The stellar interview that wasn’t supposed to happen

Lolita Rodriguez (left) and Vangie Labalan in “Lucia”

Our column on our seven-hour interview with movie king Fernando Poe Jr. has elicited queries about other unusual encounters that similarly impacted on us in a meaningful way.

Our interview with Lolita Rodriguez instantly comes to mind, particularly because the iconic actress passed away last November at age 81.

Our Lolita interview was, in a unique way, even more memorable than our “movable feast” with FPJ—because it was “the interview that never was,” or more correctly, the interview that wasn’t supposed to happen.

The “backstory”: In the ’90s, Lolita was already an institution who acted only occasionally. She was offered the best projects that further enhanced her dramatic reputation.

Her latest plum assignment at the time was a BBC drama special, “Lucia,” which was to be megged by no less than Lino Brocka. Tragically, Lino died before he could finish work on the prestigious project, so it was taken over by Mel Chionglo.

The drama special was a significant project, so we felt it deserved to be written about, and promptly got in touch with Lolita to arrange for the coverage.

Alas, she apologized profusely, it wouldn’t be possible, because many news outlets had already tried to line up interviews with her, but she had to decline, due to some confidentiality caveats that had been put in place by the project’s producers.

That being the case, we sadly accepted the inhibition, and talked about other things with her. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were reminiscing about our “off and on” association through the years.

Our personal connection having been re-established in the course of the phone conversation, we sensed that Lolita’s tone was changing. And, before the conversation ended, a “contrary” thought came to her mind.

We don’t recall her exact words, but the gist of her change of tune was that, in the light of our long association, perhaps an “acceptable way out” of our predicament could be, ah, worked out?

What did she have in mind? Well, said Lolita, perhaps we could “visit” her on location at Smokey Mountain, not to interview her, because it wasn’t allowed, but just to touch base again with an old friend?

And then? Well, in the course of our visit, we could ask her questions about the project—but, absolutely no notes, OK?

Challenged by the “extreme” nature of her proposed “no-interview” scenario, we agreed to Lolita’s unusual scheme— which turned out to be much easier said than done!

As agreed, we “visited” her on location, “imbibed” the entire shooting experience, asked her about the significance of the production—all verbally, no jotting down of notes involved, while forcing our overworked brain to get everything down verbatim—an impossible task!

After more than three hours of “non-interviewing,” we groggily said goodbye, went home with a headache, but forced ourselves to write down the recalled highlights of our “visit.”

We managed to pull it off, waited a respectful time after the drama’s shoot was concluded, and finally shared the “exclusive” piece with the reading public—our unique Lolita Rodriguez encounter that wasn’t supposed to happen!