VIN Abrenica was introduced as one of Winwyn Marquez’ leading men in the zoom presscon of the thriller about mental illness, “Nelia”, but a few days later, he backed out. He said he’s afraid he might get infected by the virus and this is dangerous as he’s helping partner Sophie Albert in taking care of their newborn baby at home. Well, we cannot blame him as we’re living in precarious times.
Director Lester Dimaranan feels sad about it as shooting is now going on in their lock in location in Nueva Ecija. But they have to quickly get a replacement for him and they hired a total newcomer to replace him at the last minute, Carlo Galano, who has done several TV commercials.
It’s good no other member of the big cast backed out. Lloyd Samartino plays an important role in “Nelia” and he says he now feels perfectly comfortable playing character roles.
“In ‘Nelia’, I play a general who will manipulate the various characters in the story and it will be revealed na ako ang cause ng twists and turns in the movie,” he says. “In my last movie, ‘Isa Pang Bahaghari’, I played the best friend of Nora Aunor and Phillip Salvador who helped them.”
During his younger years in the 80s when he did movies with the likes of Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, he was limited to playing matinee idol type of role. “I now enjoy doing character roles kasi before, laging pretty boy lang ako. But now I can accept and do all sorts of roles na dati, hindi ko nagagawa. I can now even do contravida roles in soap that are far from what I used to do.”
He’s happy to be acting in “Nelia” with Winwyn Marquez, Raymond Bagatsing and newcomers Shido Roxas and Ali Forbes. Shido was also last seen in “Isa Pang Bahaghari” as the estranged husband of Sanya Lopez and he’s now glad to play a doctor in “Nelia”.
“In college, I really wanted to be a doctor, pero hindi natuloy so I’m happy now that I’m given the chance to play a doctor in ‘Nelia’,” he says. “Kahit on screen lang, matikman kong maging doctor. It’s nice to work with more seasoned actors like Lloyd Samartino and Raymond Bagatsing in ‘Nelia’ kasi I know I will learn a lot from working with them.”
He’s elated to be part of a film like “Nelia” that aims to show something new to moviegoers. “In the story, a crime takes place and I become one of the suspects. The film is not just escapism as it will make viewers think, so it’s interesting kasi kulang na kulang tayo sa ganitong type of films.”
“Nelia” is now shooting, despite the pandemic, in a new hospital in Gapan which is not yet in operation.
