Phillip, then showing a picture of Joshua and of his son Phillip Israel Christian kept in his cellphone. “Josh, I love him very much. I’m proud of him, and I’m so grateful to Kris. Josh has a good mother, a great one at that.”