Christian returns in a screaming faggot role
CHRISTIAN Bables has won various awards for “Die Beautiful” and “Signal Rock”. Don’t look now but he has another great project up his sleeve, “Big Night”, where he is reunited with Jun Lana, his writer-director in “Die Beautiful”. They had a falling out when Christian backed out from “Born Beautiful”, the sequel to “Die Beautiful”, as he didn’t want to do another swishy gay role.
He was hoping to cultivate a career as a romantic leading man, but it didn’t happen, so he reconciled with Jun and agreed to do another screaming faggot role in the big comedy hit, “The Panti Sisters”. Now, they have finished lensing “Big Night”, where Christian plays another gay role.
“But ibang gay role ang character ko rito,” he says. “Not swishy but effeminate lang. Pero ang name ko is Dharna. Gay beautician ako rito and I was horrified when I found out na ang pangalan ko, nasa isang watchlist ng mga drug traffickers na puedeng ipatokhang anytime.”
His friends tell him not to worry since it’s not at all true that he’s a drug trafficker, but he cannot help it to be terribly afraid for his life, so he asks the help of the people in their community to find out why his name was included in the notorious list and how can he clear his name.
“The movie asks the question: how far would you go to clear your name?” adds Christian. “Yung character ko rito, kahit marami ng ibang natokhang sa lugar nila, tahimik lang siya, ayaw makialam kahit talamak ang social injustice sa paligid niya. That is, hanggang sa siya na mismo ang ma-involve.”
The film’s trailer has been uploaded on the internet and we’ve seen it. It’s quite impressive and it’s really something we’d watch out for. Christian is supported by a star-studded cast of first rate actors who are all award-winners themselves, including Gina Alajar, Ricky Davao, Eugene Domingo, Janice de Belen, John Arcilla, Martin del Rosario and Gina Pareno. Also in the cast are Soliman Cruz, Allan Paule, Nico Antonio, Awra Briguela, Cedric Juan, Ogie Diaz and Sue Prado.
Jun Lana’s films with strong socially relevant messages have given international acting awards to its actors, like Eugene Domingo in “Mga Kuwentong Barbero” and LJ Reyes in “Anino sa Likod ng Buwan”, both about martial rule, and Elijah Canlas in “Kalel, 15”, which is about the prevalence of HIV among young people. Just like these films, they’re hoping to enter “Big Night” in international film festivals first, before releasing it locally, hopefully in movie theaters and not just online.