After doing The Flower of Evil more than two years ago, Piolo Pascual got himself into a self-imposed hiatus from teleserye.

Until he was pitched a role he felt he could sink his teeth into. As Rafael Sagrado in Pamilya Sagrado, the biggest teleserye of Dreamscape Television, Pascual felt the right project fell perfectly on his lap. His corrupt character appealed to him the most.

Redemption

If there’s one thing the

award-winning actor is always on the lookout for when portraying a character, it is redemption.

“There has to be redemption for the character. They can’t be bad all the way. That’s why I am excited for the journey of my character because he starts out bad but through the journey of the story he’s gonna turn into good,” he said after the screening of his new series.

“So it has to have redemption. If there’s no hope, then let’s not do it. That’s my mantra in life. If I’m not gonna learn anything from your film, from your story, which would make me a good person, a better person to say the least, I won’t do it. I won’t even watch it. I won’t recommend it,” he explained.

“That’s why all my films, mamatay man ako in the end, there’s redemption for the story or character but it has to end on a good note (even if the character dies),” he intoned.

Pascual loves Rafael Sagrado as a character as it gives him the texture which is one-of-a-kind.

“Sabi ko napakasarap paglaruan kasi napakasama niya. Tapos alam mong maraming paghuhugutan doon sa conflict na pagdadaanan ng character niya. Napaka-complex ng story. Hindi ka nakakahon,” he said. (I said it’s very tasty to play with because he is such a bad guy. Then you know there are so many things you can extract it from in the conflict that his character is going through. It’s a very complex story. It’s out of the box.)

With that, the actor has learned “to go with the flow.

“As the scripts come, ikaw mismo maa-amaze sa pag-expose ng mga conflict. And it’s just nice to be in that ride. Be a collaborator, be a team player. Kung gagawa ako ng teleserye ito na ‘yun. (If I will make a soap opera, this is it),” he said.

Playing a dark character is something that excites Pascual.

“Pero kailangan may redemption, hindi ka stuck doon,” he reiterated.

He recalled politely turning down an offer in the past because his would-be character does not have redemption.

“There was concept that was pitched to me before and I said, parang walang redemption ‘yung character.’ Ayoko naman ng gano’n. (The character seems it has no redemption. I don’t like that). When you want to show something to your viewers, you want something that can bring with them and learn from it para may learnings, may hope, may redemption doon sa istorya,” he said.

Pamilya Sagrado will start airing on 17 June.