Diego Loyzaga and Sue Ramirez more comfortable in second team-up

After Sue Ramirez and Diego Loyzaga were first paired in director Jason Paul Laxamana’s “How To Love Mr. Heartless” (2022), where they played young university students, they graduate to more serious roles in their sophomore project together, “In Between,” with director Gino M. Santos at the helm.

In their latest project together, they play very modern characters — Sue is Gaila and Diego is Shayne — in a “situation-ship,” the kind of relationship that Gen Zs or millennials get into.

“That’s the reality that couples face these days,” Diego said. “It’s hard to commit to somebody these days. You deserve the love you get. Is the relationship just physical or are you looking for love in the long run or in-betweens?”

“Since it’s 2025, couples now have more options to love or how they want to be loved. I don’t judge how two people get into a relationship. It’s hard to force someone. Everyone has different priorities.

“Others prefer to work or others prefer to look for a serious love life. They have different preferences, but we shouldn’t judge the choices that we make.

“If that’s what makes them happy, (then let them be) as long as they don’t step on anybody’s toes. I hope they don’t go into a relationship with somebody who’s married,” he said, adding, “I think I’m a serious lover.”

This time, Sue and Diego worked with an intimacy coordinator who coached them on how to do their intimate scenes in “In Between.”

Although nothing was “bold,” Sue and Diego had to do their intimate scenes safely. Viva Films, producer of the movie, really took care of them.

Sue and Diego had an intimacy director for scenes in the film

“It wasn’t just a kiss,” Diego said. “We just had different scenes this time. After how many scenes working together, we did a real kiss. Don’t worry, you will not see my butt here. We had more intimate scenes (here).”

Since they are both actors who grew up in the industry, Sue and Diego did not feel awkward doing those intimate scenes together this time around.

“Our friendship is more open to the possibility that should we work again, we are now more open to do intimate scenes,” Sue said. “That wasn’t a big problem. I am more comfortable doing those scenes with Diego.

“He’s someone that I trust and feel comfortable with. I feel safe around him. He’s a friend, so it’s easy to do those scenes with him.”

The concept of in-between is someone we want to be with while looking for the right one.

“All of us have a preference in life,” explained direk Gino. “We choose the one we want to be with. In the end, preference may change. Let’s see if Gaila and Shayne will change their preference.”

The filmmaker continued, “I gave them the freedom to create their respective scenes. I told them, malaki na kayo. One of the strongest scenes they did together was their intimate scene. They had the hand to execute that.”

Gaila is in her late 20s, who knows how to keep herself busy. Carefree and adventurous, she’s a freelance musician, make-up artist and graphic artist. Her one vice, however, is drinking beer. She is cynical when it comes to love.

Diego is Shane, who is in his early 30s and works in his family’s real estate business, until he transitions to bartending. He’s got his heart broken, but still hopes to find the ideal girl. He has this habit of comparing women to different kinds of alcohol.

With direk Gino at the presscon for the upcoming romance under Viva Films.

“Even at this age, we still look for the right one,” Sue said. “(My character) still opts to offer an in-between relationship. She has many stories in life that she chose to keep to herself. She doesn’t want any help from other people. She doesn’t want to be a burden to them.

“All of those things got resolved when Gaila found her in-between. Yet, she’s still confused and lost. She doesn’t know what to do in her life.

“Personally, at this age, I still want to do a lot of things and try to do more things,” Sue said. “I am still looking for the perfect thing that I want to do. I tried theater last year.”

The 28-year-old actress described her present relationship now with Dominic Roque.

“We are both happy together,” Sue said. “We go out. We explore. We go on adventures. We enjoy our time together. We eat the best food together. From the start of our relationship, we both found out our interests and if they jive.”

Meanwhile, Shayne is the exact opposite of Gaila. “(My character) likes to control things,” said Diego. “(His mindset is) if I do that, maybe I’ll get what I want, except preferences change. We’re all victims of circumstances.

“Of all the women that I came across, Gaila is the perfect one for me. So I guess that’s what you do in life. January, you start to plan this thing, but come March, you start doing a different thing. I want my dreams to come true, but I’m not sure how to do it.”

He also found it a bit odd that they don’t watch their scenes after executing them. “Every scene that we did, we didn’t get to watch any of them,” said Diego. “Direk Gino said, ‘Trust me.’ So we put all our trust in him.”

Under Viva Films, the film opens in cinemas on May 7.