Kim Chiu is full of admiration for Maricel Soriano as they collaborate on the drama series Linlang, produced by Dreamscape and ABS-CBN, currently available for streaming on Prime Video.
Kim expresses her appreciation for Maricel, also known as “Inay,” and praises her for her generosity and kind-hearted nature.
“She’s very generous. She gives us a lot of things, especially me because we have the same shoe size. I’ve received a number of expensive shoes from her. She also has lots of food in her room which she shares with us. We would just go there to have a chit-chat, and that’s it,” she says.
When it comes to their work together, Kim acknowledges Maricel’s seriousness and brilliance as an actress. She admits to feeling nervous when filming scenes with the esteemed Diamond Star, given her extensive experience in the industry.
“Whenever we have scenes together, I feel nervous. Considering her stature in the industry, she has done a lot of acting vehicles over the years.”
Kim is particularly excited about one of her dream scenes with Maricel that has already taken place.
“We just shot a scene in which she slapped me! That’s part of my bucket list, and I’m glad it already happened. Better watch out for that explosive scene.”
Kim expresses her gratitude for the opportunity to work with Maricel, highlighting her as a brilliant actress who remains down-to-earth and generous with her talent, especially to younger stars like Kim.
“She’s a brilliant actress, and yet, she’s very down-to-earth. She’s generous in sharing her talent, especially with stars like us whose stay in the industry is not even half of hers. I’m simply hats-off to her!”
In addition to Maricel, Kim shares the screen with Paulo Avelino and JM De Guzman in the series. She offers insights into her experiences working with these two actors.
“JM is not really the talkative type. He’s into gaming, and hooked on Mobile Legends. But whenever I invite him to eat, he stops playing, and it’s then that we’re able to have a conversation. As for Paulo, I haven’t worked with him yet, so I didn’t have any idea at first. Then, I discovered that he also doesn’t talk that much. I was initially scared, but as it turned out, he’s very nice. He opens up when you talk to him,” Kim concludes.
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Meanwhile, Piolo Pascual reveals that he initially demanded a high talent fee for his role in the movie Mallari, which is produced by Mentorque Productions and is an official entry in the upcoming Metro Manila Film Festival.
“The price is unusually high, the ‘take it or leave it’ type, which other producers won’t bite,” he admits.
He explains the reason behind this high fee, pointing to the complexity of the character he portrays, which requires him to play multiple roles.
“The character I play is very difficult. It’s like buy one, take three. I even had to play another character in one scene. So, I did four. It was really mind-boggling for me. It was a bit of a stretch. But it was a good exercise at the end of the day because we were able to pull it off and, you know, pull through because of the collective effort.”
Piolo is grateful that the producer accepted his offer without haggling, as he wouldn’t have accepted a lower fee due to the challenging nature of the role.
“Yes, because if they haggled, I wouldn’t accept it. It’s a really complex role. I’m glad they accepted,” Piolo states.