FRIDAY, 01 JULY 2011 00:34
n his latest movie, Forever and a Day, Sam Milby plays Eugene, an alpha male who will finally fall in love, and hard, with a highly desirable woman called Raffy, played by KC Concepcion, who is, unfortunately, saddled with commitment issues. In short, she’s exactly the kind of woman any competitive, go-get-her alpha male worth his strut was made for.
And nothing seems to be a more apt metaphor for the young woman who struggles to conquer her fears and the young man who pushes himself to the limit than having them play out their tensions amid the ziplines and obstacle trails in the scenic forests of Mindanao.
Which suits Sam Milby just fine. While he says “the story is amazing,” Sam is a natural at playing jocks because he is one. From age nine till 15, he lived with a coach who taught him competitive ice-skating, joined the school wrestling team and competed in motocross races—all before he flew back to the Philippines and turned his life around by joining Pinoy Big Brother.
In the movie, his character dives off cliffs, walks against the wind on a narrow pole suspended above towering trees, jump from one hanging loop to another, plunge into a cold unpredictable basin of water under a hard driving cascade of a tall waterfall, among other stunts.
Under pressure
There is an unusually heavy pressure on this movie to become a blockbuster in the Philippines and wherever there are OFWs. For one thing, it is an 18th anniversary presentation of Star Cinema. Known for hit romantic movies, Star Cinema has, for another, also tapped their blockbuster ace Direk Cathy Garcia-Molina for this movie.
What’s different here, said Direk Cathy who visibly squirms at being dubbed as a blockbuster movie-maker, is that “it doesn’t just talk about love but also of life.” She said that all of her movies may have seemed like fairy tales, but all of it is based on something that is real. “Whenever I make a scene, hindi sasabihin ng audience na imposible.”
More than the kilig stuff, Direk Cathy says the movie “tells us how to love, to hope and to give love, to impart something of yourself.” She admits that she planted the “seed” of this movie’s premise.
The script, said writer Mae Chua, “allowed me to reflect on my life, to measure the thing that I value most in life. It made me pause and rethink life, how to live it, really.”
Interjects Direk: “Sometimes, all it takes is just a day. A day can be like your forever and forever can also happen in a day.” Ang tanong, will you buy that?
Apparently, her main characters did, after “experiencing” it.
Most improved
Sam has done four movies under Direk Cathy, but she says she only came to love Sam in this movie because it was the first time she saw Sam’s character transform and fall in love.
“I’ve seen him grow,” she says. “I’ve seen how he gave of himself in breathing life to Eugene.” The result, she admits, stunned her, enumerating scenes that she especially loved.
“I just really felt the character, got into the character, and Direk Cathy just allowed me to get into him,” explained Sam when asked where he drew out the emotions he needed for certain scenes.
Direk Cathy says that the growth of Sam’s thespic abilities can be likened to that of John Lloyd Cruz’s, an actor Direk has worked often with and for whom she’s known to have a soft spot. In reply, Sam said that Direk did prove to him in this movie that although this “forever-in-a-day and whatever-happens-in-a-day-can-affect-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life” thing seemed hard to believe at first, he became a believer after doing the movie.
That gives you an idea of how much Sam Milby became the character he played, which must be why Direk Cathy said she fell in love with Sam here.
Will the audience do the same? “Whatever happens, we have given it our best, and I think that’s the most important,” Sam hedges.
By Amy OLiveros • Photos courtesy of Folded and Hung
LAST UPDATED ( FRIDAY, 01 JULY 2011 00:42 )
http://www.onephilippines.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=235%3Athe-vastly-improved-sam-milby&catid=1%3Acoverstory
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