Coco Martin says Jaclyn Jose didn’t ask for a fee in directorial debut

Perceived as a sexy actor in his early years in show biz, Coco Martin didn’t feel he belonged on television, or that he would ever be able to cross over to the mainstream.

He experienced countless rejections. Every so often, he would get an inquiry or project offer from networks and producers, only for them to back out when they discovered that he had showed some skin in indie films.

Instances like those left him disheartened. And if it weren’t for people like Jaclyn Jose—one of those who believed in him from the start—Coco said he wouldn’t have gotten to where is now, not only as an actor, but also as a person.

“The roles I did back then were really mature. And it’s a struggle when you’re a newbie actor. You have no name. You have a lot of things to prove. You will come across all types of rejections. I felt like television didn’t want me. I would get inquiries, but nothing came of them,” he said in his eulogy delivered on the second night of the late show biz icon’s wake.

‘Do it for me’

But Jaclyn, whom Coco worked with in Brillante Mendoza’s acclaimed movies “Masahista” (2005) and “Serbis” (2008), urged the then dispirited actor to keep the faith and soldier on. “I will never forget being with her and Direk Dante (Mendoza) at the Cannes Film Festival, where our film (‘Serbis’) competed. Mommy Jane (Jaclyn’s real name is Mary Jane Guck) told me to accept the project that director Andoy Ranay was offering… The show was called ‘Ligaw na Bulaklak’ (2008) on ABS-CBN,” Coco related.

“She told me to accept the project for her. Because I love her and deeply respect her, I did as I was told even though I already felt unwelcome in television,” he added.

The rest is history. “I attended the story conference. I learned about my character. And that’s how it started for me. After that, I did one project after another at ABS-CBN,” he said.

With a string of successful soap operas like “Tayong Dalawa” (2009), “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin” (2011), “Juan dela Cruz” (2013) and “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” (2015), Coco reached superstardom. Soon, he set his sights on directing via the 2017 Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Ang Panday.”

Full support

For the first time in a long while, Coco found himself in uncharted territory. But he knew that, amid all the uncertainty, there was a familiar face he could always count on.

“When you’re starting something new, you go to the people close to you … the people who believe in you. So, I asked Mommy Jane to come on board as an actress. I was so happy. She went to the set and accepted the project,” Coco said. “At hindi s’ya nagpabayad sa ‘kin.”

The gesture was much appreciated. “It made me feel special,” Coco said. “In times you need someone, she’s there. She assured me I didn’t need to be overly mindful of her. ‘Focus ka lang sa ginagawa mo,’ she told me,” he related.

All-star cast

For his latest project, the ongoing action series “FPJ’s Batang Quiapo,” Coco envisioned an evolving ensemble cast that included the cream of the crop of show biz. Of course, you can’t have a concept like that and not include the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to win best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.

“During taping for our film ‘Labyu with an Accent’ (2022), I told her about my concept for ‘Batang Quiapo.’ I didn’t directly tell her that I was planning to have her in it, but I just said that I wanted to feature all the best actors in the Philippines… I want to have them in the show one by one,” Coco said.

Jaclyn joined the show’s second season as Dolores Espinas, the corrupt chief superintendent who oversees the jail in which Tanggol (Coco) and some of his friends are kept. Her character was supposed to be cold and no-nonsense. And so Coco found it peculiar, he said, that Jaclyn seemingly broke out of character in her final scenes with him and Ivana Alawi, who plays Bubbles.

“In the scene where Bubbles is about to be set free, we were puzzled because Mommy Jane cried when she shouldn’t have. We had to do a second take and told her that, even if her character sees Bubbles as her own kid, she shouldn’t have been that affected,” he said.

Attachment

“And it was the same in our scene. I was like, ‘Bakit may attachment? Bakit anak ang turing niya sa character,’ when she should have been like, ‘Subukan mo mag-traydor, hawak ko mga kaibigan mo,’” he added.

As it turned out, Jaclyn had grown fond of her costars, so much so that the idea of the characters leaving prison saddened her. “She told me that she got sad because some of the characters were leaving one by one. She had become so attached to her coworkers,” Coco said of Jaclyn, who shot her scenes in an actual prison. “

“Pati ‘yung mga talagang nakakulong napamahal na sa kanya!” he said, drawing laughter. “If you’re an actor, it’s understandable if you don’t particularly enjoy shooting in an actual prison. Pero baka nagustuhan niya na ang ambience doon!”

In hindsight, those breaks in Jaclyn’s character, Coco surmised, might have been signs of what was to come. He also recalled that, for some reason, he kept bringing up Jaclyn with his costars who attended the “Batang Quiapo” motorcade at the Panagbenga Festival in Baguio City last March 2, the day the actress died.

“I went to Mommy Pie’s (Cherry Pie Picache) room and I brought up how Mommy Jane talked about Charito Solis … and Fernando Poe, Jr. and how they used to drink with him. After the motorcade, we talked about Mommy Jane again. I didn’t know why I kept on bringing her up,” Then, he received a call about what happened to Jaclyn. “I told myself, ‘I think that was her way of making her presence felt … why I kept talking about her. Little did I know that something happened to her. I’m still in shock. It’s hard to process. I don’t really understand if this is real. We were together just a few days prior,” Coco said.

Gratitude

The concern Jaclyn showed him, Coco said, he never even got from his real parents. The pain and grief that come with losing a beloved actress, friend and mentor will linger for a long time. For now, all he can do is express his gratitude.

“Kung ano man ang meron ako at ang pamilya ko… kung ano man ang inabot ko sa buhay, lahat ‘yun dahil ikaw ang nagkumbinsi sa ‘king pumasok sa ABS-CBN,” he said. “Dama namin ang pagmamahal sa industriya at sa lahat ng nakatrabaho niya… Maraming salamat sa pagturing mo sa ‘kin bilang isa sa mga minamahal mong anak.”