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Only in Hollywood:
Kissing hunks and Pinay achievers in Toronto

First posted 01:06am (Mla time) Sept 25, 2005
By Ruben V. Nepales
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page A3-1 of the September 25, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


LOS ANGELES— We’re back in LA but we’re continuing our story on some of the sidelights at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On day 4, the highlight was the premiere of Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain.” For the curious, yes, actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal do kiss, and fight just as passionately, as cowboys in 1960s Wyoming.
But the good news is that Heath finally gives a performance that is outstanding from start to finish.
As for Jake, he always turns in riveting portrayals onscreen.
The exciting buzz is that Heath is even better in “Casanova” while Jake has another major movie coming up, “Jarhead.” We’re happy for these two actors.

Our sweet dilemma in Toronto was that two or three parties were held at the same time on any given night. So between bashes for David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence”—a darn good movie with Viggo Mortensen—and “Brokeback Mountain,” we went for the one whose venue was closer to our hotel. My editor, it turns out, ranks Viggo as her second fantasy date, so she would shake her head when she reads this: We partied with Heath and Jake instead.

Heath, his pregnant girlfriend actress Michelle Williams (they met on the set of “Brokeback”) and Jake mingled freely with the guests, which included his sister Maggie Gyllenhaal and her boyfriend, actor Peter Sarsgaard. These Gyllenhaal siblings are a class act —they are not only excellent actors; they’re very nice, too.

When I asked Jake about his experience kissing Heath, he promised to answer the question during our press group’s interview with him in a couple of days. As the party winded down, Heath and Michelle, looking very much like a couple in love, escaped through the kitchen.

Also at the party was Matthew Macfadyen, who will surely get noticed as the new Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice,” one of the fest’s gala presentations. Matthew introduced us to his beautiful wife, Keeley Hawes, also an actress.

Next we walked to the “Corpse Bride” party, held at a . . . jewelry store! It was a dangerous place for husbands and boyfriends who came with their wives and girlfriends—the ladies looked longingly at all the jewels inside the cases as everyone waited for the film’s star, Johnny Depp, to arrive.


HELLO, FAMOUS NEIGHBOR

We saw Katrina Wan, another Filipina making the scene in Toronto (we wrote about Ann Marie Baldonado, producer of an acclaimed radio show, in last Sunday’s column). We’ve known Katrina from LA but only in Toronto did we finally get a chance to chat. We learned that she had gone to the University of Santo Tomas from kinder to prep and that she had moved from Disney, where she was a publicist, to E! News as a segment producer.

Fans outside the store went wild when Johnny finally showed up. He was dressed formally, quite a contrast to the shirt and jeans he would wear to our press con a few days later.

Over lunch the next day, we discussed with director John Madden his latest film, the movie adaptation of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Proof.” Then came Madden’s cast, starting with Gwyneth Paltrow, who pulls off the difficult Catherine role, which she earlier tackled in a London stage production. Our press group presented the actress with a belated gift set for her baby, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, who was born last May. Gwyneth looked so radiant that a colleague had to compliment her. “I think motherhood has a lot to do with it—and make-up, too,” she laughed.

You have to be careful when interviewing Anthony Hopkins, who plays Catherine’s mentally ill father but was a math genius in his prime. The esteemed actor tends to be moody. When this afternoon’s press con began, he looked very serious, his eyes downcast and his voice low and soft. But eventually he lightened up, his disposition finally matching his bright orange shirt.

The presence of a smiling, laughing Filipina-looking lady in the back may have buoyed Anthony’s spirits. “I went through a period when I nearly damaged my health and my life. I drank too much,” he admitted. “I think my marriage has helped me a lot because Stella (Arroyave) has given me a lot of support in my life.” He added, “She’s here,” and he pointed to Stella, who turned out to be Colombian.


RICHARD GERE'S ASIDE

After our interview with Hope Davis, who plays the other daughter, it was time to go back to our hotel to change and party again. “You guys must be exhausted,” Richard Gere told me at the pre-screening cocktails for his movie, “Bee Season,” the adaptation of a hit novel about a girl (Flora Cross) who becomes a surprise spelling whiz. Flora obviously bonded very well with Richard, her screen dad. She sat on his lap and embraced him at the party.

