Cesar Montano marks four decades in the acting arena

Multi-awarded actor Cesar Montano is best remembered for his memorable portrayal of the national hero Jose Rizal in Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s award-winning historical drama, Jose Rizal (1998).

That true-to-life role took Cesar seven months to internalize, get into the character and essay the part. He eventually copped several acting awards for Jose Rizal.

The film, which was an official entry in the 1998 Metro Manila Film Festival, got a total of 17 trophies that included all the major awards.

Cesar is undoubtedly proud of having portrayed Jose Rizal in his stellar acting career that also brought him other enviable recognition and awards through the years.

Since he started acting in the movies, when he made his early films doing bit roles in Mario O’ Hara’s To Mama With Love (1983) and Ishmael Bernal’s Broken Marriage (1983), Cesar has enviably charted four decades in the acting arena.

His memorable films also include Mauro Gia Samonte’s Machete (1990), Abaya’s Muro-Ami (1999), Carlo J. Caparas’ Chavit (2003) and the film he directed Panaghoy sa Suba: The Call of the River (2004) and his Hollywood debut in John Dahl’s The Great Raid (2005).

Cesar is wrapping up The Turning Cradle: The Untold Story on Alfredo Lim, a biopic on Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

After two decades, Cesar again stepped into another important character in director Darryl Yap’s controversial dramedy, Maid in Malacañang (MiM), shown last year. The second iteration of the film, Martyr or Murderer (MoM), will be released starting March 1.

This new, real-life portrayal for Cesar merely entailed a faster preparation for his role. He was only given a few weeks before they started filming the first film.

He is thankful to social media for allowing him to research further about his character and his role.

“I’m so grateful that information in social media about the role that I play became available for me,” Cesar admitted. “I’m humbled to play the former President.”

One of the challenges for Cesar is even the hairdo. “Hirap na hirap ang stylist na gayahin ang hair ni President kasi parang 10 feet sa taas,” Cesar smiled. “This is more of rewriting the history for me because I’m playing Marcos again.”

For this second film, Cesar feels he even improved in his portrayal. “Nakaka-kamada ko na ang character ni FM, but I have a lot of growing up to do,” he asserted. “Hindi ako mapapagod na aralin ng aralin ang character na ‘yan if given more chance.

“Sana nga mas mahaba ang pag-aaral and preparations, that’s more favorable for an artist. Mahirap kasi ‘yung very short lang ang preparations mo.”

In Jose Rizal, Cesar was given a longer time to prepare for his role. Nevertheless, in MoM, he said, “Ibang klase ang director ko dito. Ang galing ng script namin.”

“I’m a film director also, but I cannot stop myself from commending how brilliant my director is, considering he is still very young,” he added.

Cesar is paired for the first time with Ruffa Gutierrez as the former first Lady Imelda Marcos. “I’ve been looking forward, for a long time, to be paired with Ruffa,” he said. “It happened in MiM. But wala naman kaming love scene. Even here sa MoM, the most that we had is a bed scene but with a hug lang. Very wholesome.”

Besides the local playdate, the film will also be screened internationally — March 9 in the Middle East, March 10 in North America and Singapore, March 11 in Australia, March 11 and 12 in Taiwan. There will be other screenings in Japan — March 19 in Tokyo, March 26 in Osaka, April 2 in Nagoya; as well as April 9 in Hong Kong, Austria, Greece and Israel.