Sid Lucero talks about being ‘bastos,’ exposed in new film

In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now premiered in Hollywood amid much controversy. Shot in a fishing village in Baler town, Aurora province, the Vietnam War film took way too long to shoot and went way over budget. When Coppola, his actors and his crew left the town in 1977, they had no idea their film would have such an impact on the local community. 

According to local lore, scattered among the debris left by Apocalypse Now were surfboards used by the crew. A group of teenage boys found those boards and decided to teach themselves how to surf. Fast-forward more than three decades later, and Baler is now widely regarded as the birthplace of surfing in the Philippines.

This is the setting of Apocalypse Child, one of the participating films in the Third QCinema International Film Festival. Directed by Mario Cornejo and produced by Monster Jimenez under ArkeoFilms, the movie stars Sid Lucero as Ford, a surfing instructor in Baler whose father is supposedly Coppola. As his mother petitions the revered filmmaker to acknowledge his son, Ford has been wasting his youth away—that is, until he is forced to confront his past and the myths surrounding his life.

Lucero, an award-winning actor who has been in the business for at least 11 years, is a favorite among independent-film producers. He says shooting Apocalypse Child is unlike anything he has ever done.

“Honestly, this is the most fun I’ve ever had on a set. It really didn’t feel like working,” says Lucero, a son of the late actor Mark Gil, of the famed Gil acting family.

“I mean, come on, we shot on a beach, we finished at, what, 8:00 most of the time? And we were there for a month!” he says with a laugh as he recalls his experience on the set. He adds that the hardest thing for him to do was to actually leave Baler after filming wrapped.

“I fell in love with Baler. I want to live there. I want to die there!” Lucero says. His enthusiasm for the town is infectious and is likely to be felt by the film’s audience once it shows in at Robinsons Galleria, Gateway and Trinoma cinemas starting October 23.

The actor, however, admits that he’s a little scared to watch it. “I think this is the first time I allowed myself to be that exposed,” he says.

Lucero reveals that, in a way, the story reflected certain parts of his life. “I’ve never been so comfortable naked. Not physically, but exposed, like your heart’s right there.”This is surprising, since Lucero’s earlier performances often come across as raw and intense. His insists, however, that Apocalypse Child is different, in that there’s a certain aspect of it that’s very personal to him. He credits Cornejo for bringing that out of him.

It is Lucero’s first time to work with Cornejo, whose film credits include Big Time (2005), First Day High (2006) and Stray Hearts (2008). The actor couldn’t get over how vastly different Cornejo is from anyone he has worked with in the past.

“I’m not used to working with people like Mario. Mario likes to talk about things, which is great. I like it, too, because it gives me the right direction,” Lucero says. “But I grew up as an actor doing things on the first or second take, and I’m not used to doing it over and over and over again. Every line and every scene is really premeditated.”

Lucero says the talking made him lose his patience a few times. He’d lash out at Cornejo, who, thankfully, has been very patient and never lost his temper on set.

“For some reason, he never gets angry. He never felt like I was being bastos, although I was already, (but) not intentional naman. Impatient lang talaga. But the way I defend him to myself is: This is his baby, and although he trusts us with his characters, this is still his brainchild. And siyempre, you want to give what he wants to see.”

Lucero believes that all the talking and the patience paid off, because it made him understand his character more. “That’s what I appreciate about Direk (Cornejo), although it totally goes against the way I do my job. But it works. It’s good to be working with someone who has a different attack. It makes you grow. You learn a lot.”

In describing his character, Lucero said: “Ford, as I understand him, is a character just going through life. Perfect na eh, he’s a surfer, he rides the waves. But I think he could do more. Something happened to him which made him be comfortable being right where he is, which is basically what the film is talking about, as a Filipino.”

When Lucero first met Cornejo, who co-wrote Apocalypse Child with Jimenez, he had no idea that things would go the way they went on set. The story piqued Lucero’s curiosity and he wanted front-row seats to see just how Cornejo would shoot certain scenes he considered very personal.

“The sensitive scenes, I like (them) as real as possible. And that’s never easy, because you’re basically baring your soul to someone you barely know, and to other people, too. Tapos, may camera pa. But when I started seeing how I thought Direk Mario saw the film, the more it became appealing to me. It’s nice because everything’s so real and natural, all his scenes,” the actor said.

“And the fact that it was supposed to be a comedy, but done reverently. And that’s what I like nowadays, comedies that actually say something,” he added.

Apocalypse Child is directed by Mario Cornejo and stars Sid Lucero, Gwen Zamora, Ana Abad Santos, RK Bagatsing, Annicka Dolonius and Archie Alemania. It is part of the Third QCinema International Film Fesitval, which runs until October 31. For more details about on the movie, visit www.facebook.com/apocalypsechildthemovie. For more information on the festival, visit qcinema.ph.