DAVID LICAUCO’s time to shine has really come.
His hit primetime series, “Maria Clara at Ibarra”, is ending on February 17, but on February 15, he has an exciting new movie coming up, “Without You”, with Shaira Diaz as his leading lady.
They were first paired before in Regal’s “Because I Love You” in 2019 and they admit it didn’t do as well as expected as they were both just starting their careers then.
But since, they have both starred in hit GMA-7 teleseryes.
David comes from the immensely successful “Maria Clara at Ibarra” while Shaira Diaz comes from the hit action-fantasy, “Lolong”.
Both shows are scheduled to have a Book 2.
So how different is “Without You” from their first movie?
“We are playing more mature roles here,” says David. “Yung una, romcom na pa-tweetums.
"This one is a more serious film about relationships. I play Axel, a DJ, malapit sa temptation at sa mga girls.
"Si Shaira plays Ria, a nurse. We meet when we accidentally bump into each other. When the story starts, we’re seven years into our relationship and the fire of our love has somewhat turned cold.
"We drift apart and I date other girls but eventually, I realized siya pala talaga ang mahal ko.”
They have love scenes in the movie and it’s both their first time to do it.
“Coming from a conservative Chinese family, I asked my mom about it and she said no.
"I asked the opinion of my other friends and they’re more encouraging.
"I felt pinasok ko itong trabahong ito as an actor, I have to grow, so I want to try it.
"I welcomed the challenge and I felt makakatulong naman siguro sa career ko.
"It’s good Shaira and I are very comfortable with each other. Our director, RC de los Reyes, also helped in guiding us how to do the love scenes.”
“Without You” is the comeback project of OctoArts Films. Producer Orly Ilacad says they had to stop during the pandemic.
“I did some films for streaming like ‘Izla’ and ‘Finding Agnes’, pero siempre, iba pa rin itong ipapalabas sa sinehan,” says the veteran producer who, we noticed, lost a lot of weight.
“Na-angioplasty kasi ako and after that, nawalan ako ng appetite kumain.”
He offered seasoned editor John Anthony Wong to be the supervising producer of “Without You” and John accepted to have a new challenge in his career working behind the camera.
“It’s something new and exciting for me,” he says. “Also, ang ganda ng material and I’m thankful to Boss Orly and OctoArts for giving me the chance to produce.
"I also did the film’s editing, its trailer, its music video.
"And when we watched the movie in a special screening, we are all very happy at naiyak kami sa ganda ng movie.
"David, Shaira and everyone, they all delivered in their respective roles.
"We’re all very proud of ‘Without You’ so don’t miss it when it opens in theaters on February 15.”