Are we ready for a serious Vic Sotto?

Actor Vic Sotto has been getting so much adulation from fellow lead stars in the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry The Kingdom, which Sotto himself has been describing as "hindi medyo drama kundi dramang-drama (not semi-drama but full-on drama).”

Sotto’s co-lead actors Piolo Pascual, Sid Lucero, Christine Reyes and Sue Ramirez have all declared they got “kilig” over him at their first individual meetings and first scenes with him. They made the revelation at the recent media conference for the film held in Quezon City.

It was a grandiose event in which Sotto and Pascual made individual entrances with a poetic declaration in traditional Tagalog of their stance about governance of a monarchy. 

One part of the media conference hall (Novotel’s Verseille’s Tent on the seventh floor) was converted as a display area for the gowns, crowns and tiaras, accessories and paraphernalia of the characters in the film’s narrative. Another wall had painted bust portraits of the lead characters of the film. 

The Kingdom reimagines the Philippines as a land untouched by colonization, where a powerful monarchy still rules. It is contemporary, not a period film. Take note, the story is fiction. Its director, a now quite portly Mike Tuviera, describes The Kingdom as “a non-political political film.” (When Tuviera started directing films in 2010, he looked good enough to be an actor himself.)

In that media event, co-lead actors Pascual, Lucero, Reyes and Ramirez also admitted being overwhelmed by the seriousness of the film and by the dignity of Sotto in playing the role of a king in a monarchial country. 

Hearing what the film is all about and its seriousness, some showbiz wags could not help but blurt out: “How would Vic feel if the film does not become a box office hit like practically all his comedy entries in previous MMFFs gloriously did?”

Are Pinoy moviegoers ready and raring for a non-comical movie starring the comedian Vic Sotto?

It has also been announced that the characters Sotto and Pascual play in the film would meet only three to four times, possibly including a hand-to-hand combat. If people were to watch a Sotto-Pascual movie, would they not prefer one in which the two headliner actors have so many unforgettable and extraordinary scenes together. 

And do you know that children can’t watch The Kingdom because of the violent fight scenes in it? Majority of those bloody scenes though don’t involve Sotto and Pascual trying to cut each other’s neck. 

Sotto is a co-producer of The Kingdom through his M-ZET TV Productions, the other two being MQuest Ventures (which owns TV5) and APT Entertainment (owned by the Tuviera family). 

The intense family drama is set against the backdrop of the Kingdom of Kalayaan, a realm filled with tradition, secrets and a fierce struggle for the throne since Lakan Makisig (Sotto) is about to retire. It is not Sotto’s concept but filmmaker Tuviera’s. It was also the latter who persuaded MediaQuest to be among the producers of The Kingdom. 

Confided Sotto at the media huddle, “When direk Mike first talked to me about the concept, about the film, hmmmm, sabi niya sa akin, ganito-ganyan (he told me, this and that).

“Medyo na-shock ako. Medyo nagdalawang-isip ako (I was a bit shocked. I sort of had some second thoughts). Kasi (Because) it’s a serious film. Sabi nga ni direk (As Direk said),” it’s a non-political political film.

“Parang I was asking myself, ‘Bagay ba sa akin (Does it suit my persona)?’ And another question was, ‘Kaya ko ba ito (Am I capable of doing it)?’

“And then, hmmmm, until finally, medyo parang okay na sa akin (when the idea began to seem okay to me), I asked him, ‘Sino ang makakasama? Sino’ng (Who will I be with? Who will be in the) cast?’

“Sabi ni direk, ‘We’re negotiating with Piolo Pascual.’ ‘Okay, go na tayo (let’s go)!’ sabi ko (I said).”

And yet the two lead actors did not bother to talk to each other off-camera until about the filming was to end. Sotto’s reasoning for their decision not to bond was: their characters were not friends at all but foes. 

It would turn out that all the lead actors did no bonding with each other off-camera. Each had a tent to linger in so each can focus on their respective character. 

