IT WILL BE recalled that Christian Bables and Director Jun Lana had a rift when Christian refused to do “Born Beautiful”, the sequel to “Die Beautiful” for which he won many acting awards. They reconciled later and did “Panti Sisters”, a big hit.
Now, Christian is helmed again by Jun in “Big Night” and, once again, he plays another gay role for which he might just win another acting award.
“This role is really meant for him,” says Direk Jun. “If it’s not him, then I won’t do it. He was then busy with a TV show so we waited for him.”
“Of all the movies I made for him, this is the most difficult,” says Christian. “I’m not a swishy gay here as Dharna, a beautician, but effeminate lang. Tapos binago niya ang accent ko, Visayan.
"Buti na lang my mom is Visayan, so I’m familiar with it. On the first day of the shoot, they got a coach for me. But the next day, ako na lang by myself.
"In this movie, I really felt yung trust ni Direk sa akin. Before, parang natatakot pa akong nahihiya sa kanya. But now I’m more comfortable and he really guided me every step of the way.”
Another personal choice of Direk Jun is Nico Antonio, who plays Zeus, Christian’s lover, an aging macho dancer who truly very cares with Christian and is not out just to exploit him.
“I saw Christian when he was introduced in ‘Die Beautiful’ and I saw his growth as an actor so I felt I wanna work with this guy,” says Nico.
“Si Direk Jun naman, I got to work with him in ‘Dalawang Mrs. Reyes’ where I also played a macho dancer kina Judy Ann Santos and Angelica Panganiban. It’s a small role but napansin ako.
"So when he offered this to me and said he wrote it for me, I accepted it right away.”
Direk Jun’s last film, “Kalel, 15”, is about the 15-year old son of a priest who’s diagnosed as HIV positive and later abandoned by his own mom. It won many awards, including best actor for title-roler Elijah Canlas.
Now, in “Big Night”, he tackles Extra Judicial Killing or Operation Tokhang amidst all the corruption and greed among local barangay officials who have no qualms in implicating innocent people in their drug watch list, told from the point of view of an innocent gay beautician who wants to clear his name after it was wrongly included in the watch list.
We won’t be surprised if he’d win more awards for this film.
