MANILA – Alessandra de Rossi wore many hats while working on the upcoming movie “My Amanda.”
Aside from being the lead actress opposite Piolo Pascual, she was also its director, writer and one of the producers.
While she described the whole experience as fun, De Rossi admitted on Wednesday that it was challenging for her to fulfill her many roles.
“I chose to direct this film because I knew with Piolo, I wouldn’t have to direct anything. I just made sure he’d come to the set,” she said in jest.
“I thought it was gonna be that easy. But being an actor, the director, the writer and also a producer –- the producers are all my best friends and my sister and my brother-in-law. So parang I had to take care of their money. So I am also thinking of them,” she added.
“Sometimes when I was directing, I did not have the luxury or privilege to really see myself on screen acting. That’s impossible. I’d only see it during preview na biglang ‘Oh my God may hair na [magulo], should I repeat that or baka isipin vain lang ako?’”
De Rossi said taking on many roles was physically draining for her that she was hospitalized three times within two weeks.
“I kept everything inside. Ayaw kong bumaba ‘yung energy sa set. So parang lahat ng stress ko, [nasa loob ko lang]. ‘Alex, umuulan. Anong gagawin ko? Hindi pwede, mahal itong location na ito. Hindi na tayo babalik, kailangan na siyang kuhanan. Paano? Against the wall.’ Tapos iniisip ko na as writer, ‘Magre-rewrite ka ba?’ So parang halo-halo ‘yung feelings. So pagkauwing pagkauwi, sumakit na ‘yung back ko, ‘yung tiyan ko. Ayun na, hospital.”
Nonetheless, De Rossi said she would love to wear the director’s hat again in the future.
“Gusto ko uliting maging director na hindi ako actor kasi hindi ko talaga na-enjoy ‘yung experience as a director kasi wala ka sa monitor. Kasi ako, preview na lang pinapanood ko. Walang nag-cut, ang pangit na pala, may mga nakita na pala doon sa side,” she said.
“Hindi ko nakita ‘yung screen. Nakikita ko na lang siya kapag preview na. Since limited din lang naman ‘yung days namin, siyempre kapag nagpre-preview ako, nasa ulo ko na ‘yung next scene kung paano ko siya gagawin dahil may time limit din. So hindi ko talaga siya na-enjoy ‘yung pag-direct. Nakuha ko lang ‘yung feeling nung post-production niya.”
“My Amanda,” which marks de Rossi’s directorial debut, will be available on Netflix globally on July 15.
Produced by Pascual’s Spring Films, with Joyce Bernal as creative producer, “My Amanda” follows the story of best friends TJ (Pascual) and Amanda (de Rossi), as they navigate different shades of their relationship.
“The story is very personal to me because it’s about my friendships. My guy best friend’s name is TJ and he’s (Pascual) PJ so I just used his real name, and even how we call each other, Fuffy and Fream,” De Rossi said.
However, she emphasized that the story has nothing to do with real life, adding that she just used “the dynamics of the friendship because I wanted to share a different kind of love story.”
“It’s a friendship that’s intimate and not superficial and rare and sincere. That’s what I wanted to talk about because all Pinoys are fans of rom-coms. This one’s a different take on love,” she added.
Meanwhile, Pascual said this is probably the easiest role he’s ever done in his life.
“She just brought her best friend to the set and I observed him the whole time and I took it from there. It wasn’t hard for me,” he said.
“I just had to grow my hair out and I have a permanent injury [on my ear] because I pierced my ears, six piercings for the role. Totoo iyon and its permanently damaged, the cartilage. I wanted to look like TJ. He had tatts and piercings so I said I had to look like him.”
When asked how he was able to relate to his character, Pascual said: “I learned a lot from my character doing the film. But I also know for a fact that it is possible to actually have girl best friends who you can treat as one of the guys.”
“Being around Alessandra, that was easy for me because that’s how we are in real life. It wasn’t hard for me to get into the character because we were just literally developing the chemistry and we didn’t realize that there was chemistry because she was doing a lot of things on the side but once she starts saying ‘roll,’ we realized there’s not much difference in real life,” he explained.
As its global premiere on Netflix approaches, Pascual said he’s excited for moviegoers to finally see a film that’s personal to him and De Rossi.
“As personal as it was for Alessandra, it was personal for me as well. To be given this kind of support by Netflix, it’s so big for us. We are just really excited. Watching the trailer always makes us go back to the experience of doing the film. It always brings back good memories so it’s a good feeling,” he said.