Coleen Garcia returns to acting in 'Adarna Gang'

MANILA, February 20 ------ Making an acting comeback was not a tough decision for first-time mom, Coleen Garcia, who gave birth to her first baby, Amari, with husband Billy Crawford last year. Garcia’s baby is turning 18 months old in March. While she is still breastfeeding, she managed to accept a film project, the action-drama, “Adarna Gang,” written and directed by the multi-awarded and internationally acclaimed visionary Jon Red. “Before this, I was telling myself, ikakasal na ako at magkaka-baby na ako, siguro kailangang piliin ang mga roles,” Garcia said. “Sobrang tagal ko ng hindi gumawa ng pelikula, not just because of having the baby, but also because of the pandemic.”

Admittedly, Garcia missed acting. “Sa tagal kong nawala, sobrang na-miss ko at excited ako to be back and be part of really good stories,” Garcia said. “What I said before na hindi ko gagawin, I gave myself restrictions.” This time, however, Garcia is more willing to experiment on roles that will land on her lap. “I am more willing to give what is needed for me to every story that I will be taking on,” Garcia said. “Yes, I will still carefully choose the roles because I don’t want to be a part of something that I will not be all in. Dapat kung pipili ng project, todo bigay talaga. I have to pick the projects I believe in, para mabigay ko lahat.”

In doing “Adarna Gang,” Garcia was intimidated by her co-stars. Mark Anthony Fernandez plays the ambitious Pedro, Diego Loyzaga is the trigger-happy playboy Diego, and JC Santos is the easy-going Juan. “Ang tagal ko kasing nagpahinga,” Garcia said. “Ang puro alam ko lang magluto, mag-change ng diapers. Nakalimutan ko kung paano ang gagawin ko in front of the camera. “If the role was emotional, nakalimutan ko how to be emotional. Nakalimutan ko kung paano maging malungkot o kung paano magalit. Those were all things that refreshed me again at kailangan kong hukayin sa sarili ko. I think that was very challenging for me. Wala akong naging warm-up. I really had to go back into acting to just prepare from home. Then, when I arrived on the set to just give everything I had.”

More intimidating for Garcia was that she was surrounded by different actors who were actively making films. “All of them had recent projects,” she explained. “Na-intimidate ako talaga at the start. But at the end of the day, they were all approachable and very nice. “We were just all laughing and enjoying while we were shooting. That was a huge help for me. Si Direk [Jon], talagang he really guided all of us. Talagang hindi ako confident at first. But direk always listened to me. I told him what my plans were for certain scenes. That was very reassuring.”

The script of “Adarna Gang” was shown to Garcia back in 2019, before the pandemic. “If I could have done my acting comeback, I would have done it sooner,” she said. “I said yes to this project before the pandemic. One thing led to another. There was a time it was really very hard to shoot. But if the pandemic didn’t happen, we would have done this a lot sooner. It’s not that I wanted to wait for a comeback. Talagang now is the time to start filming. We went into this location na zero talaga ang [COVID] cases. Then, pwede ng lumabas ang mga bata. Kasama ko si Amari. He stayed with us sa hotel room. We felt safe. Up to now kasi, I’m still breastfeeding him.”

Garcia happily attested the “Adarna Gang” team worked so efficiently to wrap up the shoot. “We never packed up na sobrang late. So, I was able to come back to Amari on demand. Every time he needed me, I was really there for him. “Direk Jon organized everything so efficiently. Kung ganito naman talaga ang working conditions, I don’t mind working all the time.”

Garcia insisted Amari is always a “priority” for her. “The reason hindi gano’ng kabilis ang paggawa ko ng films ngayon, it’s really because of him. Talagang inuuna ko siya. “I cook for him every day. It’s very different. The sleep, every time, I don’t have more than two hours straight. Billy goes to work also, so I’m more often with Amari. Maka-mommy talaga siya, very clingy. Everything I plan, it’s all for him and he’s taken into consideration every single time. If I can say it in the shortest, possible way, having a baby is definitely life-changing for me.”

No doubt, Garcia was really excited to do “Adarna Gang,” since it was different from all the other films she wrapped up in the past. She plays the gorgeous Adriana, who will avenge the death of her father, Fernando, in “Adarna Gang.” She previously starred in Gino Santos’ “Ex With Benefits” (2015), “Love Me Tomorrow” (2016), “Sin Island” (2018), Dan Fernandez’s “Exes Baggage” (2018) and Veronica Velasco’s “Mia” (2020). “At the same time, my character in ‘Adarna Gang,’ there were lots of emotions at play,” Garcia disclosed. “There’s greed, there’s vengeance. These were emotions na opposite ‘yung nararamdaman ko in life. The challenge was to completely forget where I am at right now in my life and to be able to bring out the heavy emotions. Maybe that was where I was really challenged. I really love the role.”

Source: news.abs-cbn.com