Dolly de Leon’s road to the Oscars: I’m nervous. . . I’m preparing myself mentally

From left: Sunnyi Melles, Ruben Östlund, Philippe Bober, De Leon and Oliver Ford Davis at BFI London Film Festival

“Thinking about it makes me very nervous,” said Filipino actress Dolly de Leon of the ongoing campaign for Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness” to get nominated under the best international feature film category of the 75th Academy Awards.

De Leon is currently in the United States as part of a promotional tour for “Triangle of Sadness,” where she plays Abigail, one of the lead characters. The black satire is the winner of the highly coveted Palm d’Or of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in France. It is currently screening in six theaters all over the US.

Dolly de Leon chillin’ after her red carpet engagement at the BFI London Film Festival.

“Of course, I’m very nervous about that. I really want ‘Triangle of Sadness’ to get an Oscar nomination, and, of course, to eventually win the award. So far, so good. The film came out pretty strong during its commercial release (in Los Angeles) last week,” said De Leon, who is currently in Virginia as part of the promotional tour.

Opening doors

She is also in Virginia to personally receive the Breakthrough Performance Award she won at the recent 2022 Middleburg Film Festival.

“For a postpandemic film, it’s doing pretty well, especially since cinema viewership all over the globe has really dropped. This is exciting for us. We feel that we’re opening doors for other audiences to start going out of their homes and resume watching in cinemas,” De Leon reported.

At the 2022 New York Film Festival with (director) Östlund and (actor) Zlatko Burik

“As for the Oscar campaign, I just want to keep doing what I’m supposed to do under the guidance of Neon, our distributor. If I don’t get nominated, it’s OK. I don’t want to think much about it because I don’t want to feel bad if I don’t get it. I’m preparing myself mentally. It just means someone else deserves it and needs it more than I do. What I really want is for the film to win.”

Last year’s winner was Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s dramatic piece “Drive My Car.”

When Inquirer Entertainment asked De Leon how well she was adjusting to her grueling schedule, she replied: “I got used to our system there in the Philippines—you go to tapings or shootings, and after that, your work is done. My being part of ‘Triangle of Sadness’ is a totally different experience. I go around meeting filmmakers, actors, members of the Screen Actors Guild, and jurors of Ampas (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). It’s a whole new world. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’m just going with the flow.”

With actress Lois Smith (right)

De Leon said all her efforts are directed toward “promoting the film in anyway that will help it reach a bigger and wider audience.” This is also because, she said, “I’m very proud of this film.”

The following cities are part of De Leon’s promotional tour, which began in early September: Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Austin, London, Middleburg and San Francisco.

Festivals

“I met a lot of very interesting people, but I think the most interesting person so far was (American filmmaker-producer) Greg Kwedar. While he was standing in one corner at a party, and while everyone was hyper and excited, he asked me very calmly: ‘So how are you handling all of these? Has it been driving you crazy?’ When I said ‘yes,’ he added, ‘People will make you feel good for what you did, then it (attention) will fade away, and they will treat you differently. What you always have to remember, in spite of all of this, is that it’s all about the work. The work that we do, no one can take that away from us.’”

With Tim League (right), founder of the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas

She continued: “I will never forget what he said because he captured in words exactly what I was experiencing. He was like a guru. He was so calm that I felt relaxed. He made me ask myself, ‘Why am I taking all these too seriously? This will all be gone one day.’ Because of him, I was able to ground myself.”

For De Leon, the 2022 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, was “the most exciting festival I’ve ever attended so far.” She explained: “It was hosted by Tim League, who is such a gracious man. He has a crazy, creative, young and wild team behind him. The festival’s themes are horror and the supernatural, which are my kind of genres. The festival is so quirky! Meeting people like Tim is truly invigorating.”

De Leon also tried to recall her trip to New York City to attend the 2022 New York Film Festival. “New York is a totally different animal altogether, but it was so much fun. It’s a different experience because it’s not Hollywood. They’re all about filmmaking in that area,” she recalled.

With co-actor Oliver Ford Davis (right)

“The Brits are something else, too,” De Leon said of her participation at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival in the United Kingdom. “The great thing about this whole thing is that I get to experience different cultures and witness how differently they approach these things—the festivals and the films. It’s refreshing to meet all of them.”

However, what De Leon said she really hoped to learn is “how people from different backgrounds create films and what are the processes that they need to do to come up with the work that they make,” she pointed out. “I want to learn from that because, eventually, I want to reach that stage where I can work with them. That would be a totally different filming experience. That’s what I’m excited about the most.”

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