Vic Silayan created indelible portraits of conflicted men

SILAYAN. Veritable thespic force of nature.

Our recent notes on thespic icon, Vic Silayan, have gotten some younger film buffs interested in his now largely forgotten theater and film achievements—and, in response to their queries, we’re only too happy to fill in the blanks:

Having had the privilege of acting with Vic in some stage plays, we can share that he was a consummate artist—but, he insisted on wearing his laurels very lightly on his brow.

In rehearsals, he didn’t give his “all,” content to sort of mumble his lines as he paid more attention to understanding the inner core and drive of the character he was playing.

But, on opening night, watch out! He was larger than life, a veritable force of nature—and, if you weren’t quick on your feet, he could run roughshod all over you, or leave you very far behind, eating the dust that his brilliantly informed performance had stirred up!

Humility

Which is not to say that he was a self-centered divo of the stage—not at all! Vic was the very soul of artistic humility and generosity—but, he put all of his amazing artistic resources to bear on the thespic task at hand—to brilliantly illuminate the character he was playing, and the theme of the story that the protagonist had set in motion.

Silayan got his start as an actor in Ateneo dramatics, and when his fellow Atenean, Lamberto V. Avellana, started making movies, Vic became part of Bert’s  “stable” of tested talents, along with Rosa Rosal and Tony Santos Sr.

Onstage, the key role of young Bitoy Camacho was entrusted to him in the very first staging of Nick Joaquin’s “Portrait of the Artist as Filipino” in 1955.

In 1956, he portrayed a priest in “Anak Dalita.” He also created memorable characters in films like “Higit sa Lahat” and “Diligin Mo ng Hamog ang Uhaw na Lupa” for other ace directors.

But, Vic really came into his own as a major film talent when he “dared” to play shockingly disturbed and controversial characters in ’70s dramas like Mike de Leon’s “Kisapmata” and Ishmael Bernal’s “Ligaw na Bulaklak.”

Most other actors would have shirked the challenge of portraying those “nasty” people, but Vic was so committed to his work as an actor that he embraced the daunting and potentially off-putting task.

‘Rogues’ gallery’

The result was his creation of a memorable “rogues’ gallery” of complex and many-layered portraits of “evil” men—and, most to the point, why they had become so morally damaged and derelict.

Only an actor of his stature, experience and consummate emotional and psychological understanding could have pulled off the “impossible” feat without the audience rising as one and symbolically burning him at the stake!

Actors who want to experience what greatness on film is all about should “take” a master class in the thespic arts by securing copies of “Kisapmata” and “Ligaw na Bulaklak,” and studying how the late, great Vic Silayan created indelible portraits of conflicted men that enabled viewers to empathize with and understand them, despite their “evil” deeds.