Tsismis: Cesar Montano starting 2013 with a bang

Award-winning actor/director Cesar Montano will have a new movie and a TV show come 2013. He speaks to tabloid! about his exciting new year.

This year has been a quiet one for you — not your usual prolific output. What kept you out of the limelight?

I was not really out; I still had some shows on TV, like I was part of TV5’s Artista Academy. I was also involved in El Presidente, which stars my good friend ER Ejercito and will be shown during the Metro Manila Film Festival which starts on Christmas Day. So it was a little bit busy, but hopefully 2013 will be a bit more productive.

Speaking of which, what have you got planned for next year?

Very exciting projects. I am currently shooting a new TV project with Nora Aunor, no less. It will be a primetime soap series on TV5 which will start airing January next year. We’re doing episodes in advance because we really want this series to set the bar for how TV soaps should be made — quality all throughout in terms of content and production.

I am also doing a biopic of another good friend, Fred Lim, the mayor of Manila. He was an outstanding cop before he became the mayor of our capital city, so it’s a good story. It’s titled The Turning Cradle: Untold Story of Mayor Alfredo Lim. By the way, the title of my soap with Nora is Never Say Goodbye.

You mentioned your involvement in Artista Academy. Were you just a host or a mentor to the celebrity wanna-bes?

I was mainly the host of the programme, and there were designated mentors for the different contestants.

But with your credentials, you would have been a good mentor. If you had the chance, what would you have advised those aspiring artists?

Just so you know, the two winners of the celebrity search — Vin and Sophie — will be part of my TV project. I’ve seen them before and now after the competition and they have really blossomed overall — personality-wise and in terms of acting. So, they got good training and more importantly they applied what they learned in the academy. What I would just tell them is to keep their feet on the ground, keep learning and exploring new things as artists, and take risks. Others are comfortable with what they have, but an artist grows by taking risks — that’s the only way to ensure longevity in this business.