Lea Salonga tanggap nang hindi puro pambida ang iaalok sa kanyang project

TANGGAP na ng Laurence Olivier and Tony Awardee na si Lea Salonga na hindi lahat ng projects na iaalok sa kanya ay siya ang bida.

Tulad nga nitong “Yellow Rose” na pinagbidahan ng Filipina-American actress na si Eva Noblezada na tulad ni Lea ay gumanap din bilang Kim sa “Miss Saigon.”

Aniya, “My days are done. Ha-hahaha! I’m done! I’m a supporting character in this.”

Ang manager ni Lea sa Amerika ang dahilan kaya niya tinanggap ang pelikula, “He actually pushes me hard to do this movie, he said, ‘you have to do this film, you should do this film because it is the right thing to do, it’s very topical.”

Bukod dito ay kilala rin niya ang direktor ng pelikula na si Diane Paragas at natandaan niyang nakatrabaho na niya ito sa Discovery channel para sa isang documentary film.

“The script was beautiful, it was a character that is not so easy to like which I think is something far more attractive than you know, for more interesting for me to play after having played many anxious nous and heroines in my career.

“It was interesting to tackle and to try something where the character isn’t really, really well-liked, so trying to gain some empathy from our audience and a little more challenging unlike Rose who you know is the hero throughout the entire narrative of the film.

“And I patterned this character after somebody that I didn’t like and it makes more interesting for me, I guess and me trying to gain empathy for that kind of human being.  Recently, I was reminded why I didn’t like this person, so, he was interesting to be revisited all of the same time.

“What convinced me to do this, it was the power of the script, power of the story and the power of my manager’s word saying, ‘this is the right thing to do, you gonna do it,’ so that’s it,” paliwanag ng singer-actress.

Sa tanong kung ang “Yellow Rose” ay maituturing din niyang unforgettable tulad ng ginawa nilang pelikula noon ni Aga Muhlach na “Sana Maulit Muli” noong 1995.

“It’s a different experience, cannot compared the two although it does tackle immigration (issues) but, Yellow Rose kasi really tackles the plight of undocumented immigrants and immigration policies that are not particularly friendly to undocumented immigrants.

“As for Sana Maulit Muli, even though there were a lot of but still topical issue that were tackled in the film, the center piece of that movie was really romance between Jerry and Agnes.

“For Yellow Rose even though there is a romantic aspect to it, it really, really focuses on the human component and para sa mga nangyayari sa mga taong nadadamay, you know? No thanks to a particularly unfriendly immigration policy of United States.

“So, it’s really…that what happens when there’s lack of compassion and so we see Rose’s and how it is connected to all other undocumented immigrants especially Filipino undocumented immigrants in the US,” kuwento pa ni Lea.

Kaya umaasa siya na kapag napanood ng mga Filipino ang “Yellow Rose” ay, “To open their hearts and be a little more empathetic towards people who are going to it.”

Gagampanan ni Lea ang karakter na may asawang Caucasian, “Somebody who does not want to help Rose in her journey throughout this film, so you don’t see me at all on any romantic situation, that’s for Rose.

“I’m done! I’m a supporting character and I just have to advance the protagonist journey in this, so, that is my role. It’s about 15 minutes or so in the entire movie but I have a lot of fun shooting it,” sabi pa ni Lea.

Bukod kay Lea, kasama rin dito si Princess Punzalan at ang bidang si Eva as Rose mula sa panulat at direksyon ni Diane Paragas.

Mapapanood ang “Yellow Rose” sa Jan. 29 via KTX.ph, iWant TFC, Sky Cable pay-per-view and Cignal pay-per-view sa halagang P150 per ticket at distributed ng Cinexpress.