Love Beneath the Stars actors share views on gender identity issue
Last year’s award-winning boys’ love (BL) film The Boy Foretold by the Stars is set to continue the story of Dominic and Luke via the Kapamilya digital series titled Love Beneath the Stars. The six-episode drama will begin streaming tonight at 8 on iWantTFC.
Keann Johnson and Adrian Lindayag reprise their roles as senior high school students of an all-boys Catholic school, whose friendship blossoms into something more.
In the series, Luke (Keann) and Dominic (Adrian) are officially together. However, a controversial scandal, a third party and disapproval from grown-ups and family members will put their relationship to the test and their future up in the air.
According to director Dolly Dulu, the film’s narrative touched on such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and reaction of parents to children coming out, but it is in the series that these matters will be further explored.
The contrasting views of people on sexuality issues are expressed through the characters portrayed by Agot Isidro, Romnick Sarmenta, Victor Silayan, and Nikki Valdez.
During the virtual media call, the four stars responded to the question: What would they do if and when their children open up to them as being in the same situation as Luke and Dominic?
For Agot, she doesn’t see any reason to resent. She admitted to being the complete opposite of her character, who frowns on her son Dominic’s relationship with Luke.
She said, “Actually, okay lang sa akin. I have three brothers but two of them are gay and my parents are so open, like n’ung nag-out ‘yung kapatid kong isa at sabi ng parents ko, ‘Alam naman namin yan.’”
The actress continued, “So there was really no need for them to be formally coming out. Ako, cool na cool lang d’yan and I have a lot of friends from the LGBT community and I love them all.”
Nikki, on the other hand, makes it a point to regularly communicate with her daughter.
“Since my daughter just turned 13 recently, Olivia and I, we’re very open to each other,” she said. “We tell her that anything that you want to know, kahit alam mong hindi kami agree at some point, ang importante is that you are open to us.”
Nikki also asked direk Dolly if her daughter can watch the series because at 13, her daughter wanted to know what being a pansexual is about.
“So, ako sa totoo lang, hindi ko alam ang isasagot ko kasi hindi ko alam,” she said. “I’m not very much aware of, ‘yung description ng preferences ng mga tao. But I did a research on it. Sabi ko nga my character resonates so much because I found myself telling her na it’s okay.
“Ako, I would rather you discover on your own kung ano ‘yung tingin mo, ang choices mo. But be open,” added Nikki, who sees her character in Love Beneath the Stars as a way to fully understand other people’s sexual preferences.
Nikki added that having been around showbiz for 24 years now, she gets along fine with members of the LGBTQ+ community. “All my life, nakapaligid sila sa amin. They are very happy people and again, as what Jodi (Sta. Maria, one of the producers) said, love is universal, so who are you to choose for a person? Sobrang open kami ng anak ko and I just told her that, ‘When the time comes na ito ‘yung choice mo, I will support you.’”
Romnick, who has six children – two boys and four girls – said his sons are more open to sharing stories with him. His thoughts on the gender issue reflected his respect towards the freedom of other people to choose for themselves.
“I have so many friends who are in the (LGBTQ+) community, and growing up from grade school ang dami ko ng kakilala and then working in this industry for so long, I think my understanding grew along with me,” he began. “S’yempre at first when you were young, like during the ‘70s and ‘80s, a lot of things are said about people in the community and because you’re impressionable, you think the same way. But as you grow up, you realize that we can only be answerable for who we are and we cannot pass judgement to others.”
The actor added that his children will always have his support no matter what their choices are in life “for as long as they are not hurting other people.”
Portraying as school basketball coach in the series, Victor said that he will equally be a supportive dad when the time comes for him to raise a family of his own.
“I don’t have a child yet but I do have a fiancée and hopefully soon, we’ll be having our own children. If faced with that situation, I live by the motto na you should always be honest so I think as a parent, you want your children to be open. Certainly, I will be there to guide them.”
(Love Beneath the Stars is produced by iWantTFC, Clever Minds and Dreamscape Entertainment.)
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