Why Jake Cuenca finds doing rom-com challenging

Cuenca as Cyrus in “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?” —VIU/YOUTUBE

“This isn’t my genre. It’s not in my comfort zone,” said actor Jake Cuenca, who also admitted that it took a lot of convincing before he agreed to play the antagonist in the romantic comedy series “What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?”

“I didn’t want to accept it at first because I wanted to rest a little after doing ‘The Iron Heart.’ But I still watched the original series and I said, ‘Hold on, can we look for something that’s bigger for me to play?’

“Ultimately, the people who convinced me were Tita Cory and Sir Deo. They sat me down and promised to make the role even better. ‘We’re going to tweak the story for you because you’re the one doing it.’ Come to think of it, this is the last project I did for Sir Deo,” recalled Jake, who was referring to ABS-CBN bosses Cory Vidanes, chief operating officer for broadcast, and the late Deo Endrinal, head of Dreamscape Entertainment.

“When the pandemic hit, I realized that if there’s any opportunity to work with people I love, like Dreamscape, I’m going to take it. In hindsight, it was good that I accepted the offer because I would have felt bad if I said no. We were all surprised when Sir Deo passed away. I might have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life,” Jake told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

As for his character—Cyrus Castillo, also known as the popular author Morpheus—Jake said it surely got some tweaking. “I took their word for it, and so they gave me enough room to play with the character. That made me really interested. Since they made the script more Pinoy, this inevitably changed some of the sequences. I told them I saw the series and wasn’t too keen on the role, but the moment I got to read the script, I found it interesting. I just hope I will be able to do it justice,” the actor said.

Calm approach

While the hit Korean version featured Park Seo-joon and Park Min-young in the lead, the local adaptation stars Paulo Avelino and Kim Chiu. It follows a workaholic and narcissistic boss (Paulo as Brandon Castillo), who falls in love with his competent and driven secretary (Kim). He eventually asks for Secretary Kim’s hand in marriage, but she rejects him repeatedly. This ultimately challenges the overly confident boss.

“You will be surprised with my character here,” Jake declared. “This project is not something that I’m identified doing. I’ve watched the actor in the original series and found him really good. I sort of followed his lead on this one because I was impressed by his performance. You will see a kontrabida, but someone who is very soft. One thing I made sure that the audience will see is the contrast between my character and Paulo’s, since they have so many similarities,” Jake explained.

“When I was crafting my character, I said that rather than bring out the emotions—just like what I did with the characters I’ve played—I wanted to make him more sentimental. That’s how the Koreans approached it—demure, soft-spoken and, obviously, we have to give it to them because their acting was appreciated by audiences around the world. People recognized the Koreans for their acting, so I wanted to stay true to the role. If ever I make you cry here, it’s not because puno ng hinagpis. I approached it very calmly. That’s how I approached a lot of my scenes.”

Emotional side

Although the story may be light, Jake wouldn’t say the role is easy. “Seo-joon was brilliant in the original version, so was the actor who played Cyrus (Lee Tae-hwan). They showed a lot of layers in their acting. I thought, ‘I’m doing a light project, but the effort and preparation were probably the same or even more for this than I did with ‘Iron Heart.’’ It just so happened that ‘Iron Heart’ was more physical, and so I had to be very athletic for that show.”

Jake continued: “I prepared for this, but more on the emotional side. I approached the sequences more calmly. I wouldn’t say it’s easier. It’s actually harder, especially after ‘Iron Heart’ and ‘Cattleya Killer.’ For this, I had to look for clues in between the lines of the script. The whole world watched this show. Pau, Kim and I are well-aware of this, and so we are not taking it for granted. It’s a big project with a big title. It requires our best performances. I hope we will be able to give just that.”

The series, directed by Chad Vidanes, started streaming on Viu on March 18. It also features Janice de Belen, Romnick Sarmenta, Angeline Quinto, Pepe Herrera, Franco Laurel, JC Alcantara, Kaori Oinuma, Gillian Vicencio, Yves Flores, Cai Cortez, Phi Palmos, Kat Galang and Brian Sy, with the special participation of Kim Won-shik. INQ