MANILA, Philippines - “It’s amazing that a lot of people have been supporting us,” says Nadine Lustre of her and onscreen partner James Reid’s rise to fame after the success of their launching movie Diary Ng Panget which raked in P130M at the tills. “And in just about three months, we already have a huge fan base,” James adds. In fact, they are now simply known as JaDine.
Though many are happy about their team-up, some quarters cannot help but worry that their popularity might pop as fast as a blink of an eye. But Nadine deems otherwise. “I think it will last (long) since I always give my best, as in my 101 percent, in everything that I do. I take my career seriously. I will not do anything that will break or taint my name.”
Besides, Nadine is devoting her spare time in acting workshops organized by Viva and “before I also had acting workshops with direk Laurice (Guillen) and direk Leo. I had lots of workshops to improve my acting.”
Still, the 20-year-old Viva talent feels butterflies in her stomach about topbilling in a joint movie venture of Viva Films and Skylight Films’ Talk Back And You’re Dead that teams her up anew with James. “Coming from a hit movie, there’s this expectation to make it bigger and more successful this time. But I’m confident that people will love this more.”
Talk Back And You’re Dead is the big screen adaptation of Alessana Marie’s best-selling novel which became popular not only in paperback but also on Wattpad. It is a different kind of love story that centers on the three main characters Top (played by James), Sam (Nadine) and Red (Joseph Marco) whose lives are put in an unexpected situation where they have to save one another unaware that a love triangle is about to happen. It infuses teen romance with high adrenaline action and pulsating component of danger.
Acting-wise, director Andoy Ranay, who also handled Diary Ng Panget, shares that James and Nadine have improved a lot. “They become better, exciting, fun and hot because this is more mature compared to Panget na umuusbong pa lang ang love pero dito mas malalim na ang istorya.”
Nadine, too, has praise for the director whom she describes as “maalaga, funny on the set, very OC (obsessive compulsive) with everything that when he feels it will not come out fine, then he will tell us to stop. He’s like a teacher to me. Is he strict? Well, he has to be.”
But direk Andoy refuses to be labelled as strict. “I don’t dictate their moves. I let them interpret their parts because I know that they are intelligent enough to give what their characters are required of them. The only thing I told them to do when Boss Vic (del Rosario) and Viva gave me this project was to read the book so they will understand why they should be like this or that. Besides, there were parts of the story that we didn’t include in the movie so baka di nila maintindihan pag di nila binasa ang libro.
“If I find something is wrong with their acting, then that’s the only time I correct them because I really want it to be a collaborative effort with everyone, especially with my actors.”
James, on the other hand, finds working with direk Andoy for the second time as “more fun; we’re more comfortable with him and he’s so helpful.”
Asked about the real status of their relationship off-cam, Nadine tells that nothing romantic is going on between them. “It’s just that we’re really close to each other.” Apparently, their sweetness began during their first team-up movie.
“But I’m the type of person who doesn’t easily assume na, ‘Uy ganyan siya sa akin, siguro may gusto.’ All I can say is he takes care of me. When we have a scene, he asked me if I’m comfortable with it. Right now, we’re just really working on with our career. Gusto namin talagang mag-focus since we both lost the height of our respective careers before. This time, we want to concentrate first on our acting.”
Nadine is certain that for a love team to effectively work, there should be a perfect chemistry. “Definitely, we cannot force ourselves to fall in love with each other just for the sake of the team-up. I’m very happy that people see that we have a chemistry na maraming kinikilig even though they know that we’re not a real item.”
Does it help in her career to have an onscreen partner?
“Yes, it is. Being in the loveteam is like a teamwork; you help each other out,” Nadine replies.
(Talk Back And You’re Dead also stars Yassi Pressman as Audrey. It will open on Aug. 20 in theaters nationwide.)