Dolly de Leon
Actress Dolly de Leon said she found the news of her getting invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) to vote for the annual Oscar Awards so unbelievable at first that she even asked her American management team to check whether it was a scam.
“They sent me an email, and so I took a screenshot and forwarded it to my team in the States. I asked, ‘Is this a scam?’ It’s because we would often get emails from people we don’t know, including scammers. They said, ‘No. This is confirmed. You’ve been invited.’ That’s when I asked about the benefits of being a member,” Dolly told Inquirer Entertainment.
Dolly explained that “it’s mostly for prestige,” but what has more weight to her is the fact that “we now have the right to vote not just in the Actor’s branch, but in the officers’ as well.”
Huge honor
She continued: “The impact that I see from this is that we’ve become empowered. It’s not just me as a Filipino actor, but all of us Filipinos … we now have the right to vote. It’s a huge honor… The thing is, it’s not for free. There’s an annual fee. So I asked, ‘Is it worth it?’”
Dolly said that since she is already a member, it’s also possible that she would still get invited to attend the Oscars ceremony even if none of her films are nominated. “I may have to eventually get a sponsor for that because it’s not cheap to go there and dress up for the event,” she pointed out.
Speaking of trips, Dolly will be leaving for Munich, Germany, in August to shoot for the second season of the Prime Video drama series “Nine Perfect Strangers,” starring Nicole Kidman. She is expected to stay there for six months to work on nine episodes.
She said she would be working closely with Liv Ullmann and Murray Bartlett (“White Lotus”), “Because my character is connected to both of them. I’m super excited to go,” she beamed. “The cast for Season 2 will be different, but Nicole is still the lead. Her character is a constant in the story. This season, I’m one of the nine ‘perfect strangers.’”
Dolly will have two weeks off when she flies back home for the Christmas break. “Yes, I consider myself an OFW (overseas Filipino worker). In fact, I hold a working visa. I’ve already prepared myself for this. I know I will be gone from home for a long time. I’m lucky because with the technology nowadays, I can FaceTime with people at home, and so it’s like I’m still with them,” she pointed out.
READ MORE: Dolly de Leon earns best supporting actress nomination at BAFTA
Meanwhile, she is currently working on a film opposite Kathryn Bernardo, titled “A Very Good Girl.” “It’s all about women power. We’re done with 70 percent of the movie. Konting kembot na lang,” quipped Dolly, adding that working with Kathryn and director Petersen Vargas was a breeze.
“Kathryn is very down-to-earth. Like a normal person, she is easy to get along with. No attitude whatsoever,” she stressed. “When it came to acting, I didn’t have to give pointers to her. If you think about it, she’s more seasoned in acting than I am because she’s been acting since she was a young girl. Acting is already in her system—that’s all her body knows—so I’m convinced that she actually knows more than I do.”
Handpicked for the project
She added: “I know this is a cliché, but Kathryn’s acting here is something she has never done before. It’s true that she will be showing a very different side of her in this project. This is not an easy one. You will know when you watch it.”
Since she was handpicked for the project, was there anything she requested from her producers prior to saying “yes” to doing it? “A good script plus a director I can work with, who is also wonderful and pleasant. I also asked for coactors who I can rely on for support. Even if Kathryn is the lead here, of course, I still needed her to back me up. I have nothing to complain about with Star Cinema at all.”
A timeless piece
Currently, Dolly is helping in the promotion of two entries to the 19th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival: Dustin Jose Celestino’s “Duyan ng Magiting” and Carl Joseph Papa’s “Iti Mapupukaw.”
She plays support to lead actor Paulo O’Hara in “Duyan ng Magiting” and to Carlo Aquino on “Iti Mapupukaw.” The first film is an exploration on social injustice, a social commentary on the condition of the country. It tackles how corruption happened in government, particularly in the police force, explained Dolly. “It’s a timeless piece. I play a social worker who is so sick of the system,” she added.
Dolly said she has long wanted to work with Carlo. In fact, she has seen most of his film projects. “It’s so frustrating that he plays a mute person here, so we never had any real exchanges of lines. We ‘acted’ with our eyes. I’m still happy that I agreed to do the film because I finally saw how very generous an actor he really is,” said Dolly. Cinemalaya 2023 will run from Aug. 4 to 13 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.