A sweeter victory for Jaclyn

MANILA, Philippines – Jaclyn Jose said that her Cannes win as Best Actress for her portrayal of a drug-dealing mother in Brillante Mendoza’s Ma’Rosa has just started to sink in. 

The veteran actress arrived from the France-based filmfest Tuesday evening and went straight from the airport to a presscon at GMA Network (of which she is under contract), proudly carrying her Chopard trophy which she even described as her “new boyfriend.”

In the film, Jaclyn portrays a mother of four in a slum area, who is forced to sell drugs to fend for her family. She gets arrested and ends up embroiled in a “web of police corruption.”

When made to recall the awards night last Sunday by the media, Jaclyn said, “No words could describe what I was feeling at that moment. The feeling was really overwhelming.”

A closer look at Jaclyn’s Best Actress trophy upon her arrival at the airport Tuesday evening —Photo by RUDY SANTOS

She didn’t have any inkling or gut feeling that the night would give her three-decade, multi-awarded acting career its highest honor yet. “Ang alam ko wala kaming panalo. We thought we were going home early. We never expected it,” she said.

What made her victory even sweeter was the presence of daughter Andi Eigenmann, who also plays her daughter in Ma’Rosa.

When her name was proclaimed as Best Actress winner, Jaclyn brought the equally teary-eyed Andi and direk Brillante with her to the centerstage.

Jury members like American actress Kirsten Dunst got caught on camera turning emotional over her win. 

“They said they never thought that an actor from my country would be spontaneous as well. Sabi ni Kirsten sa elevator — yeah, rubbing elbows kami hahaha — she was touched because she thought it was a beautiful speech, and that grabbing my daughter’s hand and not letting go of her, dun daw (nanggaling) yung emotion nila.”

“To have your daughter beside you while winning such a prestigious honor as this is such a wonderful feeling,” Jaclyn added, “siguro yun yung (mas) overwhelming para sa akin.”

In the film, the actress plays a mother-turned-small-time drug dealer to fend for her family

While it was her first nomination, it was Jaclyn’s second time to grace one of the world’s oldest and best-known filmfests. She first attended it in 2008 for Brillante’s Serbis, the movie before the filmmaker won Cannes Best Director for Kinatay in 2009. Jaclyn shares a long friendship and working relationship with Brillante that dates back to her 1987 film Takaw Tukso. But it was really for Andi that Jaclyn went to Cannes this year.

“Andi told me, ‘Ma, tanggapin mo na para naman makapag-abroad ako, ma-experience ko naman ang mga na-experience mo. So I said, ‘Okay, I will do this for you’ … because I had no idea I would win and I already experienced the red carpet walk before, so it was basically all for her. It’s such a fulfillment for me winning (the award) and (bringing) Andi to the international scene,” she said, adding that Andi snagged two pictorials while at Cannes, aside from landing on Vanity Fair's Best Dressed list. 

Meanwhile, Jaclyn is aware that some international film critics had called her triumph — over heavy favorites like Marion Cotillard in From The Land of the Moon, Isabelle Huppert in Elle and Kristen Stewart in Personal Shopper — as a surprise and a shock.

She, however, got to witness how the jury members defended their decision as she was waiting in a holding area for her turn to meet the foreign press. 

Actor Donald Sutherland was quoted in reports as saying that “the critics were wrong” and “it’s a big-time leading role.” Writer/director Arnaud Desplechin also said, “She’s the film. That scene at the end where she’s eating! Her performance broke my heart.”

Jaclyn will be next seen in the GMA 7 sexy-comedy A1 Ko Sa’Yo premiering on June 2

Jaclyn also thinks that it was the scene that earned her the prize. “Tingin ko rin. Pinaghirapan ko yun ha!” said Jaclyn, adding that she was just following the “no-acting” directive of Brillante. “When I saw it, I said, okay. I knew in my heart that I did one good scene ... that I did something that would somehow touch their hearts, and it was the ending.”

Her hope now is for her award plus Ma’Rosa’s successful reception in Cannes (including a seven-minute standing ovation at the premiere) to inspire Filipino moviegoers to watch the film when it finally premieres in the country. There are also plans to enter it at the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) in December.

Ma’Rosa has also been described in media reports as timely given incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promises to suppress if not wipe out the country’s drug menace.

Meantime, Jaclyn will be next seen topbilling the GMA 7 sexy-comedy A1 Ko Sa’Yo, along with Gardo Versoza, Benjamin Alves, Solenn Heussaff, Sef Cadayona, Roi Vinzon, among others. She plays a frustrated beauty queen-turned-flamboyant talent manager in the series that is directed by Randy Santiago and airs Thursday nights beginning June 2. 

Entertainment TV head Lilybeth Rasonable said that they were inspired by all the characters Jaclyn has played on GMA 7 that “when we cast her for this, we couldn’t think of anyone else but her.”