In Becky and Badette, director Jun Lana is facing the social media machine and what those who use it can be willing to do to gain fame. The comedy tackles this subject through Becky and Badette, played by Eugene Domingo and Pokwang. Best friends since their school days, they are in dead-end jobs, completely broke, and they spend their days watching and quoting movies by Filipino film icon Vilma Santos. It’s not a bad life, but it’s not the one they dreamed for each other.
Their frustration over their circumstances leads them to drunkenly declare they’re in a relationship after being humiliated at their high school reunion, and they wake up the next morning to discover they’ve gone viral which means their dreams are about to come true. Rather than tell the truth, Becky and Badette decide to double down on their lie so that they can have successful singing (Becky) and acting (Badette) careers – but their secrets can’t remain hidden forever.
Lana (director) and Domingo presented the film at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, and the pair sat down with View of the Arts to share more about the film and its themes of fame and lies, and the hardships faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
View of the Arts: What inspired you to make this story?
JL: It’s a story that every Filipino is familiar with, and every person also outside the Philippines is familiar with. Sometimes fame can trap you, put you in a box when people try to put a label on you, and sometimes you’re forced to lie just to be accepted, to be adored to be successful. I wanted to address those two issues, but in a funny way because it is funny but at the same time it can also be devastating to people who are trapped in a situation like that. I was just blessed that I had the support of actors like Eugene.
ED: In the Philippines, this is the truth. We’re almost all very talented, we like to sing, we like to dance, and most of the time it’s an easy way to earn money. We have a lot of talent competitions and singing contests, but not everybody’s given a chance to win or to be famous. So it’s like part of our culture, that the easy way to be rich and to have fame is to try to join show business. So with Becky and Badette that was their key, that was their chance to get out of their miserable lives.
View of the Arts: The film was ridiculous but in a wonderful way, how would you describe your experience filming it?
ED: It’s pretty unpredictable, right? Making the film was super fun. It’s not like we wanted to finish, everyday you’re working but at the same time you’re enjoying it so it doesn’t feel like work. As for me, for my character, I really enjoyed it because I was able to sing and dance. So I was given the chance to sing, and I really love the musical moments.
View of the Arts: I loved the way your film pays homage to Vilma Santos and her movies, how did it feel to create this tribute for her?
ED: Vilma Santos is a living legend in our industry and she’s very nice. She watched our film, and we had a special screening for her. When she attended, when she was there, we were crying, you know? Imagine your most respected, legendary actor watching you giving her a tribute, it was an unforgettable moment.
View of the Arts: What was your favourite Vilma Santos scene to recreate?
ED: Oh my God, there’s almost too many, they’re too good, But the most important, I think, is when Becky is trying to confess her feelings towards Badette [based on T-Bird at Ako]. I’ll tell you another bit of trivia, we have two legendary actors: Vilma Santos and Nora Aunor. That scene that we recreated when Becky is confessing her love we’re trying to copy the scene featuring our two most legendary actors, so that for me was important.
JL: I would say the same because that film is one of my favourites. It’s also one of the films that convinced me to become a storyteller and, as a closeted boy growing up, it was one of the films in mainstream cinema that I could access and watch that told the story of queer characters. So when I wanted to tell the story of Becky and Badette that is really one of the things that I really wanted to pay homage to. It’s one of the scenes that I really wanted to recreate and, at the same time, the lines that are being spoken in that film are actually the emotions that are being felt by Becky. So, to be able to mirror that and use that to tell my story, I mean what a delicious experience watching it. The title of that movie in Tagalog is T-Bird at Ako so in English, it could be The Lesbian Within Me, so I was really, really thrilled when we were doing that scene. Paying homage to the films that we’ve seen when we were younger means a lot.
ED: Last year we were all trying our best to make very successful movies. So one of the reasons that Jun thought of giving tribute to all the movies from the Golden Age of Filipino cinema is because that’s what we’re waiting for, to create another Golden Age for Filipino cinema.
View of the Arts: It must have felt like a full circle moment then to pay tribute to her after growing up with her films?
JL: Yes, it’s not just a full circle moment it was also cathartic. You grow up watching all those movies that inspired you to become a filmmaker, and now you’re able to tell the story using those stories that have been told before. So it’s like making it familiar and fresh again. It was tough, it was a lot of hard work, but at the same time I think at the end of the day it’s all worth it.
View of the Arts: Eugene, what was it like to work opposite Pokwang in Becky and Badette?
ED: Pokwang is the most unprofessional actor! [laughs] I mean, she’s really funny and the nice thing about us is we’re both comedians but we have a different style so we complement each other. She really makes me laugh, she’s crazy, and we make each other laugh. But when it’s time for us to be serious we are serious, serious in a way that we know we have to be respectful of the script and everything, but at the same time we’re not restricted. so I liked working with her because she’s very easy to work with.
View of the Arts: You’re looking at some difficult subjects in the film like lying for fame, but you’re doing it in a funny way. Why was it important to look at societal issues through comedy?
JL: When you’re watching all these TikTok videos, when you’re witnessing it from a different perspective, it feels like a circus. It’s funny, it’s weird, it’s maddening, it’s ridiculous, and yet, for some reason, people take it seriously. I wanted to be able to capture all those feelings – the ridiculousness of it. But at the same time there needs to be an emotional core to it. When people are cancelled because they’ve done something wrong [we have to remember] we are the ones that push those people to the edge and push them to pretend to play a part. So I wanted to capture all of that, and I thought that comedy, or comedy-drama, would be the best way to do it.
Written and interviewed by Roxy Simons
Featured image © View of the Arts
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