If Xian Lim could go back in time…

MANILA, Philippines -It takes balls, the big and made-of-steel kind, to release a movie around the same time Mockingjay is showing in cinemas. This book-turned-movie is fronted by a well-loved Hollywood star and its foundation is a solid and gripping dystopian story. For the curious, you can check the movie listings in the entertainment section of the paper and you’ll see that aside from a smattering of other moderately successful Hollywood flicks, Mockingjay is basically mocking all other November films in its midst. “You think you stand a chance? Ha ha ha! May the odds be ever in your favor”, we can almost hear it say.

But the lead male star of upcoming Pinoy rom-com flick Past Tense (showing November 26) is relaxed and unfazed. After all, he’s got a good reason to believe in the the Filipino audience. To wit, his first movie with Kim Chiu, Bakit Di Ka Crush ng Crush Mo?, was a sleeper hit, while their second one, Bride for Rent, was legitimate box office gold, earning over P280 million. Xian Lim, still good-looking despite very little sleep, is really not freaking out about Jennifer Lawrence, you guys. In fact, he has nothing but love for the girl on fire. He rattles off the movies she has starred in (both indie and mainstream) that he has watched and observes, “Ngayon na lang siya napansin ng mga tao. I see her as an underdog and that’s a really cool thing.”

PAST IMPERFECT

The role of the underdog is something Xian’s very familiar with, and he’s always been upfront about his painfully awkward past. He sums up his middle school and high school experience in the US with one line: “If you look at the school yearbook…I was basically the invisible guy.” Xian, without drama or tears, admits he was a chubby kid who “didn’t belong in group,” and if you ask any of his former classmates about him now, they’ll probably give you a blank stare and ask, “Who’s that?” So when Star Cinema offered him the role of Babs, a fat guy blessed with no game and hated by everyone on campus, Xian’s thought bubble was, “That was me before!” Obviously, his fatty phase is over, so Xian had to use prosthetics and a fat suit to get into character. It took the makeup team around four hours every day to turn Xian into Babs. In the movie, Babs falls in love with Belle (played by not-fat Kim Chiu), who, unfortunately, can’t see beyond his humongous size, and falls in love with someone else. You can cry now if this is the #StoryOfYourLife. No judgment. Some 20 years later, in 2034, Belle, full of regret, gets one chance to go back in time to alter her decisions and her future. If you want to know how it all goes down, Xian insists you pencil in a movie date on November 26.

Here’s the ironic thing: Xian says he’s a fan of the idea of time travel but would not necessarily tweak the past even if Hermione Granger straight out of Harry Potter’s world appears, bearing a time-turner. He says if he absolutely has to change something, if that is a rule in this imaginary scenario, he would go back to his high school years and try to be “more engaging, more out there.” “I didn’t really get the full high school experience,” Xian says, sadness evident in his voice. “I wasn’t there for all the dances, and during the prom, I was just sitting at our table!” However, in terms of his five-year showbiz career, there’s nothing he would change, not even the occasional bad calls and wrong turns. “Whatever and wherever I am today, is a result of everything that happened, good or bad,” he says. “If I change something, anything, it will affect the now.” And the now is too good to mess with anyway: His house is finally finished (“I didn’t hire an interior decorator. It’s all me.”), he’s working on a primetime soap starring Maja Salvador and Jericho Rosales, and if Past Tense does well, his reputation as a box-office draw is 100% sealed. Why fix something that’s not broken?

Post-shoot Xian is off to rehearsals for a hosting gig, and then final dubbing for his third potential hit. Now that he’s retiring the fat suit, what has he learned? “Live each day like it’s your last and pay attention: Sino ba talaga ang nagmamahal sa yo ng totoo? Sino ba ang tunay na nandiyan para sa yo?” His mantra for 2015 sounds good to us.

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