One last temptation

Author’s Note: This was part of the cover story for this month’s Preview issue but I decided to drop it since it didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story, which became more of a tribute to the filmmaker Joey Gosiengfiao.

The remake of Joey Gosiengfiao’s Temptation Island is almost coming to theaters soon. For our return journey, we meet the four gorgeous ladies who will usher us back into its surreal world of beauty contests, sex, giant ice cream cones and cannibalism.

Let’s talk on the bed.” Solenn Heussaff uttered these words to me in a hotel suite about three months ago. No, there wasn’t anything salacious about it nor were we alone at the time. It was more of an afterthought really, since she was watching TV, waiting to be called upstairs for the shoot to begin. Various people were shuffling about the room. I’d already spoken to the three other beautiful ladies that afternoon — her co-stars on this month’s cover of Preview and also for the upcoming remake of Joey Gosiengfiao camp classic Temptation Island. At the time, though, only Solenn had seen the original movie. “I watched it four times, actually,” she said, laughing to herself recalling certain scenes. She would play the part of the social climber, Bambi Arambulo, in the original. It would be her biggest movie role to date. “I’m really looking forward to doing it.”

Although Solenn was the only one who had actually seen the original prior to shooting, the other girls took to their characters with great ease. www.FILIPINASINSHOWBIZ.COM

I arrived at the Midas Hotel on Roxas Boulevard around four in the afternoon. By that time, all the four girls were being made-up and prepped for the shoot. Preview creative director Vince Uy was already on the top floor, visualizing and discussing with photographer Jeanne Young on how to go about the shoot. Things seemed to be going well enough.

My first interview of the day was with Marian Rivera. It was a pleasant chat although the only thing she could really tell me at that point was that she would play the role of Azenith Briones. And that, yes, she was indeed going to have the chance to deliver her character’s most memorable line in the film: “You see, I’m a crook and a damn good crook. And I can tell another crook when I see one…” In fact, they all would since filmmaker Chris Martinez was sticking to the original dialogue for his remake (albeit with a few updates i.e. “tape recorder” to “iPod”). I could tell though that she was also keen on this project, since it seemed like a departure from her usual roles and projects.

The next person I got to speak to was Heart Evangelista. It was a strange time for her. Her house had just burned down the day before and as we were about to start our interview the TV started showing news footage of it. She was still visibly shaken and had refused to talk to the media the day before. “I grew up in that house,” she told me and I felt bad that we had to do the interview now. But she was professional and answered all my questions about the movie, giving polite if perfunctory replies. At one point, I asked her if she found this all just bizarre, the fact that we had to talk about a movie while she was going through this very real upheaval in her life. She thought about it and just shrugged it off; it was part of work. In effect, you just had to get on with it.

When it came time to talk to Lovi Poe, it became more of a conversation about her father, Fernando Poe Jr. After all, she was shooting in Ilocos where her dad had shot most of his iconic movie roles, most notably the Panday series. It would be a homecoming of sorts, like royalty coming back to claim her ancestral inheritance. Noticing that I was bit of a movie fan and had seen quite a lot of her dad’s films, we also talked about how popular he was especially in the Muslim community. I told her about a director-friend of mine, Jason C. Tan, whose family owned a movie-house. He told me how the audience would fire guns at the screen at the “bad guys” who tormented FPJ. I also told her that her father was probably the first major film star who took on the role of a Muslim and played him as a hero. Lovi told me she didn’t know that and was happy to know why the community embraced him as one of their own. Before parting, I did give her one piece of unsolicited advice about playing her role as the socialite Suzanne. It was her first comedy after all. “Play it straight,” I told her, not quite remembering which comedian said that first. 

Then, they were called to do the shoot. That was that. I wanted to stay longer, especially to chat with Preview editor-in-chief Pauline Juan (who, in my opinion, is one of the best editors and wisest people in publishing I know). But I knew they had work to do. I knew it was time to go and figure out how to write the story. Figuratively, I’d been to Temptation Island many times before.

Now it was time to return.

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Thank you to Pauline Suaco-Juan, Tara Y. Santos, Vince Uy, Liz Uy, Daryl Chang, Lyca Puno, Eunice Lucero, and the rest of the Preview staff.