POE. The King of Philippine Movies was also a thinking, feeling filmmaker.

IN THE COURSE OF OUR WRITing and radio-TV program hosting careers, we’ve had the pleasure—and pressure—of interviewing literally hundreds of stellar personalities, both here and abroad.

At a recent media forum, we were asked to recall some of our most memorable interactions with the best and brightest, and there were a few that came vividly to mind:

Very definitely, our all-day “immersion” session with movie king, Fernando Poe Jr., in the ’70s. We were doing a series of articles on what constituted greatness in Filipino movies, and we asked FPJ (Ronnie to us) for his take on the subject.

Standards

Being the son and heir of movie royalty (his dad, Fernando Poe Sr., was a popular star in the ’30s and ’40s), Ronnie had grown to love the biz, so his standards for excellence were high, despite snooty folks’ view that, being really popular with the masa, he was bakya.

Oh, how wrong they were. Aside from being a big star, Ronnie also turned out to be a gifted scriptwriter, producer and director. Under his directorial identity, D’Lanor, Ronnie megged some standout movies in the ’60s and ’70s.

We’re mighty pleased to recall that we were the first reviewer to cite Ronnie Poe as an exceptional director. The first movie he directed that impressed us was an action-drama about three boys who grew up into men who fought for different causes, but were still bonded as friends for life.

Since we had written reviews that pointed out this then little-known side to FPJ’s contributions to local cinema, he was appreciative and he readily agreed to our interview. Little did we know what we were in for that day:

After we met at the appointed place, Ronnie took us to another venue, and we proceeded to ask him for his views on the topic at hand. But, Ronnie didn’t want to be limited to it: He talked about everything he knew about movies—which turned out to be amazingly rich and deep.

We thought to ourself that, indeed, the snooty types were so wrong to look down on the king of action-drama, because he had a lot more going for him than they gave him credit for.

Perhaps delighted by the opportunity to hold forth on anything and everything he loved and valued, Ronnie talked—for hours and hours. He also drank a lot of beer—and he insisted that we join him, bottle for bottle!

We managed to do so without falling dead drunk, and filled page after page with hastily scribbled notes that added up to an unexpected portrait of FPJ, not only as an ideal idol of millions, but also as a thinking, feeling filmmaker.

After around three hours, we were all written out—but, Ronnie wasn’t about to wrap up the interview just yet. We transferred to another venue, where he ordered more rounds of beer and started talking about more personal stuff.

This shift in the interview surprised us, because FPJ was known for his absolute reticence in sharing anything involving his personal life with the press. But, what do you know, here he was, admitting to this and that “hot scoop” topic, often without provocation.

More hours passed, and Ronnie kept talking—and talking. We learned that he was such a nationalist and a big fan of ace filmmaker, Gerry de Leon, that he has asked the revered director to make a historical film about the wellsprings of Filipino heroism and love of country, with Gloria Romero playing Inang Bayan.

Alas, the film was never finished, but on another occasion, Ronnie showed us some of its rushes at the FPJ studios’ projection room, and we were swept away by the production’s potential greatness.

Finally, after more than seven hours, Ronnie wound up our long interview, and we went home. Excitedly, after getting over our tipsiness, we wrote a long article about everything that had been said, and went to sleep, utterly exhausted, but feeling really good about what we had accomplished that day.

Then, the next morning, before we could even get to the office to submit our FPJ article, he called us up. Remember all those personal “scoops” he had given us? He asked us not to run some of them, because there were other people involved, and he didn’t want to hurt their feelings. We agreed, but there were still more than enough left in the article to make it “hot” reading fare in the biz that week.

‘Secret’ Lolita Rodriguez interview

Another memorable interview, this time of top dramatic actress, Lolita Rodriguez, was very different indeed from our encounter with FPJ. For one thing, it was never supposed to have taken place! —Huh?

This is what happened: Lolita was filming an important project, “Lucia,” funded by the BBC, no less, with Mel Chionglo replacing Lino Brocka after his most untimely death.

Since the film was a truly significant production, we contacted Lolita and asked for an interview with her at the movie’s location, a huge dump. After a day or two, Lolita called back to express regrets, because she had been turning down interviews from other writers, and she didn’t want to hurt their feelings by making an exception in our case. We said we understood, and left it at that.

Later, however, as the movie’s shooting schedule was about to wrap up, Lolita contacted us again. Remember that interview we wanted? Maybe, just maybe, she could swing it—as long as people didn’t know that we were interviewing her at the location!

—Uh, great, but how could we pull that off? Well, we had to make it look like we were just visiting a friend (which she was) and we were merely shooting the breeze about this and that, no tape recorder, no notepad—nothing.

Nonplussed by this most unusual requirement, we felt like begging off. On second thought, however, the project was so significant that a good interview with its principal actress, no matter how “impossible” the conditions were, was worth the extra effort.
So, that’s what transpired: We went to the production’s Smokey Mountain location, made our way through piles of garbage to the hut where Lolita was staying, greeted her in a casual and offhand manner—and talked and talked with her for almost two hours, with nothing to record the important interview with—!

Instead, we had to rely only on our memory focusing intently on what Lolita was saying, and doing our best to take it all in—while seeming to just shooting the breeze with her.

Then, after we had asked all our questions and Lolita had responded to them in her perceptive and detailed way, we “casually” said goodbye and left the location—with our head full of so much information that we had a splitting headache!

In any case, after we went home, we jotted down everything Lolita had said with as many details and quotes as we could recall and wrote our “exclusive” article on the important movie.

By the time the article came out, Lolita had flown back to the United States so other writers couldn’t accuse her of giving us preferential treatment—and we were both home free!