From left: Patrick Garcia, Kaye Abad and Paolo Contis—PHOTOS COURTESY OF NETFLIX
It took Kaye Abad, Patrick Garcia and Paolo Contis 25 years to find a suitable material to reunite in since they worked together in ABS-CBN’s seminal coming-of-age series “Tabing Ilog.” What’s immediately clear to see is how the trio’s time-honed chemistry has worked wonders for the drama “A Journey,” currently the No.1 film on Netflix.
“A Journey” sees embattled actor Kristoff Desiderio aka Tupe (Patrick Garcia) taking bosom buddies, Shane (Kaye Abad) and her doting husband Bryan (Paolo Contis), on a cross-country adventure across the island of Tasmania off the southern coast of mainland Australia.
The trip isn’t just intended to help Tupe come to terms with the career-dimming repercussions of his womanizing ways, but also to tick off items on Shane’s bucket list before she succumbs to cancer.
So, for our quick one-on-one time with the team behind “A Journey” at the hip and swanky Netflix office in Makati last week, we asked Kaye, Paolo and Patrick what they’d like to do before their time to kick the bucket.
Kaye, who’s even lovelier and “deeper” now that she’s in her early 40s, told us that it doesn’t take a lot to please her.
“Ako kasi, mababaw akong tao (I’m shallow). Just to spend time with my family is good enough for me, especially with my kids. Every time I’m asked if I want another child, I say, ‘I’d rather not,’ because I just want some quality time with them while I still can,” explained the actress, who has two sons with “Pinoy Big Brother” alumnus Paul Jake Castillo, her husband since 2016.
She added, “I want to travel with my children without their nannies … ‘yung kami-kami na lang. I want to cherish my time with them because, as it is with Shane’s case, I don’t really know how much time I have left in this world to spend with the people I love. So I want to enjoy every single moment with them.”
Abad (left) and Contis in “A Journey”
Three things
On the other hand, Patrick, who proves in the movie that he hasn’t lost his dramatic flair, wants three things ticked off from his list.
“I want to build my dream home for my wife and kids,” he said. “Then, I want to travel the world with them. On a personal note, I want to watch LeBron James in action and play basketball with him. Also, I want to go skydiving and jump off a plane …”
Cutting in with a wicked grin, Paolo, who was two seats away from Patrick, quipped, “Even without a parachute?”
“No, there should be a parachute,” Patrick answered back, chuckling.
In the interview as it is in the film, it’s this easygoing banter and the improvisational vibe among its three stars that make it easy to empathize with them and the challenges they must hurdle. They can poke fun at each other at any time, but they also know exactly when to set their cheeky antics aside and take things seriously.
‘More time’
For his part, Paolo’s thoughts were for his ailing mother. “I don’t have specific items on my bucket list,” he admitted. “But as Kaye explained, it’s important to spend more and more time with the people we love—in my case, that would be my mom.
“She recently had a stroke. So I regret not doing things I should have done with her when she still could … when she was still OK. Now, ang dami kong gustong gawin kasama siya (I want to do a lot of things with her). Hopefully, we could still do them together even when she’s no longer as healthy as I would have wanted her to be.”
We asked prolific director RC delos Reyes, (“3 Days, 2 Nights in Poblacion,” “Unravel: A Swiss Side Love Story,” “I Love Lizzy”) where his intimations of mortality and propensity for flawed but relatable characters are coming from.
He recounted, “I thought of my loved ones the minute I got the script,” he said. “Since we all just went through the pandemic, the topic of death is still a fresh subject matter. Isa ‘yan sa mga pinanggagalingan ko (that’s where I was coming from) when we were doing the film. The story of Shane and Bryan reminded me of my lolo and lola.
“So, when my lola died during the pandemic, it felt like my lolo also lost a considerable part of his life, too. They were like love birds—they were really meant for each other. That always felt like true love to me. That’s why family and friendship were significant themes in the film.
“I was in my early 30s before the pandemic, and all I could think of was to do as many films as I could. But because of the pandemic, I realized that a successful career doesn’t define you as a person—what matters more are the friends and family around you. So the film is really about the ties that connect Shane, Bryan and Tupe regardless of what happens to any of them in the end.”
The three share a kind of friendship that demonstrates how opposites could attract each other. After pointing out that Paolo plays the loyal and doting husband in the movie, and Patrick has been cast as his and Kaye’s “naughty but nice” childhood barkada, we asked Patrick and Paolo which of the two characters resonated with them more.
Patrick said he could relate to both Bryan and Tupe, although as he reiterated, “I’m really not the ‘naughty’ sort. But I can certainly relate to the actor part of Tupe’s character … to his being a dreamer, to him wanting to achieve greater things in life. But the playboy part … I don’t think I’ve ever been.”
With a wicked twinkle in his eyes, Paolo told us, “I think pinagbaliktad talaga ni Direk RC ang roles namin (it was deliberate on our director’s part)—at sa tingin ko, doon talaga papunta ang tanong mo (that’s where your question is headed). You’re just saying it in a nice way.”
“Ay, oo parang, ‘Hindi ba dapat ikaw ‘yung naughty but nice, Paolo (aren’t you a better fit for the other role)?’ Kaye cut in, ribbing her controversial costar.
Turning serious, Pao, who doubles up as one of the film’s producers, explained, “Actually, we talked about this. As they say, we all need a good challenge in life, that’s why they wanted me to be the nice guy (laughs). But to be honest, you can relay important messages from both characters. I can also relate to Patrick’s character …”
“But you can relate to Patrick’s character more, right?” Kaye asked, laughing.
Paolo answered, “They really interchanged the characters … para may issue (laughs)!”