First-time screen partners Alden Richards and Julia Montes show each other their ‘real’ selves

Alden Richards (left) and Julia Montes

In a Twitter Q&A session back in 2012, Alden Richards was asked by a fan which actresses he would like to work with in the future. Julia Montes was one of them.

Eleven years later, in what seems to be another instance of a celebrity manifesting dreams into reality, Alden and Julia are set to make their debut as screen partners in the upcoming romantic drama movie “Five Breakups and a Romance.”

“I once tweeted about wanting to work with her. I had already forgotten about it. But then the fans were able to unearth my old tweets!” Alden said at a recent press conference. “I got excited when I found out that I was going to be paired with Julia, because I know how brilliant an actress she is.”

The two actors knew each other from their respective films and television series. “I watched her movie ‘Way Back Home.’ Of course, I also knew about ‘Mara Clara’ and ‘Doble Kara,’” Alden said.

“The last one I saw from Alden was his soap ‘The World Between Us,’” Julia said.

So how did their first meeting go? What was their first impression of each other? Alden admitted that he found Julia intimidating. “Before working together, I thought of her as a strong woman, someone who knows what she wants. Now that I’ve gotten to know her, I found that she has all those traits and uses them for good,” he told the Inquirer.

“From our first meeting alone, I could immediately tell that she would be easy to work with,” Alden added. “So I get excited every time we see each other for this project. That’s the vibe she gives off, so I try to reciprocate that. When I’m with her, I feel like I can be my raw self.” Julia, on the other hand, had always had a hunch that Alden is a “kind” person. She was right. “And he proved that he was more than what I expected,” she told the Inquirer. “I realized that he is where he is right now as Alden Richards because of who he is.”

“Usually, we just know him from interviews and what other people or his friends say about him. But the real Alden, which not a lot of people see, I was blessed to have seen for myself,” she said. Directed by Irene Villamor, “Five Breakups”—which will be shot partly in Singapore—will tackle “the complexities of romance and relationships in the modern era.”

“We’re used to stories where we already know where they’re headed. This movie is about the realities of relationships—the petty or big fights that people don’t really show to the public. It’s about complications and misunderstandings. And I hope the film makes viewers feel like, ‘This happened to me’ or ‘This is me now,’” he related.

“Love is a complicated thing and something you don’t know anymore if you’re fighting for the right reasons or people,” he added.

“Love doesn’t come with a manual or guidelines,” Julia pointed out. “So we don’t really know when enough is enough or when to stop. We all have our way of giving love. And your story can be different from my story. But in the end, love is something you can’t really plan or prepare for.”

Big scences

Shooting has already started, and the first two days saw the two actors already doing the heavy dramatic scenes. So it was important that they feel comfortable with each other from the get-go.

“We already did some big scenes, the confrontations… It’s a big thing that you’re comfortable with your costar because you can’t fake connection. Sometimes, the characters you play are very different from your real personalities, but the connection has to be there,” Julia said. Actors, however, don’t always have the luxury of time to establish a rapport before being thrust in front of the cameras. “Luckily, I felt comfortable with him. Kwentuhan lang. I showed my real self and vice versa,” she said. “I felt her sincerity, so I wasn’t scared to give it my all. Mahirap ‘yung nangangapa ka,” Alden added. “But I didn’t feel like there were any walls between us.”

“Five Breakups” is Julia’s first mainstream film since 2016. So while excited, she couldn’t help but feel nervous. “That feeling never really goes away, no matter what project I do. It’s a dream project for me and I didn’t expect that it would be entrusted to me,” she said, adding that her role in the said film is unlike anything she has done before.

“I have done mother roles, wife roles… I have gotten used to them more or less. But here we talk about the realities of relationships. It’s overwhelming. But I feel excited every time I arrive on the set because I don’t have any idea on how to tackle the character. In a way, I’m on this journey together with my character,” he said.

Teamwork

For Alden, “Five Breakups” is yet another step away from the boy-next-door image he has long projected. “It will let me veer away from that persona. In this movie, the character is rough around the edges. My lines can be a little vulgar—not the typical leading man,” he said. “But I don’t want to just remain on the ‘safe’ side. I want to get out of my comfort zone. Acting is food for the soul. Giving life to characters or stories… that’s the beauty of our job,” Alden added. “Five Breakups” is produced by Cornerstone Entertainment, GMA Pictures and Alden’s production outfit Myriad, with former Star Cinema managing director serving as a consultant. Such collaboration would have been rare, almost impossible a couple of years ago. But in the age of digital media, the lines separating networks and film companies are slowly getting blurred. “We’re getting more opportunities as a result. Back then, you couldn’t go out of your network. But now it’s all about partnerships. We all have a common goal of providing world-class entertainment,” Alden said.

“I hope things can remain this way, not just at work, but in life in general. We can achieve more if we work together—it’s teamwork. And this film is an example of that,” Julia said. INQ

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