How to create a durable love team

Currently on view in theaters is “The Love Affair,” Bea Alonzo’s much-awaited dramatic starrer after her hit TV series—and the comeback vehicle for the durable love team of Dawn Zulueta and Richard Gomez. Their screen tandem first clicked with the viewers a full 20 years ago in the rapturous visual poem to love and Batanes, “Hihintayin Kita sa Langit,” and its impact was so strong that it lingers in some now mature viewers’ roseate recollection to this day.

What makes the Richard-Dawn love team still a potent draw decades after their first reel and real romances? More to the point, what tips can be derived from it to help producers create new TV-film love teams that can also “go the distance?”

First, the screen lovers have to start out as standout lookers —and stay beautiful even in maturity. Richard has gone a little soft around the jaw and belly, but Dawn has thus far managed to look good even on (artistically lit and framed) closeup. How does she do it? Even better, the durable love team has to “surprise” fans from time to time with unexpected conflicts and characters —for instance, in their latest big-screen outing, Dawn is the faithless one in their marriage, and Richard is cast as the cuckold. What, the “perfect” Dawn revealing a wanton weakness and fatal flaw? How “shocking!” Precisely.

For their part, Dawn and Richard share that their screen partnership’s longevity is due to their innate “chemistry” as performers—meaning they know each other so well that they can make their scene together come off as believable and felt. Even if they’re now married to other people, they can resort to “sense memory” and feel credibly romantic all over again—or used and betrayed, as the case may be! It also helps that they have lived a lot more, so they have additional emotional experience and “capital” to draw from for their now more challenging scenes together. So for some mature actors, age really is just a number—as long as their looks hold out! That’s the bottom line.

Another durable love team is the Jolina Magdangal-Marvin Agustin tandem. They started out as frisky teeners, but they’ve remained a popular draw as indicated by their hit teleserye, “FlordeLiza,” which has been extended several times. Like Dawn-Richard, they’ve retained their looks—but Jolina has had to work harder at it, disciplining herself to lose unwanted pounds and a prematurely matronly projection. Like her, Marvin has also had to work hard to push back the wages and rages of time—but the key point is they have been successful at it. So, the important lesson to be learned from their example is that comebacks aren’t easy, and mature stars have to “deserve” and claim them—which is why so many other mature stars and love teams can’t make effective comebacks. They just aren’t determined enough, and balk at all the rigorous “re-imaging” work involved!