Romnick Sarmenta. Image: Instagram/@nicksarmenta
If there’s one thing that actor Romnick Sarmenta learned through the decades he’s worked in the industry, it is how to be grateful.
Sarmenta says he didn’t feel he was deprived of his childhood even when he started in show business at such a young age playing Peping in “Gulong ng Palad.”
“Objective and subjective ‘yan, eh. It all depends on how you take it. If you wanna think about it, I mean, let’s face it, this business can be very brutal. It takes away a lot of your time. It will take away your relationship if you allow it. It would take away a lot of happiness if you will allow it,” he said during the mediacon and screening of “About Us But Not About Us” when asked if he felt he was deprived of happiness because he started young in the business.
“And at the same time, if you know the reason why you’re doing it, and if that reason is enough to make you happy, it will make you happy,” he added.
Sarmenta pointed out that he can’t speak about other people’s experience as they were personal experiences.
“Ako, there can be some things that I can be sour about. With this business. But, when I look at it from a different perspective, I just have to find a reason to be grateful, whatever it is,” he said.
“So, I am grateful for everything that I’ve gone through. Some of them may not have been nice, some of them may have been painful but I am grateful about the lessons afterwards. I learned because of that,” he explained.
At his age, Sarmenta feels he’s blessed to have been given a lead role as Eric, a gay Literature professor in the movie.
Romnick Sarmenta (left) with Elijah Canlas in “About Us But
Not About Us”
“Number one, mabait ang Diyos (God is good). Number two, I’ve been blessed enough to be able to work with people and hopefully was able to connect in such a way that we have friendship or relationship. I don’t get picked out because I have a PR team. I still think I get picked out because we have a good relationship during previous work that they remember na, ‘Uy, madali katrabaho si Romnick (Hey, Romnick is easy to work with),’” he said.
Written and directed by Jun Robles Lana, “About Us But Not About Us” is one of the official entries in 1st Summer MMFF (Abril 8-18, 2023). It won Critics’ Picks Best Film at the 27th POFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, one of the largest A-list film festivals in Europe. EDV