Lucero, Reyes and Ramirez play the children of the retiring king and each one desires to be the kingdom’s next leader. The siblings can’t be warm friends to each other — until one of them is abducted by a group of rebels. They plot together on how to save the sibling though another dissident would succeed ahead of them: Sulo, the outcast portrayed by Pascual. 

Later, though, Sulo will get closer to a sister of the abducted, the one portrayed by Reyes. A romance will develop between them even as Sulo has practically convinced the princess about the woeful governance of Lakan Makisig of the kingdom. 

Other turns of events will lead to a friendship between the outcast and the king. 

Sotto quipped cryptically about the friendship: “Sumobra ang bonding namin. Rurok na yung naging bonding naming (Our bonding went over the top. It was to the hilt)!” 

At one point in the media-con, Sotto recalled that he once had dinner with his grown-up children (with different mothers) who practically ganged up on him to do a serious film. He said he simply answered them: “Let me think about it.” 

The dinner may not be quite long ago since Sotto said his young daughter, Thally, now six years old, was in it. She is his daughter with Pauleen Luna, his partner for more than five years now. 

“Ito na (The Kingdom) ‘yung parang pangako ko sa kanila (This film is my promise to them),” intoned Sotto.

Pascual’s recollection about their filming: “Ahhh, it was a fun film to shoot, but it was really hard because of the lines, because of the costumes, because of the set, because of the pressure.

“So I think we were all doing some sort of a method just for us to get into our character and make sure na hindi kami magbe-break ng character (that we would not break character).

“So we never had a chance to talk with each other. We never had the chance to bond. And it worked well for the film.

“Kasi kinailangan namin iyon para in the end, pag nagkita na kami, makikita namin iyon, ano talaga yung kailangan namin sa isa’t isa (We needed to do that so that in the end, when we encounter each other, we would see what we really need from each other).”

Reyes and Ramirez couldn’t help but gush over their co-actors Sotto and Pascual.

“For me, the presence of Piolo and Bossing Vic, iba (it’s different),” Reyes told the media. “When we are on the set, people are at their best because we don’t want to cause delay. So ‘pag andiyan sila talagang ready kami dapat lahat (so when he is there, we all have to be ready).”

It’s Reyes’ third time to work with Sotto in an acting project and she admitted she still gets starstruck every time he works with him. 

On the other hand, it’s Ramirez’s second time collaborating with Vic and first with Piolo. 

Related Ramirez: “I’m really focused. ‘Di mo ko makakausap (You can’t talk to me) especially when the scenes are heavy.

“We don’t wanna mess up because these are really brilliant actors that you are going to be working with, having scenes with.”

She admitted feeling shy while having scenes with Pascual. “It’s intimidating because, of course, it’s Piolo Pascual. But they make it to a point to make you feel comfortable. You would realize like, ‘Oh, Piolo is also human.’

“Parang nakakagulat pero ang saya na nagkaroon kami ng bonding dito sa set with Bossing (It seems so surprising but I’m so glad we had a chance to bond here on set with Bossing). Also, it’s such pleasure. Bata pa ‘ko, growing up, pinapanood ko na si Bossing so sobrang starstruck talaga ako sa kanya (I would watch him when I was still young, so I am really starstruck).”

Meanwhile, Tuviera has been directing films off-and-on since 2010, beginning with Regal Entertainment’s MMFF entries, including Shake, Rattle & Roll. 

He won best director at the 2014 Cinemalaya for the action thriller The Janitor, top-billed by Dennis Trillo. The film also won Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound and Best Editing. 

He directed the last two to three MMFF entries of Sotto, including the ones that team up Sotto with Coco Martin. 

Tuviera is reportedly the first Filipino to have been accepted into the University of Southern California School of Cinemamatic Arts. He is a son of Antonio P. Tuviera, founder-owner of APT Entertainment Productions. 

Here’s hoping Pinoy moviegoers are ready for the very serious actor Vic Sotto.