Aspunky, tawny-haired kid enters the studio, tagging along with the artista-cratic Isabelle Daza and Raymond Gutierrez. The two converse, their arms full with bundles of outfits on hangers, before introducing me to Fargo James Diaz Balliett, the goofy tag-along who turns out to be the one I’m meant to interview. Pretty impressive entourage for a 17-year-old who’s never done a shoot or interview ‘til today. But what does Fargo James Diaz Balliett, the latest offering from the fabled Diaz clan, have to offer the world?
“I really love film. I started the film club in school and I’m hoping to pursue it in university,” says Fargo with an easy grin. “I know they’re completely opposite, but I want to eventually be a director of either documentaries or Hollywood movies.” And though he talks with the carefree ease of a teenager, this NYU hopeful is nothing but serious when it comes to film, currently working on a documentary on Hong Kong life for a National Geographic contest.
Despite his American dad and Filipina mum urging him to take a more sober course like Business or Hotel Management, it’s obvious that this Diaz has stars in his eyes, no doubt the influence of his legendary aunt, Gloria Diaz. Though the past three years in Hong Kong on scholarship at the Canadian International School have lent a crisp, mildly British intonation to his vowels, Fargo was born and raised in Manila, him and his many cousins growing up seeing Tita Glory doing shoots. “I guess I just saw [filming and photo shoots] as like regular, as nothing extraordinary,” he explains, shrugging off the star-lined mantle many would kill to inherit.
‘Course, even his fabulous family tree won’t help him where he’s headed. “Everyone threatens me, telling me that it’s film and people are so competitive in New York, that you need to be the absolute best to earn good money,” the high-school senior shares of his worries. Then again, Balliett’s got more going for him than beauty-queen genes. The still-awkward mannerisms typical of his age belie the innate and unrehearsed confidence of a seventeen year-old who’s got the world figured out. This self-assurance is not completely unfounded — they don’t give out scholarships for nothing, as his place on the honour roll proves. Add that to the invaluable experience of living alone in a foreign country and this boy’s got one up on your average upper-class Pinoy kid, who’s likely to live in same neighbourhood with the same friends until he’s got his own kids running about.
One thing’s for sure: this kid knows what he wants. “People tell me work shouldn’t be fun, but I disagree. I just want to do what I love, have fun, and get paid doing it.” His optimism may be charmingly adolescent, but perhaps it’d be good for us to remember what it’s like to have our entire lives in front of us and the whole world at our feet, when we still had a sense of the infinite possibility that will never be beyond us. Not quite a child but not yet an adult, 17’s a good age to be — but it’s an even better age to be at heart.And as for Fargo, if the pressures of becoming the next Steven Spielberg (his idol) become too overwhelming, he can always come back home for some R&R as only the Philippines can deliver: “a massage on the beach in Boracay, with a mango shake in hand.”