BELA PADILLA is not only an actress.
She is also a scriptwriter and has written the screenplays of such movies as “Coming Soon” (her writing debut, where she used her real name, Krista Sullivan), “10,000 Hours" (2013) with Robin Padilla, “Camp Sawi” (2016) with Andi Eigenmann and herself, “Last Night” (2017) with Piolo Pascual, and “Luck at First Sight” (2017) with Jericho Rosales.
And now, she is also a director. She has directed her first full length film, “366”, which she also wrote.
It’s about love, grief and moving on and her leading men are Zanjoe Marudo and JC Santos.
She also plays the female lead role of June, a young woman whose dearest boyfriend suddenly passes away, Pao (JC), and she has difficulty to go on with her life.
A caring friend, Marco (Zanjoe), offers to be her substitute boyfriend for one year or 365 days. The story happens in a leap year so the film’s title is “366”.
Will Zanjoe succeed in consoling her and persuading her to face life once again? Find out when the movie starts streaming on Vivamax on April 22.
Bela says the film is based on a true story that she herself witnessed a couple of years ago while she was on a holiday break in Maldives. It happened to a Filipina and is about love and loss.
“It’s a very tragic love story and then, as I go through the pandemic and its lockdowns, the story gained more significance for me,” she says. “Now, we’ve realized that we have to take every day one day at a time and treat it as best as we could and really maximize each day.
"So if you're given a choice, if you want to spend one day just being sad or crying or feeling bad or negative, or you could make an effort and be happy and have an extra day to fall in love and have an extra day to love yourself, what would you choose?
"So that's the journey of the character I play and the other characters that I will be with in '366'."
Supporting them in “366” are Alma Moreno, Kat Galang and Josef Elizalde. Originally, she wanted Liza Soberano to play the female lead and she planned to shoot on location in Budapest, but it was not meant to be. But she’s glad that she got JC and Zanjoe as her leading men.
“JC and I are now so at home with each other after doing four films as a love team,” she says. “He’s one of my best friends in and out of the industry. We continue to keep in touch.
"Zanjoe naman and I have been close since we’re paired in ‘My Dear Heart’ in 2017. Pareho sina JC and Zanjoe na very good actors at hindi mo na kailangang masyadong idirek.
"Kilala ko na sila at hindi ko na kailangang mangapa o tantiyahin pa. Ako ang nagtatanong sa kanila ng opinyon nila about the male perspective, like, sa tingin nyo ba sasabihin ito ng isang lalaki?”
Bela is currently based in London. She has a European boyfriend, Norman Bay, who she met while shooting “Meet Me in St. Gallen” in Switzerland, but he’s based in Zurich and he just goes to London to visit her.
“The world stopped for me at the start of the pandemic.” Bela adds. “But the universe conspired for me to be happy this past year and I was able to achieve a lot. I moved to London to start a new life.
"I’m now enjoying London, back to basics ako dito and I’m liking it. I became more productive and figured out what I want to do for the next few years. For that, I’m very thankful.
"I’m returning to Manila in April to promote ‘366’ personally with Zanjoe and JC. I will also resume shooting ‘Spellbound’, a film I started with Marco Gumabao na nabitin dahil sa pandemic.”