We skipped the screening and opted to see the movie in LA instead so we could finally see my cousins, the Viados. It was great to eat home-cooked dinner, for a change, at the home of my cousin Sinagtala and her husband, Nonong Acedillo.


Monday saw us hurdling through more marathon interviews, led by our “Brokeback Mountain” press cons with director Ang Lee— who, as I wrote earlier, was fresh from the movie’s Venice film fest triumph—Jake, Michelle and Heath.

JUST BETWEEN US

Jake, as he had promised, told me about kissing Heath. Apparently, for these two straight actors, shaving helped and made filming those intimate scenes somewhat tolerable. Jake said, “The one word I will use to describe it is exfoliating.”

We hope Heath doesn’t read this but Jake smilingly added, “I’ve done scenes with women I was incredibly attracted to, and . . . women I wasn’t incredibly attracted to. [Kissing Heath] was sort of more along the lines of doing a scene with someone you’re not attracted to and making it work.”

Jake laughingly quipped, “The real joke is that Heath and I made love and a baby was made. And I don’t care what they say—I’m indirectly a godfather [to Heath and Michelle’s baby, due in several weeks].”

For his part, Heath said, “It was definitely tough. Obviously, it took a lot of courage. I felt slightly violated (laughter) but the story required it. Jake and I went into this film with a lot of respect for each other just for making this choice. We understood that we had a responsibility to tell this story and so in order to act out these intimate scenes, we had to suspend reality and harness the infinite power of belief, to really convince ourselves of the story, of the love.”

Heath continued, “Between action and cut, if for one second we snapped out and realized it was Heath kissing Jake, we would probably had to just turn and go home. We wouldn’t have been able to complete the scene. We really had to believe our environment.”

In the afternoon, we interviewed “Corpse Bride’s” Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. It was touching to hear Johnny describing that the trinkets he proudly wore were hand-made by his kids. The accessories definitely made him look different from your generic Hollywood leading man.

'MASAHISTA' BREAK

Before we headed off for the night’s parties, we met with the “Masahista” posse: direk Brillante “Dante” Mendoza, actors Alan Paule and Coco Martin, supervising producer Ihman Esturco and Ferdy Lapuz, who provided the idea for the film’s story and was actively marketing this Philippine entry.

Our evening began with the post-screening party for Charlize Theron’s “North Country.” It is always sad to see a star at her own party, surrounded by bodyguards and herded into a cordoned-off area, and thus unable to mingle with most of the guests. That’s what happened at this event to Charlize, who is usually approachable. Being inaccessible was most likely not her choice.

It was the men’s turn to gawk at the goods on display at Toronto’s Hugo Boss store, site of “Proof’s” premiere party. Gwyneth had that familiar bemused look when she arrived.

Tuesday was finally a free day, or at least there were no press cons in the morning or afternoon. So we wrote some and then took a cab to the home of my Tia Doting, cousins Dalisay and Diwata—as you can tell from these very Filipino names, I had a very patriotic uncle—for a very welcome Pinoy lunch.

Then it was time for parties again—tough assignment, yes. First stop: the Lions Gate cocktail party. There was a gap before the second bash so we walked back to the hotel to pack for our departure the next day. Our final party during our stay was fittingly grand—jointly hosted by InStyle magazine and our press group. With a magazine that reports on the latest trends as a co-host, the affair was the most elegantly decorated, of course, and drew stars led by Joaquin Phoenix, whose film, “Walk the Line,” and his performance drew raves at the fest.

ONE FOR THE ROAD

In the morning, while my wife Janet hied off to see Niagara Falls, I had to attend one more press con, this time for another stop-motion feature which is also in the festival’s gala presentation offerings: “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” At least I got to hold a plasticine model of Gromit, which was handed to me by no less than “Wallace’s” voice, creator and director, Nick Park. This three-time Oscar winner got the highest compliment from Time magazine. Richard Corliss declared “Wallace” as “one of the best films at the festival—and of the year.”

On the plane, I read on Screen magazine that Ferdy clinched yet another distribution deal for “Masahista,” this time for France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. I was happy for “Masahista.” Me? I was happy just to be able to finally get some sleep.