The greatest phobia of Carlo Muñoz

Carlo Muñoz’s eyes can do more than just melt a girl’s heart. They can go beyond the obvious, and see only what an artist sees.

Those lambent eyes capture that magical moment when a cat looks up and light strikes its retina, making for a golden photo-op; that littlest detail that makes a movie scene credible, unforgettable.

Yes, Carlo is the type of guy for whom visuals is everything. Cue in a DVD tape and he’d watch it in one sitting, even the trilogy types. And who cares whether the audio is on or not?

Balikbayan Billy of that popular PLDT ad would ooh and aah at a scene from The Godfather without for a minute getting up from his seat. He’d sit, mesmerized, at the cinematography of his favorite local movie, Dekada ‘70, and analyze the texture of the scene, the wonderful feel of a turbulent decade, and forget what time it actually is.

"That’s why my greatest fear is going blind," he explains. "I value my eyes a lot. They are my window to the world."

His girlfriend and fellow Talent Center artist Meg Reyes will agree. She watches those tapes nonstop with him. And she knows, too, that her loving boyfriend’s dream role is that of a man who loses his eyesight, or one born blind who regains his sense of sight.

Playing the handicapped is nothing new to Carlo. He won notices as the mute circus performer Dante in love with Carol Banawa in Bituin. Although blessed with the matinee idol looks that won him the thumbs up in the auditions for Star Circle batch of talents six years ago, Carlo is best in character roles, one of them for the Metro Filmfest entry Yamashita: The Tiger’s Treasure, even won him a FAMAS Best Supporting Actor award.

So forget about the matinee idol role to match those drop-dead looks. Carlo is happy playing character actor roles that test the breadth of his talent.

"With lead romantic roles, there’s no other place to go but down," he muses. "I can do lead roles, why not? But I prefer bida-kontrabida types. Character roles have a longer shelf life. I can stay in the business for a longer time with such roles. In fact they’re the future. Even in Hollywood, the general trend is towards more character roles."

He adds, "That should also be our concentration if local cinema is to move on."

Carlo himself is not just sitting in his armchair, preaching. He decided to do his share.

For starters, he’s been asking around for cinematography tips on the set. He plans to save enough money to study cinematography abroad. Then, he will be generous enough to go back to the Philippines and apply what he learned.

Carlo may have not known it yet. But fate was already preparing him for a career in cinema even when he was only 11. It was Christmastime and his relatives, as was the practice, showered him with gifts. But of all the presents he got, he paid attention to only one of them: a simple camera.

It opened a whole new world for the ecstatic boy who clicked away on everything in sight. From that time on, he became the official photographer in family reunions (his aunt, Tita Muñoz should know this).

His love affair with the camera has since taught him an important virtue: patience.

"You have to wait for the right moment: the time the cat you’re taking a photo of looks up, for instance," he explains.

Figures why his other dream is to become a director of photography. He knows all about apertures and the other technical things only a photography buff knows.

Besides, local cinema has yet to have that rare combination of an actor who can double even triple as a director of photography and cinematographer.

Rarely do you find someone who knows how to act, and is gifted with a keen eye that can spot errors in cinematography, the way Carlo does when he watches all those videos in the privacy of his home.

He knows, however, that for now, his concentration is acting. Carlo doesn’t just mouth his lines like an automaton. He studies them in relation to the big picture: the story.

"If there’s something wrong with the script, I tell the director. For instance, if a kid has been kidnapped, it’s no use wasting reels of film on a crying scene. The next scene should show the parents frantically calling the police," Carlo observes.

Such a comment could come only from someone who values his craft enough to study it with a passion. Unsurprisingly, Carlo’s packed schedule shows how much the industry values him, too. For one, it made him miss the chance to try theater.

"I was taping Pangako sa `Yo three times a week, with Sunday as my only rest day then," he recalls. So the role went to Toffee Calma instead.

"Besides," Carlo goes on, "I felt I was not yet ready for a role as big as that back then. Smaller, but significant ones are just fine."

After all, for Carlo, as it is for any performer worth his salt, there’s no such thing as a small role, only small actors.