Thirteen years ago, Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz created a tandem in the Philippine showbiz industry that captivated millions of fans. Their undeniable onscreen chemistry started in 2002 in a television soap opera, Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay, and thereafter the duo starred in TV and movie hits one after another, establishing them as one of the biggest and most successful on-screen romantic pairs of all time.
Their tandem spawned TV soap hits such as It Might Be You, Ikaw Ang Lahat Sa Akin, Maging Sino Ka Man, Maging Sino Ka Man: Ang Pagbabalik, I Love Betty La Fea and A Beautiful Affair, a romantic melodrama in 2012 that was their last TV pairing. The award-winning actors also scored box office hits with movies such as My First Romance, Now That I Have You, Close To You, All About Love, Miss You Like Crazy and The Mistress.
But the blockbuster movie that catapulted their on-screen partnership to superstar status was One More Chance, their fifth movie as a love team, in 2007. The following year, Alonzo and Cruz were declared Box office King and Queen at the 38th Box Office Entertainment Awards.
Alonzo and Cruz have now reprised the now-famous characters Popoy (Cruz) and Basha (Bea) with another blockbuster in the making, A Second Chance. The movie starts from where One More Chance left off, with Popoy and Basha now living together as a married couple.
The Star Cinema offering, which releases in international theatres on December 3, has already earned 200 million pesos (Dh15559412.9) since its first screenings on November 25, including a new record 43.3 million pesos (Dh3,368,612) on opening day, beating the previous record of 32 million pesos (Dh2,489,506) by the 2015 romantic comedy Crazy Beautiful You, which was top-billed by new sensations Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo. A Second Chance now holds the record of having the highest ticket sales on opening day, and is the only film that was not an entry in the Metro Manila Film Festival Philippines to achieve the feat.
Directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina, A Second Chance revisits the lives of Popoy and Basha as they traverse the highs and lows of married life. Ahead of the UAE screening of the movie, 28-year-old British-Filipina Alonzo spoke to media from Dubai and the UK in a video press conference to answer questions about the movie and the continuing success of her on-screen partnership with Cruz.
“Do I still watch those movies? Not anymore. I get so embarrassed,” Alonzo laughs when asked if she still watches her old movies with Cruz.
She said they’ve also been doing many projects individually, and these experiences have helped add new dimensions to their pairing. “Because of the other things we do as individual actors, whenever we work together we then can offer something new.”
And does Alonzo believe in second chances? “Of course, everybody deserves second chances,” she said. “I believe in second chances, I believe in a lot of chances. I believe in learning from your mistakes to be a better person.”
Alonzo also says that there was an initial reluctance to do the project. “At first we were hesitant but when we talked to [movie writers] Ate Van [Vanessa Valdez] and Ate Carmi [Carmi Raymundo] and when they came up with a beautiful story, then we just stopped wondering [about] the what-ifs and agreed to do it.”
She also revealed her favourite scene in the movie, which she said was a scene that touched her heart. “My favourite scene in the movie is the siguro [maybe] scene. That was a scene about second chances, about the reasons why things happen. That was a scene after Basha had a miscarriage. The scene is full of hope and also uncertainty. The scene really touched my heart.”
Alonzo says part of her personality can be seen in Basha. “How much of me is in Basha? A big part, because I believe you can never do a character without an organic base, so there is a big part of Basha in myself. Maybe on how Basha loves and how she keeps her promises.”
Alonzo says the movie explores the difficulties that wives go through in a relationship and that husbands should be able to learn a lesson or two from the movie. “So that they can understand what their wives are going through.’
Vanessa Valdez, one the movie’s writers, who was also present during the video conference, added: “I think John Lloyd said it perfectly before that Popoy is a representation of most Filipino men. So I think when you watch this movie, as a man you would relate to Popoy, you would relate to his trials and tribulations. And I think most of the people who already watched it in the Philippines leave the cinema house a little bit more reflective. They are really affected, not only because our actors are very good actors, but because this is their story. So why you need to watch it with your wives and girlfriends is because this is also probably your story.”
*A Second Chance releases in the UAE on December 3.
