PIlya ang naging tugon ni Jasmine Curtis-Smith nang tanungin ng entertainment press kung ang pelikulang Real Life Fiction ang pinaka-mature na proyektong ginawa nila ng co-star na si Piolo Pascual.
"Hope you enjoyed," natatawang sagot ni Jasmine.
Dugtong naman ni Piolo, "Too much fun."
"Todo ba?" tanong naman ni Jasmine na sinundan ng halakhak.
Obvious na ang tinutukoy ng dalawa ay ang love scenes nila ni Piolo sa pelikula na dinirek at sinulat ni Paul Soriano.
Sagana sa maiinit na eksena ang pelikula dahil sa multiple sex scenes, topless shots at butt exposures nina Jasmine at Piolo.
Read: Piolo Pascual at Jasmine Curtis-Smith, pumayag gawin ang "very revealing scene" sa pelikulang RLF
Nakausap ng media ang dalawang bituin matapos ang special screening ng Real Life Fiction nitong Miyerkules, August 21, 2024, sa SM North EDSA, sa Quezon City.
Ipapalabas sa mga SM Cinemas nationwide ang Real Life Fiction itong August 28.
A DARING AND EXTRAORDINARY PROJECT
"Daring" ang salitang naglalarawan sa Real Life Fiction na R-16 ang rating ayon sa Movie and Television Review and Classification Board o MTRCB.
Bukod sa sexy scenes ay kakaiba at edgy ang takbo ng kuwento nito na binigyang buhay ng karakter nina Jasmine at Piolo.
Take note: In English ang dialogue na ginamit ng mga karakter sa pelikula from start to finish.
Parehong aktor ang papel na ginampanan nina Jasmine at Piolo sa Real Life Fiction.
Si Paco, ang karakter ni Piolo, ay isang sikat na aktor na susubok magsulat at mag-direk ng isang pelikula na siya rin ang gaganap.
Extreme ang klase ng method acting na niyakap ni Paco sa pagbuo ng istoryang nasa isip niya.
Tila hindi na mahiwalay ni Paco ang realidad sa kathang-isip na dulot nang pagganap ng iba't ibang karakter sa mahabang panahon ng pagiging aktor at ang nakasanayang buhay bilang sikat na celebrity.
"It's a very interesting concept," sabi ni Piolo tungkol sa kuwento ng Real Life Fiction.
Dagdag niya, "You know as actors, I guess it's your responsibility to take on roles that you haven't played yet and taken on."
Read: Piolo Pascual: Consummate filmmaker
"This was a precursor to his [Paul Soriano] 40th [birthday], so he just wanted to write something about life in general and yeah, I kinda related to it and I really appreciate the fact that he wanted to do something different, not the typical rom-com.
"We also just wanted to work together as well and do something different."
ADOPTING METHOD ACTING IN REAL LIFE
Bilang mga aktor sa tunay na buhay ay hindi kaila kina Jasmine at Piolo ang paraan ng method acting.
Ang method acting ay isang pamamaraan na kung saan ay malalim na isinasabuhay ng aktor ang pagkatao ng karakter na ginagampanan.
Dahil dito ay may mga pagkakataong nagiging obssessed ang isang aktor sa karakter at nahihirapan na itong bumitaw sa persona ng papel na ginampanan kahit tapos na ang proyekto.
Sambit ni Piolo, "I do it almost every time I'm at work because it's easier for you to get into the character.
"I always request for a lock-in [shooting] so you're always in character.
"Not necessarily when you're not facing the camera, just as long as you know you are in your character, as long as you're doing it when you're doing it.
"So yeah, it's really beneficial, especially for us. And if you do a lock-in, you're just your character, so it's easier.
"I'm pretty sure this is one of my first ventures into doing method in the full film."
Importateng malaman na ginawa ang Real Life Fiction nung kasagsagan ng COVID-19 pandemic, meaning naka-isolate ang buong cast and crew sa simula at pagtatapos ng shooting.
