Love Like It’s The First Time

Bea Alonzo and Aga Muhlach have told a million versions of love stories, but for them to earnestly find something different in this particular tale that is new, unfamiliar and even heartbreaking perhaps testifies to the special quality of ‘First Love’.

MANILA, Philippines — I’m not going to tell you that this movie is so different from all others. A love story is a love story,” says Aga Muhlach of the Paul Soriano-helmed First Love, in which he stars opposite Bea Alonzo. “But at 49, coming back, I had to ask what kind of love story I was going to do.”

What that story turned out to be is about two people named Nick and Ali, whose personalities are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Ali has been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition where the heart has difficulty pumping blood due to a thicker-than-usual heart muscle. Her dreams are vast but her day-to-day motions are limited by her condition, and so until she can get a new heart, she’s stuck in limbo between hoping for the impossible and embracing imminent death. Nick, on the other hand, is going through the motions and barely living at all.

The film is set and shot in Vancouver, Canada. Local studios have often banked on foreign locations as an initial audience draw, but both actors describe the film’s location as a bit player in the story. “Our characters are Filipino, but they’re also locals in Canada who have lives there,” Muhlach says. Alonzo explains further saying, “We didn’t shoot in touristy places. We went where the locals went; we ate where the locals ate. We didn’t go out of our way to promote Vancouver; it’s just where our characters are from. But you’ll also see in the shots of the movie that it’s a city that looks like a postcard, and has its own sort of moods.”

The film is praised for its quiet and palpable hold on reality, despite it being Alonzo and Muhlach’s first film together. Alonzo credits Paul Soriano, saying, “Walang point na sasabihan niya ako na parang, ‘O dito, may look of love ka na.’ So I had to discover for myself kung saan at kailan siya nangyari, at sa kwento natural siyang nangyayari, kasi walang namimilit na dapat at this point hulog na hulog ka na.” She adds, “I’d like to think I was asked to do this film because of my body of work, and Aga for his, and it was such a fulfilling experience to be trusted with the work. If you’ve been doing this for 17 years, sometimes you lose that drive, and this has renewed it. I became an actress for this kind of experience, for this process, for this journey.”

The Process

Watch Supreme’s interview with Aga Muhlach and Bea Alonzo on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/philstarsupreme/. For more updates, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @philstarsupreme.

Generally speaking, films aren’t shot in the sequence of the script. Usually, whatever scenes happen within a certain location or with a particular set of actors are lumped together and shot within the same day to maximize the cost of rentals and fees. But for this film, Muhlach and Alonzo were shooting six days a week entirely in sequence, as well as having the extraordinary privilege of seclusion from their regular lives for a solid month in Vancouver. This created an atmosphere wherein both actors experienced the story as it unfolded, having the pleasure of discovery as each of their characters fell in love with the other, and being able to play out the emotions as they naturally progressed. “When you do it every day, mas nagiging second skin siya and walang distraction. ‘Pag nagshoot ka rito, VIP treatment, may tent ka. Doon, you’re all equals creating a beautiful project.”

Muhlach, in a previous interview with Supreme, had sworn up and down that all of his characters stayed on set where they belonged. But due to the unique filmmaking process of First Love, Nick somehow grafted himself onto Muhlach’s skin, and as filming in Canada came to a close, Muhlach was surprised that he was riddled with what clearly felt like heartbreak. “It was like we were dating every day. Kaya pagkatapos ng pelikula, everyone was saying we were going to celebrate, but I was like, ‘Ayoko. Uuwi ako.’ I flew out, I went to my house in Vegas, and almost a week hindi ako lumabas ng kwarto. Nasaktan talaga ako nung nawalan ako ng Ali. That has never happened to me before,” exclaims an exasperated and very candid Muhlach. “I know it was a movie, and of course we all have our own lives. But it was so nice to work with someone who made it feel so real, to be able to say ‘I love you’ to someone who gives back to you and who is there with you. If there was a kiss, we’d just kiss, and ‘pag nag-cut, you hold on to that and you don’t joke about it.” Alonzo adds, “You speak the same language. You’re actors and it’s part of the process.”

“Ang nakakatawa doon, nung nagkita kami ulit ni Bea after a month for a roundtable interview, parang hindi ko siya kilala bigla,” Muhlach muses. “Ali wasn’t there, Nick wasn’t there, and all I could say was ‘Uy!’”Alonzo agrees, “Ganoon din naramdaman ko!”

‘Gawin mo lang’

Alonzo and Muhlach are two people who’ve escalated to unprecedented fame because they have flawlessly crafted characters we have cheered for, loved, cried and celebrated with, like Sana Maulit Muli’s Jerry and One More Chance’s Basha. They have told a million versions of love stories, but for them to earnestly find something different in this particular tale that is new, unfamiliar and even heartbreaking perhaps testifies to the special quality of First Love. While it all remains to be seen until their Oct. 17 play date, Alonzo has her own little epiphany about the film’s title: “‘Yung First Love na title, ngayon ko lang na-realize kung bakit siya first love. Kaya pala siya first love, kasi it’s supposed to be pure and reckless. First siya kasi hindi ka pa nasasaktan. Wala ka pang judgment about it, wala kang worries, wala kang fears. ‘Yun siguro ‘yung naramdaman nina Ali tsaka ni Nick.” She muses, “Minsan kasi natatakot tayo tumaya kasi takot tayong matalo, eh paano kung isipin mo na walang mananalo o matatalo? Gawin mo lang!”?

Photos by REGINE DAVID
Makeup by TING DUQUE
Hair by JAY WEE
Styled by REX ATIENZA and TON LAO
Produced by DAVID MILAN