Coming soon: Coco vs Vice

Coco Martin (left) and Vice Ganda

Director Joyce Bernal, who worked with friends Vice Ganda and Coco Martin in the 2016 movie “The Super Parental Guardians,” admitted that she has been feeling the “tension” between the two stars, but decided that “it’s what they need in order to level up in what they want to achieve in their respective careers.”

This year, Coco and Vice were supposed to make a sequel to the action-comedy flick. But the ABS-CBN stars are currently busy shooting different movies—Vice with “The Revengers” and Coco with “Ang Panday”—which will be competing at the 2017 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) in December.

“It’s good and healthy competition,” Joyce told the Inquirer. “Vice hasn’t said anything to me about his issue [with Coco], but I feel they are not OK.

“It’s also why Vice has set exceptionally high expectations of himself. He wants to do a lot of things in this new movie.”
As for the sequel to “The Super Parental Guardians,” Joyce said that it “will have a different leading man.”

She further explained: “Before I made that film, I originally signed up for a project with just Coco as the lead. It was Vice who had asked to join us. So I guess, Coco really wanted to do an MMFF film that’s really just his own.”

Aside from Vice, Joyce is also working with Daniel Padilla and 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach in “The Revengers.”

She shared with the Inquirer: “Daniel is fun to work with on the set. In fairness to Pia, she’s actually funny. She didn’t make us feel like, ‘I’m Miss Universe. Treat me with respect.’”

Asked whether she was feeling the pressure to surpass last year’s box-office success, Joyce said: “I refuse to do so!”

She stressed that success should never go to a director’s head.
“Yes, it gives you confidence,” she said. “If you no longer listen to peers and think that this particular success defines who you are, then you have truly become arrogant.”

As far as haters are concerned, she said: “I actually don’t know if I have one. I don’t know why other filmmakers would spend time answering every basher online. I honestly don’t have the time. For me, criticism is OK. It’s part of my life as a director.”