“Yes, two years akong walang movie kasi hindi ko gusto yung projects being offered to me,” she says. “Tapos ngayon, nagkasunod-sunod naman ang tatlong movies na ginawa ko.”
She’s really so visible and so busy these days as she is also scheduled to have another solo concert at the Big Dome on August 18 to mark her 21st anniversary in showbiz. Anne is also leaving soon as she will be attending the screening of “Buy Bust” at the New York Asian FIlm Festival on July 15 with co-star Brandon Vera and director Erik Matti. After that, she will be attending another screening in South Korea, then the film opens in local theaters nationwide on August 1.
She figures in a lot of bloody fight scenes in “Buy Bust”. Didn’t she have any second thoughts accepting the project knowing how hard some scenes will be? “No, I know naman it will be physically demanding but the moment the project was pitched to me by Direk Erik Matti on the phone, tinanggap ko agad. I know it will be the most challenging assignment in my career but I’m so inspired to do a film like this. Lahat ng scenes ko rito, buwis buhay.”She plays the role of a drug enforcement agent who just joined the team headed by Victor Neri. In her last team, she’s the only survivor as all the other members died in a massacre, so she’s now very apprehensive when her new team gets an assignment to go into a notorious barangay and arrest a drug dealer.
Direk Erik Matti says the story of “Buy Bust” is very simple compared to the complex plots of his acclaimed works, “On the Job” and “Honor Thy Father”. “Ito, tungkol lang sa Philippine Drug Enforcement Agents who go to a barangay to arrest a drug dealer tapos na hindi na sila makalabas kasi everyone is protecting the bad guy. Lahat, kalaban nila. If I didn’t get someone like Anne na physically fit for the lead role, hindi matatapos ang movie na ito. O maaring kumuha ako ng iba, pero dadayain namin ang shots. Si Anne, she gave her all in her role, lalo roon sa sequence na one long shot taking about three minutes, nagsimula sa ibaba, sinundan siya ng kamera na umakyat siya sa bubong habang may hinahabaol na inabot siya ng suntok, sipa, hanggang malaglag siya. It took us 3 days and a total of 57 takes to complete it.”
“Sobrang hirap kasi supposed to be, umuulan pa and we're on a rooftop,” adds one. “At one point, nasuntok ako sa mukha ng stuntman. Di naman sinasadya, nagkamali lang siya ng tantiya, but akala ko nabali ang ngipin ko. Gusto kong umiyak, pero puro lalaki ang kasama ko, so pinigilan ko na lang. Nakakahiya. They’re asking me kung okay ako and I said yes kahit nasaktan ako.”How did her husband Erwan Heussaff feel about it? “Naawa siya sa akin and he babied me. But I’m really so proud of this movie. It took us two years to complete this. Yung first six months was devoted sa training ko lang in doing stunts, action scenes, in shooting. I trained with actual PDEA agents and I interviewed them para I’ll know how they move, talk, when they’re conducting actual buy bust operations. Talagang I trained hard kaya when we started actual shooting na, reading-ready na ako.”
Was there a point that she was so tired she wanted to give up? “No. I’m very competitive, so I never thought of giving up. Ilang beses akong nasugatan dito. Puro pasa ang arms ko, ang legs ko. But I wanted to prove na kung ano ang kayang gawin ng male leads in hard action films, kaya ring gawin ng isang babaeng tulad ko.”