After conquering the hearts of television viewers with Be Careful With My Heart and Pangako Sa ’Yo, Filipino stars Jodi Sta. Maria, Ian Veneracion and Richard Yap are now looking to conquer the silver screen as they join forces in the romantic-comedy The Achy Breaky Hearts, helmed by award-winning director Antoinette Jadaone.
Releasing in the UAE on July 14, the movie is expected to receive strong support from fans of #TeamTsinoy (the pairing of Sta. Maria and Yap) and #TeamTisoy, the Sta. Maria-Veneracion love-team (a fictional romantic pairing that’s popular in Filipino entertainment).
The Achy Breaky Hearts is about love that comes at the most unexpected time: 34-year-old Sta. Maria plays Chinggay, a thirty-something successful career woman who may seem to have it all — intelligence and looks — but is having a hard time finding a romantic partner.
49-year-old Yap is Frank, Chinggay’s ex-boyfriend of five years who makes a comeback at the same time that Ryan (41-year-old Veneracion), who was recently ditched by his girlfriend, enters the scene. The appearance of the two men in Chinggay’s life may have ended the seven-year ‘drought’ for Sta. Maria’s character, but it has left her confused.
In a video press conference with UAE and European media, director Jadaone, 32, was asked if the movie is similar to the Bridget Jones films.
“Maybe the similarity with Bridget Jones is the love triangle where there are two different men chasing one woman,” says Jadaone, in a mix of Filipino and English. “But The Achy Breaky Hearts is really about a single woman in her 30s looking for love because she doesn’t want to be alone. That’s the very core of the movie, apart from the love triangle. It’s more the story of Chinggay, the single woman.”
As to why did she cast the trio, Jadaone says, “Apart [from] the management really [wanting] to do a project for the two big love-teams, I think the three of them can really portray the roles well in this love triangle concept”.
She adds: “I really wanted to do a romantic comedy project that is not for teenyboppers. I want it to cater to the thirty-something women. That’s my vision in making this love triangle movie, which I know the three of them can deliver well. Two of the biggest love-teams from two different shows are doing one project and it seems the outcome is good.”
According to Jadaone, the movie is different from her previous romcoms.
“The very difference of it is that this romcom tackles the issues of women in their 30s, who are always asked, ‘when are you getting married, why don’t you have a boyfriend?’ This is the kind of woman that I have yet to tackle in my films. Most of the women characters in my previous movies had miserable lives and were recently left behind by their partners.
“But now the main character is a woman who has been single for seven years. I felt that this is new to me. I have never tackled this woman. I have also not explored yet the love-triangle concept, so this is a challenge for me. I want the audience to feel the dilemma of Chinggay as she chooses between the two,” Jadaone says.
Loving your co-stars
Sta. Maria, who teamed up with Veneracion in Pangako Sa ’Yo and with Yap in Be Careful With My Heart, says she is grateful her fans have warmly received her role.
“People appreciate my movies whoever my partner is because I give my whole heart to each project. I work on each project as if it’s my last film,” says Sta. Maria.
“It is also a blessing that I’ve worked with them before because they are both very easy to work with. They are my friends. I get along well with them. They understand me well so it’s easier for us to connect with the audience.”
Veneracion and Yap, who are both happily married, say marriage has not been a hindrance in portraying romantic roles in the movie.
“That’s why you are called actor because you are acting out apart,” says Yap. “You don’t really have to fall in love with someone to show that you are in love. You are no longer an actor if you are doing it in real life. To be an effective actor you have to show that you are in love. If audiences believe that we are in love with Jodi, that means we are effective.
“It helps that we are friends with her — that’s why we can translate that friendship as if we are in a romantic relationship. It is also hard if you don’t go along well with the other person and have to pretend you are in love.”
Veneracion says with Sta. Maria, it is easy to fall in love. “In a scene you have to find something that you can fall in love with, something you love about that person and not just pretend. It’s so easy to find something to fall in love with Jodi for any actor. She’s very pleasant to be with,” Veneracion adds.
“The most important thing, just as Richard said, is that you are an actor. When the director says ‘cut’, then that’s it. Be professional about it. It’s important also that our wives know that how professional we are and Jodi as well when it comes to our work.”
Sta. Maria says Veneracion and Yap are distinctly different. “Richard looks like a serious type but in real life he is a joker. It’s not in his looks that he has a funny side. While Ian is so adventurous, Richard is not that adventurous; he’s more conservative. Ian’s adventures are bordering on the dangerous, like jumping [out of] an airplane,” she says.
The trio also talked about the difficulties of portraying their roles in the movie.
Sta. Maria says it was quite a challenge doing the movie as the genre is not her comfort zone. “I think the challenging part for me is that because it’s romcom and it is not easy to make people laugh. It’s not my comfort zone because my orientation is really drama. As Richard said, we need to put something from ourselves into the character, but we are not really the same as the character. We just give birth to a new character. We put aspirations and dreams — like shaping a new person,” she says.
Veneracion said it was “easy for me because I had worked with Jodi. Direk Tonette [a casual title for Jadaone] also really encourages spontaneity”.
Although The Achy Breaky Hearts focuses on Chinggay, Veneracion and Yap says men can also relate to the story.
“You’ll see Ryan and Frank deal with the situation. I’m amused with Tonette’s observation on how women react if someone is trying to get their attention. It’s very interesting,” says Veneracion.
Yap says, “I think most guys can relate to this because what we show onscreen is what we see other people are doing. So we are showing real-life happenings in the movie.”
The cast and director’s favourite scenes:
Veneracion: “There was a scene where Jodi’s ring got stuck. That was definitely my favourite scene because it was so awkward for her. We’ve worked together for quite a long time now, but that was the first time I saw her looking uncomfortable.”
Sta. Maria: “Chinggay’s scene after her heartbreak — she’s dancing and singing and then starts to cry. She’s trying to entertain herself — it’s just hard to portray.”
Yap: “The part where we were having dinner [Frank and Chinggay] and there was a child with us. We were talking to the kid, but we were actually talking to each other. We are arguing with each other using the kid.”
Jadaone: “I have two favourite scenes. The hospital scene where both Richard and Ian visited Jodi and it’s first time for them to see each other, so they are having a showdown. The other one is the same scene Jodi shared... where she’s playing a happy song — she must not cry, but she really wants to cry because she’s brokenhearted. When we shot the scene, we were looking on the monitor and we were crying. Jodi really did a great job there.”
