September 16 ------ Janine Gutierrez knows how serendipity can work in people’s favor sometimes. It certainly did wonders for her when a last-minute casting upheaval unexpectedly disrupted the production of Lav Diaz’s latest four-hour epic, “Phantosmia,” and led to a fortuitous “shift” in its story and casting. The previous lead actor reportedly bowed out of the shoot just before filming began.
While she would rather stay mum about the aforesaid actor’s identity, the lovely Urian-winning actress (“Babae at Baril”) told us in a one-on-one chat last Thursday that she probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to play Reyna, her character in “Phantosmia,” if the unnamed actor didn’t pull out of it. “You mean you had to do a new story, a different script…?” we pressed on. “They scrapped the whole thing,” Janine disclosed. “They changed everything at the last minute—and that’s the only reason why I got cast in the movie. Hindi naman talaga ako part ng original cast, eh (I wasn’t really part of the original cast). Grabe talaga … it was just a series of lucky coincidences (laughs)! “Life really has a way of leading you to where you’re supposed to be. Because I’m not even supposed to be part of this. Kasi direk Lav said it was Christmas, and he didn’t want to disappoint his whole team, so he just made some changes…”
Unexpected changes
We then talked to Janine about the other unexpected changes that allowed her to transmogrify from a shy but principled character actress in GMA 7’s telenovelas to the ballsy actress who dazzles in risqué lead roles on ABS-CBN—from Mila and Alexa in “Dirty Linen” to the classy but nasty Iris Buenavidez in “Lavender Fields.”
Another thing that was made apparently clear by this interview is Janine’s gracious and grateful nature. “I was still with GMA when I did ‘Babae at Baril,’” she reminded us. “That was when I got my Urian and Famas trophies in 2019. I transferred to ABS-CBN in 2021. “But yes, the role in ‘Babae at Baril’ was super pivotal for me. At the time in my life kasi, I was very much opinionated—although I still a bit am (laughs)—about politics and things like that on Twitter. I was very, very vocal to the point that I was already being told that it wasn’t good for my career.
Polarizing tweets
“And so, people would tell me, ‘No, you shouldn’t do that … because you’re an actress.’ But then, when the producers of ‘Babae at Baril’ met me about the project, they said they thought of me because of their perception of me based on those polarizing tweets. “So I was like, ‘Oh my God, now I can be myself! I can do the projects and roles I want to do and I thought, ‘Puwede pala ‘yun?’ Since then, every film I’ve done was really to get me to do the things I’ve been wanting to do. “Everything has been intentional—even the TV series I’ve been doing. I’m so lucky I get to do shows that are aligned to the things I believe in, like ‘Dirty Linen.’ I realized that when you’re true pala to yourself and you’re honest about your choices, that’s when everything will fall into place.”
Source: inquirer.net
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