Some interactions just could not be captured by zoom meetings alone.
The energy, the spontaneity and connection between friends, and conversations could never overlap with awkward silences.
Hello Stranger: The Movie captures the future for us as moments like this becomes rarer and rarer.
As the film takes off after the series ends, director Dwein Baltazar, takes the story Hello Stranger further as college students Xavier (Tony Labrusca) and Mico (JC Alcantara) physically reunite in a boot camp for school as the quarantine period is over.
Forced to become roommates, the two confronted their unresolved feelings for each other.
Becoming role models
While the two stars have been praised for their portrayal in a Filipino Boys Love (BL) series, Alcantara shares that with the success of Hello Strangers, he also acquired a new role of becoming a role model to the members of the LGBTQ+ community, who according to him, is a community that has been widely misinterpreted when it comes to love.
“Although modern na nato, the LGBTQ community has always been misinterpreted. And with the movie, I’m proud to have been able to represent them because love is love…” says Alcantara.
“I’m also lucky that the director and the cast members guided me throughout the whole process,” he added.
Baltazar also shares that the movie explores on the core values of love, loneliness and fear and the opposing values of courage and connection.
It is what makes this film so captivating as Baltazar creates a space for misfits like them in a space that hardly even exists.
“Love is love, there is nothing more special and powerful about this movie when you get to interpret so courageously,” she shares.
But although the directorial whole for the movie did not end with Petersen Vargas, who directed the series, Baltaraz explained that she went and asked for Vargas’ notes on how he would want the movie if the role was given to him.
“I can say that this was a collaborative effort between the two of us because I also asked for his advice and he gave me the freedom on how I would envision the movie,” Baltazar explains.
Hello Strangers: The Movie premiered on KTX, Skypaperview, Signal, and iWant TFC. It quickly gained an audience equivalent to three full-house movie theaters last February 12, 2021.
Sought for comment about his newly minted role, Alcantara thanked the management for allowing him to grow as an actor and learn lessons on respect.
“This project is very close to us because it taught us valuable lessons,” he said.
“My only wish is that we become open-minded when it comes to members of the LGBTQ community,” he added.
You can watch Hello Strangers: The movie at KTX, Sky pay-pe-rview, Signal Pay-per-view, and iWan TFC. You can also head over to:https://solo.to/HelloStranger for tickets.
