Martin del Rosario in “Born Beautiful”
Martin del Rosario, who recently played the transgender character Barbs in “Born Beautiful,” will play another gay role in Perci Intalan’s comedy “The Panti Sisters,” an entry in the 2019 Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.
While it’s not yet certain whether he will once again wear girly outfits in the new film, Martin told the Inquirer how difficult it was to become Barbs. “I wear a wig all day. Masisikip rin ang mga suot ko kaya nakaipit lahat (i.e. his genitals). There’s plaster and lots of sticky tape—patung-patong. It’s also difficult to sit down—mas lalo kasing maiipit—so I just either lie down or stand up,” he said.
“I also had to wax all of my body hair. Later, when they started to grow back, I just opted to shave them. Waxing was too painful. ’Di ko kinaya! I can’t imagine I did all those for the movie,” the actor recalled.
Martin also had to kiss two straight guys—Kiko Matos and Akihiro Blanco—who played his boyfriends in the movie. “Kiko and I first talked before we shot our kissing scene. We’ve agreed that the objective was to show something ‘wild,’” as in with tongue! We did it with a single take, pero maraming shots,” Martin admitted.
While Martin described that kiss as “wild and animalistic,” he said the one with Akihiro was “romantic and passionate.” Asked how he and Kiko had managed to develop good chemistry, he replied: “You kissed each other several times, so magiging close na talaga kayo. Wala nang hiya-hiya!” —MARINEL R. CRUZ