‘Shoutout to Zaijian!’: Why Zanjoe is all praise for the former child actor

Zanjoe Marudo

Zaijian (Jaranilla) is such a professional,” gushed Zanjoe Marudo, who is all praise for the former child actor—his costar in the drama series “The Broken Marriage Vow.”

“I’m so lucky to have worked with him here as my son. He made work easier for all of us because he is such a giving actor. We didn’t have to work hard on our chemistry as father and son,” Zanjoe said in a recent interview.

In the series, Zanjoe portrays David Illustre while Zaijian plays his teenage son Gio with his wife Jill (Jodi Sta. Maria). Sue Ramirez is Lexy, his mistress. He said Zaijian would always think of ways to improve every scene, even those that didn’t involve him. “I just want to share a story about how Zaijian helped me in one particular scene. We had just finished our scene together. My next task was to shoot the scene that comes before that and the one after. Now, this is difficult because I had to jump from the first scene to the third but was expected to show the necessary nuances and emotions,” Zanjoe recalled. “So Zaijian came up to me and said, ‘Kuya Z (Zanjoe’s nickname), I will help you do our scene together away from the camera so you will be able to shoot the third scene with the right emotion.’”

Zanjoe added: “He didn’t have to do that for me, but he did. I’m grateful. Shoutout to you, Zaijian! I miss you!”

While, Zanjoe swore he would never condone extramarital affairs, the actor said playing David in the series has helped him understand why some people think they are capable of loving someone other than their wives and are having a hard time controlling their emotions.

“I know that love is a feeling that’s hard to ignore and control, but it’s really how you react to it that matters. If you become attracted to a woman other than your wife, will you pursue this woman or not? Will you be selfish or will you think of what the effect of your actions will be to your family? Will you just ignore the feeling and, as they say, suffer quietly?” the actor asked.

Marudo with Zaijian Jaranilla, who plays his son in the “The Broken Marriage Vow”

“That’s my goal for being David: to make the audience understand where he is coming from, why his decisions have led him to this point in his marriage. I know that no person is innately evil. It’s their past experiences that lead them to making particular decisions in the present,” Zanjoe said.

Being David, however, doesn’t mean he agrees with his character’s decisions, pointed out Zanjoe. “No. What he has done to his family is unforgivable, especially in Philippine culture. How he has physically hurt his wife is also unacceptable,” he stressed.

What David did, said Zanjoe, did not only affect his wife, but also his son. “I can’t imagine how painful it is for Gio. The one on the losing end here isn’t David or Dra. Jill, but Gio,” he observed. “This has a lasting effect on him. This is the lesson that every husband or father has to think of before even thinking of cheating: what the effect of his actions will be to his children.”

You can watch “The Broken Marriage Vow” weeknights at 8:40 p.m. on Kapamilya Channel, A2Z, TV5, Viu and Kapamilya Online Live on ABS-CBN Entertainment’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. INQ