How Albert stays sexually ‘desirable’ at 60

Albert Martinez

In local show biz, one will be hard-pressed to find an actor who exemplifies the adage, “Age is just a number,” better than Albert Martinez.

Last April, he turned 60—“a senior citizen,” he joked. Still, Albert feels very much in his prime. And it’s especially true when it comes to acting and the roles he takes on.

“If it’s something sexy, I’m fine with it as long as it has substance. Otherwise, I will have to pass. Physically, I’m still active. In fact, I have just accepted a project with some action scenes. But drama, comedy…name it. I’m still in my prime,” he told the Inquirer in a virtual conference for the local adaptation of the acclaimed South Korean film “The Housemaid.”

Good investment

Albert is flattered that, at his age, people still find him “desirable” and worthy of being paired with much younger leading ladies, like beauty queen-turned-actress Kylie Verzosa in this erotic thriller.

“It’s a compliment… greying hair and all,” he said. “I was already into working out and eating properly when I was young. And that’s how things have been through the years. I didn’t abuse myself. That’s about it. For actors, staying fit and looking good is an investment. Maybe it also has something to do with genes. But it does take a lot of discipline.” And that’s exactly what Albert focused on in preparing for “The Housemaid.”

“The Korean actor in the original was younger. I really had to look fit, because I had to play a 50-year-old character. Good thing I was given enough time to prepare, diet, work out,” he related. The remake—directed by Roman Perez and now up for streaming on Vivamax—follows Daisy (Kylie), a woman hired by billionaire William (Albert) to take care of his young daughter while his wife, Roxanne (Louise delos Reyes), is pregnant with twins. But unknown to the household, Daisy not only manages to build rapport with the kid, she also successfully seduces William into having a sexual relationship.

Trust is key

Doing intimate scenes isn’t new to Albert, who has topbilled sexy films like “Scorpio Nights 2” and “Ekis.” But it is for Kylie. So his job as the seasoned actor is to make his costar feel comfortable on the set. “I made it a point to make her trust me. It’s hard to do sensitive scenes when your costars don’t trust you,” he said, adding that his sexy scenes with Kylie were choreographed in a way that’s professional but looks believable for the viewers.

“Unlike in some of my past movies where I and my costar were just given outlines and then left to improvise, I was very, very careful here. We reviewed the choreographed scenes. We planned them and made sure they looked convincing,” he said. The pandemic and the shooting protocols posed another layer of challenge. But in the end, they pulled through, and Kylie ended up impressing Albert and the rest of the team. “She trusted me, so she was able to do her job without apprehension. [I was wowed] because the scenes turned out nicely. Her emotions were there. She played her part well, so much so that the crew started clapping because they were so happy,” he recalled.

The original Korean film came out in 1960. It was then remade by award-winning filmmaker Im Sang-soo and competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Material like this doesn’t come by very often, Albert said, so he had no qualms accepting the role.

New material

“For the past nine or 10 years, television has been my focus. I was raring to do films again, so when I was presented with the script, I got excited. I really liked the role. It’s challenging because he’s quiet and minimal. His nuances are unique—you have to make the viewers feel what he’s feeling and know what he’s thinking,” he said. “But I’m happy I was allowed to give it my own style.”

“Out-of-the-box” projects like “The Housemaid,” Albert said, is what keeps him going, 40 years into his show biz career. “I like being challenged by new material. I’m open to new things. There was a time when I thought I was going to retire, but I realized that there’s still a lot of good stuff out there to do. So bring them on!” INQ