Buboy Villar Says It's No Joke To Play The Young Manny Pacquiao In 'Kid Kulafu'

BUBOY VILLAR has won many awards as a child actor. He started in 2006 as the winner in ABS-CBN’s search for the Little Big Star. Now 17 years old, he gets a boost in his career as a teen actor playing the title role in “Kid Kulafu” that shows the life of the Pambansang Kamao as a child and how he started in boxing. This is not the first movie on him, as Star Cinema once made a self-titled Pacquiao biopic starring Jericho Rosales, which bombed at the box office, so here’s hoping “Kid Kulafu” will do better than that.

Buboy took Direk Paul Soriano’s audition for “Kid Kulafu”. “Mahigit 1,000 kaming nag-audition at hindi ko akalaing ako ang mapipili,” he says. “Isang taon yung pabalik-balik ako sa auditions. Hindi pa sinasabing buhay pala ng Pambansang Kamao ang isasapelikula. Nakatulong siguro na pareho kami ng pinagdaanang buhay ni Sir Manny Pacquiao, pareho kaming galing sa hirap. Ako, namumulot ng basura. Siya naman, nagsasalansan ng mga bote ng Vino Kulafu noong bata pa siya. Doon nga nanggaling ang tawag sa kanyang Kid Kulafu.”

He had special training in boxing for the role and watched all the early fights of Pacquiao. “Dalawang beses po nangyaring tinamaan talaga ako ng suntok sa mukha, pero okay lang po ‘yun kasi maipagmamalaki ko ang pelikulang ito. Masisiyahan lahat ng manonood. Ang hirap maging Pacquiao, hindi biro!”