One of the themes that is tackled in the Kapamilya sexy-drama series A Family Affair is sibling rivalry among the Estrella brothers played by Sam Milby as Dave, Gerald Anderson as Paco, Jake Ejercito as Seb, and Jameson Blake as Drew.
The series is about Cherry Red (Ivana Alawi), a beautiful woman who gets adopted by the Estrellas. During her stay in the mansion, she forms unique relationships with the Estrella brothers, particularly with Dave, her first love, and Paco, her fiancé, Seb, the wild child, and the youngest brother, Drew.
Secrets and lies surrounding the family get revealed in A Family Affair.
During the media launch of the series with select press held last June 15, each actor described their relationship with their siblings. Interestingly, Jameson somewhat had a love triangle story with his brother in the past, much like in the series.
Jameson has a younger brother who is one year older than him. “Growing up (we are like) the typical brothers who would always fight. Ako yung iyakin siya yung laging aaway sa akin, parang ganun. When we were teenagers, it also involved other stuff even like a girl pa. So na-experience ko din,” he told The STAR.
His co-stars teased him during the roundtable mediacon and he reacted, “But it’s not that serious, c’mon. A family affair. I did it with a girl before I was really young tapos after a few years he (brother) dated her… But, after few years, it died out, parang similar to this (A Family Affair). But now since we are adults, mas mature kami and we just support each other.”
Gerald also had a “sibling rivalry” experience among his family members that he was able to apply in the series but he did not give specific details about it. “Baliktad lang yung sitwasyon namin ni Dave (Sam) sa totoong buhay but yeah nagamit ko siya dito,” he said.
Ivana encountered it, too, with her elder sister when they were younger. “Kasi parang, ‘Bakit si ate may ganito?’ Dati nung batang-bata siguro, nung five years old ganyan. My dad’s favorite before was yung ate ko,” she shared. “So lahat talaga and sinasabi naman niya, vocal siya, it’s because siya yung ate so she is the leader. Siya ang magtuturo sa inyo bilang ate. Sabi ko, ‘Sana balang araw maging ate din ako.’”
But now, as they’ve gotten older, “Love lang talaga. We love each other. Walang inggitan and we just support each other,” asserted Ivana.
Sam and Jake, on the other hand, did not experience such.
Sam said he did not have any sibling rivalry issue, at least for him, with his elder sister who is 10 and a half months older than him.
“We were called Irish Twins, walang sibling rivalry. Parang mas kung ano ang ginagawa niya, gagawin ko. Mas ganun ako. It was not about any sibling rivalry, kung magiging mas successful siya. Siya yung laging bida sa aming dalawa. Siya lagi yung leader, siya yung bida lagi,” uttered Sam.
He recalled this particular scene where, “When we were doing our skating before, my mom would do the video. She’d be videoing my sister for a long time tapos pag lipat sa akin, lalapit yung ate ko, ‘Mom why aren’t you videotaping me?’ Siguro para sa kanya, mas may sibling rivalry but for me, it was never an issue for me at all.”
Jake has a brother who is six years younger than him and he treated him as a “baby brother talaga.” “Since ang laki ng age gap namin, I didn’t experience anything like that, fortunately.”
Directed by Jerome Pobocan and Raymond Ocampo, the series also stars Aya Fernandez, Edu Manzano, Rans Rifol and Heaven Peralejo.
(A Family Affair is available on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z, Jeepney TV, TFC IPTV, and TV5).