Award-winning Filipino actor excited to meet De Niro

IN SHARING stories to his ailing mom, the indie actor found “beautiful” things to say about the dumpsite where “Graceland” was shot.photo:Sung Rae Cho

Arnold Reyes, up-and-coming indie actor, couldn’t contain his excitement over his invitation to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where his latest movie, Ron Morales’ “Graceland,” was chosen for the Cinemania section.

In an interview with Inquirer Entertainment two days before his flight to the United States on Thursday, Reyes said that at the top of his wish list was to have a picture taken with Robert De Niro, the Oscar-winning actor and co-founder of the Tribeca film festival, along with other Hollywood stars he might meet on the red carpet.

Reyes and “Graceland” co-stars Leon Miguel and Ella Guevara arrived in New York on time for the cocktail party at the Philippine consulate and the film’s red-carpet premiere on April 20.

Apart from its premiere at Tribeca, “Graceland” also had a screening yesterday (Manila time), and will have another one on April 28.
Reyes won the best supporting actor award for “Astig” in the 2009 Cinemalaya festival. He said he did not think twice about auditioning for “Graceland,” though he was not familiar with the film’s Filipino-American director. “I googled Ron’s name and watched his film ‘Santa Mesa’ online,” he recalled.

Meeting the director

Impressed, Reyes then met Morales at a Cubao coffee shop for the audition. “Ron asked me to do several interpretations of the same scene,” he recounted.

Morales then personally called Reyes to inform him that he had gotten the part—that of a politician’s driver who gets dragged into a kidnapping plot.

Reyes—also in the cast of the GMA 7 soap “My Beloved”—said he thrived with Morales’ “collaborative” work style. “We discussed and analyzed each line. We also rehearsed specific scenes repeatedly.”

It reminded Reyes of his stint in theater: “Ron was systematic. It was a different process. After the actors’ rehearsals, the technical staffers would also be given time to do their job. There was respect for each department in the filmmaking process.”

Film has special meaning

ARNOLD Reyes portrays the beleaguered dad of kidnap victim Ella Guevara in the crime drama. photo:Sung Rae Cho

In “Graceland,” Reyes plays the husband of a kidney patient (Angeli Bayani) who regularly accompanies his wife to her dialysis treatments.

The film is special to Reyes because he considers it a personal tribute to his mother’s memory.  Africa Reyes was a school teacher who passed away in January 2011 after a lingering kidney ailment.

Reyes described his mom as a strong woman: “She refused to show us that she was in pain.”

(Morales didn’t know Reyes was undergoing a similar personal ordeal when he cast Reyes for the part. When the actor auditioned for it, the script was already finished).

Reyes added that he also identified with his father through the film: “I experienced my parents’ struggles.  Despite all their problems, my dad stood by my mom till the end.  Also, despite my mother’s illness, my parents were able to send my siblings and me to school.

His only regret is that his mother died before “Graceland” was finished.  “But I used to tell her stories about the movie,” Reyes said. “I would describe to her our sets in dumpsites in Catmon and Parañaque. No matter how ugly our locations were, my mother loved my stories about my work in the film.”