For Sid Lucero, it was a no-brainer working with Brillante Mendoza again

MANILA, Philippines — He could have easily banked on his illustrious and widely-known family name, Eigenmann, when he joined showbiz. Yet, he opted to use a familiar moniker which his dad, Mark Gil, used in Mike de Leon’s best remembered drama, Batch ’81 (1982).

Hence, Timothy Mark Pimentel Eigenmann came to be known by his screen name, Sid Lucero. Undoubtedly, the now-popular alias he has been using for close to two decades allowed him to make his mark acting on TV and in films, where relatives including his grandparents, dad, uncles, aunt, cousins, sibling and half-siblings created their respective names.

Sid built his name by charting his own course in showbiz. To date, he has become a serious actor. He even bagged two Urian Best Actor awards for directors Paolo Villaluna and Ellen Ramos’ romance drama, Selda (2007) and Adolf Alix Jr.’s gay film, Muli (2010).

Early on, Sid has been giving his nod to sexy roles on the big screen. This year alone, he has wrapped up two films shown on streaming — Lawrence Fajardo’s Reroute and Mac Alejandre’s Silip sa Apoy.

Sid’s latest assignment is director Brillante Mendoza’s Virgin Forest, where the actor plays another steamy role. The film had nothing in common with Peque Gallaga’s early work shown in 1985, except the same title.

“It was a no-brainer to work on this film when I found out who was directing,” Sid maintained. “If you’ll ask me how daring this Virgin Forest was, I’ve always been daring in my films. This is not new to me.”

He previously worked with direk Brillante a decade ago and starred in Captive (2012), the drama-thriller about the hostage-taking in Dos Palmas in Palawan. “That helped me a lot to prepare for my new role in Virgin Forest,” Sid granted.

“The thing with Brillante and the way he works, he takes normal people into situations and captures the action when they are finally there. When I found out who was directing this film, I found out about the premise. I knew there was no script.

Sid with the female cast led by Angeli Khang (second from left) on the movie set.

“I basically just emptied myself and I found out what was going on. I found out who was going to be part of the cast, it was amazing. You just opened up and let the whole set take care of the rest.”

Virgin Forest starts streaming June 24 on Vivamax. Also starring are Vince Rillon, with Angeli Khang, Katrina Dovey, Rob Guinto, Micaella Raz, Markki Stroem, Julio Diaz and Alma Moreno.

The film tackles the problems of illegal loggers whom the character of Sid, a photojournalist, inevitably discovers in his venture.

Working anew with young actress Angeli, whom Sid shared stellar credits in Silip sa Apoy, was a welcome treat for Sid. Angeli is one of the Vivamax K-Krush ladies, who has been getting wide attention for Viva.

“I’ve told Angeli this before. I’ll work with her as many times as she will allow me to work with her,” Sid asserted. “I love supporting her. She is so generous. She was already a formidable actress when we first worked together in Silip sa Apoy.”

“I didn’t feel anything about her starting new,” he added. “Her braveness was uncanny. I’ve never seen anything probably so fragile-looking with a heart so amazingly tough and brave. It was inspiring.”

Their first film together was very physical and demanding for Angeli, observed Sid. “I don’t like to see anybody in that situation,” he said. “It was not very nice to watch. It was very painful.

“To get to work with Angeli again in something like Virgin Forest, where I am so away from that part of her performance and I’m only experiencing just the emotional wave of what she’s going through,” he added.

“To see her just living in that and experiencing that side, minus all that skin, it really allowed me to see just her and what she was willing to offer as an actress and it was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing. If I said yes to this movie because direk Brillante said yes, I’ll do the same for Angeli anytime.”