Gerald Anderson is ‘Nobody’ in TV comeback

Gerald Anderson is making his teleserye comeback after a two-year break with a new show titled “Nobody.”

During the project announcement event yesterday, the Kapamilya star who last starred in the romance-drama “A Family Affair” shared why “Nobody” is “the perfect comeback show” for him.

“This is going to be a beautiful journey of one person whom you wouldn’t know who he really is — is he a vigilante, a hero, does he have integrity? A lot of surprises will happen,” he said. “It’s a dream project… It’s going to be a great show.”

Gerald mentioned that the team from ABS-CBN’s JRB Productions is highly collaborative, allowing him to pitch in his ideas about the story and role.

His character, he added, is someone from law enforcement. “I don’t play a coast guard here, but it’s somehow connected,” he said.

Although he has undergone army training as a reservist with the rank of Auxiliary Commander at the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), he will have special training for such skills as firing.

“What I wanted to achieve in this show is to make it as real as possible,” Gerald added, hinting that the show will mirror situations that the government and the country are facing right now, including “outside forces that are meddling in our country,” and how all these will affect a regular Filipino with a family.

“This story, I promise, will inspire you. I can’t say it’s true to life, but it’s based on things happening in real life,” Gerald said.

For the actor, what makes “Nobody” different from anything he has done in the past is because of his character’s situation.

He said, “It says he’s a nobody. I think all of us feel that we’re nobody in our lives. We have doubts about ourselves, doubts about our situation, like can we do this? I know a lot can relate to this, starting with the title.”

But more than the character, he added it’s his journey here that makes this project stand out. “It’s more on the journey, the storyline which is about sacrifice, loyalty, integrity, family and the sacrifices made by my character’s family.”

Gerald reiterated, “It’s based on truth. This is not a simple action series or drama. It’s really about the journey of people who go through that also. It’s based on true events. Maybe when we start filming, you’ll see the trailer and you’ll understand what inspired us.”

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that everything is falling into place in his career with projects like “Nobody.”

He reflected, “Kakaiba talaga si Panginoon eh. I work from a place of gratitude. I think when you’re grateful, a lot of blessings will also come into your life. And eto, sunod-sunod na. You know, when they pitched this to me, I knew it was going to be a hard show — mentally and emotionally. But when you love what you do, and this is somewhat close to my heart, I am going to give my 150 percent to this.”

Interestingly, the show was presented to Gerald right before he landed in the news for his involvement in a rescue operation during the height of Typhoon Carina. One of the flood victims he helped posted the video of the actor’s heroic deed online and it immediately went viral.

Gerald was awarded no less than by the PCG for his efforts.

For the first time, the actor opened up about what really led to that rescue effort.

“I don’t know why it’s a big deal for other people. It’s just something you will naturally do,” he began.

“Honestly, the story there was, it started flooding, right? The water kept rising. I already moved my cars to a higher place, but I left my motorbikes (downstairs). Every 30 minutes, I would look out my window and see the water rising fast. I thought maybe my motorbikes would get caught in the flood...

“Around after lunch, the water was knee-deep. I rushed downstairs to save my motorbikes — there were four of them. We managed to move one up the stairs, and while I was getting the second one, my garage door was open. Just as I was about to grab it, an inflatable pool floated by in front of my garage.

“I’m not sure if you’ve seen that video that went viral, but that was an inflatable pool. It passed right in front of my garage just as I was about to get the second motorbike. The person said, ‘Sir, there’s still a lot of people stranded at the end of the street.’ Because I was the one he was talking to, I couldn’t just say, ‘Okay, good luck, Sir.’ That’s how it started, honestly.

“And then from there, we took the inflatable pool and then began to help out. Yung apat na motor nabaha. Lubog talaga. But you know, kesa mabaha yung mga tao. The motorbikes, you can have them fixed.

“But there was one situation honestly where I thought to myself, mapapahamak na ako dito kasi hindi biro talaga nangyari kasi sa sobrang bilis. Because every time we would go back to the end of the road, where the waters were at the highest level and still rising… there was a time we couldn’t enter inside the compound.

“But iba eh. It’s a different feeling when you know that this person is safe because of the teamwork we did. That because we helped each other, they were in a dry place, and could sleep peacefully. That’s a feeling you can’t buy, no matter how rich you are or how many motorbikes you own — it’s priceless. That feeling is what I want to highlight in our show.”

When told that his girlfriend, Julia Barretto, spoke in media interviews about how worried she was over Gerald’s situation at that time, the actor said that the show’s story also touches on the hero or rescuer’s family.

“Honestly, it’s somewhat part of our story. They say, it’s not just about the hero or the rescuer, it’s also about the family, the wife, the kids who are also worried for him. And that’s true to life, our soldiers, our police, you know, they sacrifice their lives, they sacrifice a lot and at times nasa-sacrifice din yung pamilya nila. That’s a perfect example of what happens in real life,” he said.

“And yeah, she really worried (over me) because the whole day I had no signal, I had no cell phone. That whole day, I was out. She didn’t know what was going on during that time. So you can just imagine those who are in ‘worse’ situations, our soldiers na nakipagbabakan so we can sleep peacefully at night, and what their families are going through.”