Joshua & Julia: ‘We’re okay. Thanks for asking’
Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto didn’t deny that they both miss each other since they went separate ways in the middle of 2019 as JoshLia loveteam on- and off-screen. They are together again as two of the lead stars of Block Z, the initial movie offering of Star Cinema this year.
During the presscon, Joshua and Julia stressed that everything is okay between them after one writer raised a question pertaining to the status of their relationship as co-stars in the zombie-themed movie directed by Mikhail Red.
“Okay naman kami. Okay kami and…okay kami (laughs),” began Joshua. “Actually, nung nakita ko s’ya, ito personally, na-miss ko din s’ya. So, ayun kasi ang tagal naming ‘di nagkasama. Na-busy s’ya, na-busy ako.”
For her part, Julia said, “We’re okay, thank you for asking. One of the things that I’m super grateful for is that we were able to protect and make sure that the friendship will stay and will remain.
“And tama siya (Joshua), when I first saw him also, it felt familiar. Kumbaga, parang it’s a familiar place, it’s a comfortable, safe place,” she added.
It can be recalled that it was in April of last year when the two admitted they were going steady for two years already. But a few months after, news broke that the romance had already fizzled out and that Joshua and Julia had mutually agreed to remain friends.
Since then, Joshua and Julia have worked separately for TV and movie projects. The latter was hounded by controversy when her name was dragged into the issue regarding the sweet romance of Bea Alonzo and Gerald Anderson that went sour. Julia was rumored to be the third party after she played Gerald’s leading lady in Between Maybes. The young actress defended herself from the accusations while Gerald denied Julia’s involvement with his breakup with Bea.
Meanwhile, Joshua and Julia agreed that Block Z is not for the faint of heart. From the movie teaser alone, Joshua and Julia, along with co-stars Maris Racal, Yves Flores, McCoy de Leon, Ina Raymundo, Dimples Romana and Ian Veneracion, seemingly hurdled various challenges to make every scene worth watching.
According to Julia, running was part of the scene from beginning to end of the story. “Takbuhan talaga and there’s a lot of screaming, a lot of fighting, a lot of stunts so everybody was challenged. It’s full of action.”
Joshua revealed he had a minor accident during the shooting. “’pag may zombies kasi parang taya-tayaan kami na ang goal sa habulan ay tayain ka ng zombie kaya mapapatakbo ka talaga ng mabilis. Ako, nung pag-lingon ko, tumama ‘yung shoulder ko sa locker (most of the scenes were shot inside the school building), at sa sobrang sakit di na ako naka-react basta tumakbo na lang ako pababa.”
Direk Mikhail said it was required for actors to run at full speed to make Block Z different from other zombie-themed movies in the past.
“There are different kinds of zombies because it’s (a) classic (genre) but without spoiling anything, (In Block Z,) we have fast zombies. It means, full speed (kind) so kailangan mo talaga ng cardio; they’re not the slow kind of zombies na pwedeng hampasin ng frying pan. Ito hahabulin ka talaga kaya bigay na bigay talaga sila sa pag-takbo.”
Yves added, “And we’re not just running on flat pavements. There were lots of stairs so you could imagine the real challenge of running up and down at full speed.”
Maris revealed every scene was shot in different angles so “if we were running for about 100 meters in a scene, we did it a lot of times.”
Block Z is set to open on Jan. 29 in cinemas nationwide.
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