Tom Rodriguez Plays The Most Challenging Role In His Career As An Alzheimer's Disease Patient In GMA-7's 'Someone To Watch Over Me'

TOM RODRIGUEZ is back on primetime with “Someone to Watch Over Me”, where he plays a young man who gets afflicted with early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, making him lose his memory. “Our memories define our experiences in life so if you’d lose it, we’d lose even the memory of our loved one,” he says. “Dito, ang nakalimutan ko, in my role as TJ whose brain cells degenerate, is my own wife, played by Lovi Poe as Joanna, and the memory that I remember is my past girlfriend, Max Collins as Irene. The concept is really very intriguing, very sensitive, and you’d really pray hard it won’t happen to you.”

How did he prepare for his role? “I researched on it, also watched a lot of video documentaries. We’re not aware of it but ang dami palang cases of young people na nakukuha yung sakit na yun. It’s really sad.”

So how is it working with Lovi Poe? “It’s a pleasure working with her kasi mabait siya, a very giving actress and person. Masarap siyang katrabaho kasi she’s awesome at madadala ka sa eksena. We’re also thankful to our director, Maryo de los Reyes, for helping us interpret our roles better. I’ve worked before with Direk Maryo in ‘Nino’, pero guest lang ako sa pilot week. This time, buong show na. And we’re all glad that GMA is tackling such as an issue as memory loss on primetime kasi it’ll help viewers, especially young people today, to learn and understand more about this degenerative disease.”

If ever he’d be afflicted with this disease in real life, who would he like to be the someone who will watch over him. Will it be Carla Abellana? “Yes, why not. But siempre, ayoko namang magkaroon ng ganyang sakit.”

Tom remains to be one of our most amiable and likeable actors today. At the presscon, he raffled off several gift certificates of the fast food store he’s endorsing, Burger King. He knows several stars have won awards for their roles as Alzheimer’s afflicted patients, like Gloria Romero in “Tanging Yaman”, Judy Dench in “Iris” and Julianne Moore who finally bagged an Oscar for “Still Alice”. Here’s hoping he’ll also get to win an award for his role as TJ in “Someone to Watch Over Me”.