Richard & Dawn keep ‘loveteam’ alive with movie, soap

MANILA, Philippines - Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta show that they’re one of the most enduring showbiz team-ups around as they are reunited in Star Cinema’s The Love Affair, playing a married couple in crisis.

Departing somewhat from the trend of infidelity-themed plots, based on the movie trailer, you will understand that it is the wife who commits the cheating first, rocking the characters’ marriage of more than 20 years.

There’s a heated confrontation between Richard and Dawn that drew not a few gasps when the full trailer was unveiled in a presscon last Monday. The scene courted extra attention maybe because of their history as former real-life sweethearts, and the fact that both are now happily married to other people (Richard to Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez and Dawn to Rep. Anton Lagdameo).

According to Dawn, she didn’t have any reservations in carrying it out. “None for me. As long as I understand the scene and I’m comfortable with what I’m doing and I believe in a scene, why it is needed, then I’ll do it.”

She continued, “As an actor, you usually take everything in context, and you have to understand what the scene is really all about. Of course, you as an audience watching it on a trailer, you don’t understand what’s happening in the scene, and you only see that part, and it shocks you. But you read the script the way we read it as actors, and you understand where it’s coming from, what was the scene prior to this, and where is it going, you begin to appreciate what happened to the characters, bakit sila nagkaganun. So, it didn’t really need much convincing.”

Richard, on his part, had to discuss every aspect of the scene with director Nuel Naval. 

“Honestly, I really talked with direk kung papaano gagawin (yun) with Dawn. And then, I asked Dawn because of course, it’s very sensitive, that part of the body of Dawn, and of course, it’s up to her to explain to her husband. Kami naman, we are actors doing our scenes together, I guess napag-usapan nila yun,” said Richard.

“What’s so difficult to understand is that, as if we were doing it in a torrid love scene, no, galit kami, galit siya,” Dawn added.

There’s another intense scene in the film that involved Dawn and co-star Bea Alonzo, who forms part of the film’s central love triangle. “I only had one scene with Bea, unfortunately. But that one whole night we shot the scene together, natuwa naman ako sa kanya kasi she’s such a dedicated actress. I can understand what it feels like to be in her shoes because once upon a time, I was the younger actress who was working with the senior stars. Ako kasi, I like to help the younger ones get involved and get comfortable because I’m working at getting the scene real.

“The scene we shot was very intense, so while we were doing the blocking, I just wanted her to feel that we’re already in this together. And she was game! And I like that about her. I hope this is not the last time that I work with her. She’s really a competent actress and she’s going to reach much farther than where she is now. I hope I will still be there along the way and work on more projects with her.”

 Meanwhile, Richard and Dawn always get to be asked about their shared past, and The Love Affair presscon was no different. While the question may cause discomfort for some stars, there’s obviously no awkwardness between the two and they freely crack jokes about it.

When asked what if they had ended up together, Dawn said that their loveteam would no longer have existed. “Wala na sigurong loveteam. Maybe no excitement, no spark,” Dawn said.

“It’s better off this way,” Richard quipped.

In essaying their characters though, the co-stars drew some motivation from past relationships and experiences, whether good and bad.

Richard said, “You have to learn to understand and forgive yourself and also the people who have hurt you before, but all those memories, maybe you don’t have to forget them, especially for us actors, we try to keep (the memories), as these can be tools you can use in your acting. Whether painful or happy, we still have it with us, we keep it.”

He added, “With our craft, it’s very important to relate and go back to past experiences, to your memories, (and) as a matured couple in the movie, karamihan dun, nangyayari sa buhay mo.”

Dawn said that for her role, she also had to dig deep into present and past experiences, as well as the lessons that came with them.

“I had to dig deep into my life as a wife, also some of it in the past. We’re like mixing different kinds of motivations, things that have been experienced in the past and in the present. So, yeah, yung dynamics kasi ng married couple, I understand it now, maybe not completely, but a lot of it, and I was able to use it in the portrayal.”

She further reflected, “The experiences throughout your life, they keep changing. What we know today, we didn’t know back then, but still you’re learning. However, when you look back at the past, had I only known what I know today, I could have done better before, but then there’s no point also in regret, right? So what you try to do is, in the present you make the best out of every lesson that you learned or try to identify (the lesson) when there are new problems that come along: What can I learn from this, how will I come out of this? Am I going to be a better person or am I going to be worse? That’s the truth that we all bring with us, I think, that in our lives we’re always learning, hopefully, getting better as we go along.”

Both Richard and Dawn were also asked what makes their tandem click. They first partnered more than two decades ago, starring together in several box-office hits in the ‘90s. Their team-up was revived on the ABS-CBN drama series Walang Hanggan in 2012 and it led to subsequent projects, including this film The Love Affair and an upcoming soap opera tentatively titled You’re My Home.

Dawn said she finds it hard to believe that their tandem continues to enjoy patronage. “I really consider ourselves very fortunate. As a loveteam, we want to give our audience what they’re looking for, at the same time, it also has to fit our age.”

Richard believes that their team-up still works, even if they are married and have their own families, because they “keep the fantasy alive.”

“The reason maybe is we keep the fantasy alive in the minds of viewers. We have fans who are children of our fans before. And siguro (because of) the fact that, we look good together on screen, maganda (siya), ako…” Richard quipped.

Speaking of still looking good onscreen, Dawn in particular truly remains one of the most beautiful actresses in Philippine cinema.

She, nevertheless, said, “You just don’t know it, but I find it hard to maintain. Well, (I credit it to) healthy living and I think it helps that I still have young kids. I have a boy that’s turning 10 and a girl that just turned six. I have to be energetic for them. Even if I’m already 46 years old, I try to have activities where I spend time with them. Even when it comes to music, sinasakyan ko yung music nila. We cannot have a generation gap. All these things, all these efforts I put into (motherhood) maybe help in my countenance, because I already have crow’s feet and white hair, so maybe sa outlook nalang natin sa buhay. I need to stay positive because I’m raising children.”

(Directed by Nuel Naval, The Love Affair opens in cinemas nationwide on Aug. 12.)