For ‘Saving Sally,’ Rhian Ramos had to be more than an actress

Rhian Ramos

Rhian Ramos was on the road, driving to Pampanga, when it was announced that “Saving Sally” had made it into the final roster of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). Her Twitter notifications started blowing up; her phone, constantly ringing from incoming calls from well-wishers.

Before long, she was talking to her director, Avid Liongoren. “We were both sniffling, crying with excitement,” Rhian told the Inquirer in an interview. “Why God let this happen now is still a mystery to me. I wasn’t expecting anything. But it just … feels right.”

By now, it is already quite well-known that “Saving Sally,” a coming of age film that mixes live action and stylized 2D animation, took 12 years to be completed. Rhian began doing her scenes for the flick in 2010, when she was only 19. She had yet to star in an independent film—she didn’t even know what it was back then, she admitted.

Looking back at the movie’s lengthy journey, the now 26-year-old GMA 7 star has a newfound regard for the value of not only patience, but also of camaraderie.

“It was a new experience for me. Usually, when you do a film under a big production company, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything else, because there are other people taking care of the promotion, the marketing, etc.,” Rhian, who plays the movie’s eponymous gadget inventor character, related.

For “Saving Sally,” however, Rhian was more than an actress. “When you’re doing an indie movie, your involvement becomes wider and more crucial. Suddenly, you’re thinking of the things you can do to help. We were stressing about the float for the MMFF parade—things I didn’t really have to deal with before,” she said.

“You get to appreciate more the importance of teamwork,” added Rhian, whose favorite animated features include, “Up,” “Finding Nemo” and “Mulan.” “Everyone’s calling friends he or she can ask help from … We were family.”

Watching “Saving Sally” now, and seeing her younger self in it, Rhian admitted that she would have probably done things a bit differently. “I think I have matured as an artist; I’m at a different stage in my life. However, I would like to believe that my portrayal of Sally was honest and faithful to who I was at the time of filming,” she said.

But just the same, Rhian is glad that the project she once thought wouldn’t even see the light of day, is actually being shown in cinemas.

“This experience makes me want to make more films like this, after seeing that there are people who connect with it; that films like this can be given a chance,” she said.