During a virtual presscon for Love Unlock, Gerald Anderson begged off from questions pertaining to his personal life, especially not about colleagues who were not present and who should be respected.
“I’m just going to stay silent,” he said. “Ganun po talaga ‘yung character ko, you know. I mind my own business at ipapayo ko rin yun sa ibang tao.”
Airing tonight at 7:30 on the Kapamilya Online Live, Love Unlock is a mini-movie original digital special made up of episodes E-numan, starring Julia Barretto and Joshua Garcia, and Hook-Up in which Gerald is again paired with Arci Muñoz. Their previous projects together are the Star Cinema films Always Be My Maybe (2016) and Can We Still Be Friends? (2017).
In Hook-Up, they play lovers who try to spice up their relationship by romancing online.
The mini-movies were written by Benson Logronio and Arah Jell Badayos, and directed by Dado Lumibao.
Gerald and Arci had to shoot their respective scenes from home while ensuring that the set had proper lighting, clear and crisp audio, and the right camera angles.
“It was very challenging,” admitted Gerald. “It wasn’t easy preparing the production set without the help of the technical people. Direk Dado had to send his instructions virtually. Hindi po biro yung ginawa namin, eh. It was difficult to set up dahil online lahat. Mahirap siyang trabaho but you know working with Arci has always been very light at kita naman ‘yung fun sa mga projects that we did. I hope that when everything is finally okay, we will again (physically) work together.”
Arci agreed. She herself had to set up her bedroom for a scene.
“It was really tough. I had to make a lot of adjustments. Eh, diba ‘pag (normal) taping you only have to worry about your lines, your script, how to execute your scenes. This one was hard and I almost gave up, hahaha! I just used a ring light, a tripod and my cellphone,” she shared.
On working with Gerald again, Arci said it was always a breeze.
“Sobrang kumportable ako kay Ge. I’m just glad to have worked with him again. Actually, he was my first leading man in the movie (Always Be My Maybe) where I play the lead actress so to reunite with him (virtually) during lockdown is a plus for me para makapangumusta rin ako sa kanya.”
Direk Dado said directing both episodes of Love Unlock was something he described as “nanganay” because the experience is also new to him.
“At first, I didn’t know what to do. But we’ve managed it because of the supportive team and the professionalism of the actors. It was hard but very, very fulfilling. It will really challenge you creatively and technically. We are so happy with the outcome.”