Para kay Jasmine, nakatulong ang lock-in shoot — na kung saan ay nasa isang hotel lang ang buong cast and crew buong shooting — at feeling of isolation para magampanan ng husto ang karakter ni Paula.
Read: Jasmine Curtis-Smith on breakups in showbiz: "Huwag naman kami."
"It's just so easy for me to allow myself to become Paula as well because it's so close to reality," sambit ni Jasmine.
"At the same time, the lock-in, the proximity, everything, all the dynamics that allowed us to work towards the material kind of allowed me to just be Paula."
Mahirap ba para sa kanila ang kumawala sa karakter sa huli?
"We let work take us to a different place. I wake up wearing a different hat every day, so there's no other way but to move on," sagot ni Piolo.
"After I did Mallari, my director kept telling me you have to shake this off, you have to do something, you have to go on vacation.
"The next day, I was already rehearsing for a concert. So you wear a different hat, you become a different character.
"It's easy to shake it off because we're so consumed with a lot of things that we have to do as artists."
Ganito rin ang pananaw ni Jasmine. Sa katunayan, magkasabay na panahon ginawa ni Jasmine ang Real Life Fiction at ang local adaptation ng South Korean series na Descendants of the Sun para sa telebisyon.
Nang matapos ang shooting para sa Real Life Fiction ay agad tumalon si Jasmine na gawin ang sundalo na karakter ni Moira Defensor para sa teleserye.
Paliwanag ni Jasmine, "I was forced to cut off from playing a role of an actress, of a girlfriend, of being in this storyline and being caught up in a man's emotions and his existential problems, as well as mine.
"And then I had to jump into being a soldier, thinking straight, listening to commands, which is a slight difference.
"So that's the beauty of us having back-to-back projects sometimes."
Pero aminado si Jasmine na naapektuhan din siya sa bigat ng role niya sa Real Life Fiction at dinala niya rin ito ng ilang araw.
"The three days after finishing the film, I think there was still a lull of like, 'Okay, how do I move through this? What do I have to do today as Jasmine, not as Paula? How can I determine my day on my own again?'
"Kasi nga nasa rhythm mo na yun for almost three weeks, right? So, yeah."
JASMINE AND PIOLO'S MOTIVATION TO DO THE FILM
Malaki ang epekto ng pandemya kung bakit tinanggap nina Jasmine at Piolo ang proyekto sa kabila ng kakaiba at mapangahas na kuwento nito.
"When Paul pitched it to me, we were at the point in our lives wherein we weren't sure what's going to happen the next day or what would happen to us as humans," pagbabalik tanaw ni Piolo.
Read: Piolo Pascual changes his mind about retiring from acting because of pandemic
"I related to the character in such a way that I saw myself just by looking at Paul, not to give away too much. I don't want to say that he wrote this film thinking that he wants this to be a homage to his 40-year-old self, but this is a reflection of a person's character, of the things that we want to deal with, that we want to face head-on.
"I was just a mirror to the kind of character that Paul wrote. I understood it in that way."
Sagot naman ni Jasmine, "There was just no room to say no to the script in itself, being casted alongside Piolo, and also tackling something during the pandemic that I'm also unfamiliar with.
"Or a role that might seem almost too familiar to your reality but at the same time giving life to it as if it's not you.
"So it was just a no-brainer for me to take on something new and a challenge and in a pandemic, who would say no to work as well, right?"
Pahabol na sagot ni Piolo, "It [the pandemic] made me more hungry for new roles, and with the emergence of streaming platforms, you get to choose roles that don't have to be mainstream such as this because you can already have different markets that you can tap. It's to our advantage."
Dugtong pa niya, "But at the same time, since there's so much global access to content nowadays, it's easier for us to choose the right project because you're not stuck anymore to one genre.
"We're able to explore different genres and we're at the point in our career that we can choose. It's a good thing for me."