DUNE damsels (from left): Solenn Heussaff, Rufa Mae Quinto, Marian Rivera, Lovi Poe and Heart Evangelista.(Photo courtesy of Regal Entertainment)
PAOAY—Like the true “Survivor” that she is, Solenn Heussaff brought a haul of snacks and other munchies to the set of “Joey Gosiengfiao’s Temptation Island,” somewhere in the famed sand dunes of this rustic town in Ilocos Norte.
Solenn owned up: “I have one suitcase packed with food.”
All right, make that healthy food: raisins, green tea, sugar-free blueberry jam and wheat crackers. And she shared them with cast and crew.
Solenn the Girl Scout also brought talcum powder that, she swore, was as soothing as ice on skin.
Nothing, however, prepared Solenn and the other “Temptation” girls for the sandstorms and intense summer heat.
Heart Evangelista’s nose bled. Rufa Mae Quinto suffered dizzy spells.
John Lapus recounted that every nook and cranny of his body would be covered with dust at the end of each shooting day.
JOHN Lapus (third from left) with hunks (from left): Aljur Abrenica, Tom Rodriguez and Mikael Daez.
Marian Rivera was deathly worried about sunburn.
Like the other girls, Marian routinely covered her body with a sarong between takes. “I also put on sun block… 100 SPF. I learned my lesson when I did [the GMA 7 series] ‘Dyesebel.’ Sunburn is painful.”
It was torture, Lovi Poe agreed. “The sun, sand and wind were tough on the skin. We always brought blankets and umbrellas.”
The girls did their homework by reviewing the original, shown in 1980— long before most of them were born.
“I watched it at Solenn’s house with some gay f
riends a few years ago,” Heart recounted. “I had no idea I would be part of the remake.” Solenn herself was excited about the remake because her stylist and designer pals adore the original. “They call it the funniest Filipino movie of all time.”
MARIAN gets her tresses curled between takes.
<strong>Simplest is hardest</strong>
The girls insist that director Chris Martinez didn’t require them to imitate the film’s original stars (Deborah Sun for Rufa Mae; Dina Bonnevie for Heart; Jennifer Cortez for Lovi; Bambi Arambulo for Solenn; and Azenith Briones for Marian).
“It’ll be our own rendition of the same character,” explained Heart who plays the most virginal (and boring) castaway in the film. “The simplest role is often the hardest to play. My challenge is how to shine even though my part is so straight.”
The girls assert that there’s no competition among them. “We don’t care about that. We don’t try to upstage each other,” Lovi insisted.
In any case, Lovi made the most dramatic of entrances. Because of her “Captain Barbell” tapings, Lovi couldn’t join the rest of the cast, who flew commercial two weeks earlier for the second leg of the shoot.
Lovi arrived in Laoag (a day after the others did) on board a first-class jet— courtesy of Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, father of her friend Ronald, according to reports. (After a day in the dunes, Lovi had to rush back to Manila for “Barbell” and fly to Paoay the following day again for “Temptation.”)
LOVI shows off her tattoo.
Asked whether her friend Ronald didn’t mind her daring screen roles, Lovi merely shrugged and said, “I don’t consult anyone except my manager and my mom. I’m free to do anything I want.”
Speaking of freedom, the Ilocos shoot afforded the stars precious respite from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Since there’s hardly any nightlife where they are billeted, in Currimao, the cast got to bond during the shoot, recounted Rufa Mae.
“We’d hang out at the hotel lobby where there’s free Wi-Fi and surf the Net and do Facebook all night,” Rufa Mae related.
Undaunted by memories of the sandstorms, everyone is raring to revisit “Temptation,” for leisure. The girls are returning to Currimao next month for the final leg of the shoot but Solenn, for one, plans to fly back to Ilocos Norte sooner, to try sandboarding.
(E-mail: bayanisandiego@hotmail.com)