For Ina Raymundo and Dimples Romana, their ‘Block Z’ roles were quite the challenge

MANILA, Philippines – Ina Raymundo has played a variety of roles throughout her career. But it’s her role in Block Z, where she plays a zombie, that’s been the most challenging yet.

During the movie’s press conference on January 11, Ina said of her role: “Mahirap talaga maging zombie unang-una yung makeup niya lang. It takes 4 1/2 hours para malagay iyon. Actually more pa yata. At tsaka yung speed and yung pag-twitch ng neck and pag-growl, everything, ang hirap niya.”

(It’s really not easy to play a zombie because the makeup alone takes 4 1/2 hours to put on – maybe even more. And the speed, twitching of the neck, the growl, everything is hard to do.)

Ina said she took inspiration from various zombie TV shows and movies for the role. “Parang biglang sinaniban na lang ako.” (It was like I was possessed.)

Dimples Romana, who plays security guard Bebeth, said it was the running that got her.

“Kasi hindi naman ako very athletic, hindi ako mahilig magworkout, so you can imagine parang pagtumatakbo, madalas ako yung nahuhuli. But the struggle is kasi ako yung security guard. (I am not athletic and I don’t really work out. So you can imagine when I run, I always fall behind. It’s a struggle because I was the security guard.)

“Hindi lang iyon, ako yung may dala nung mga mabibigat na armas… yung shotgun. So you can imagine na parang may dala-dala akong bata pero that was the fun part of it. Because everytime we were running ano iyon, parang adrenaline rush.” (And I was bringing a firearm, the shotgun. So it was like I was carrying a child – but that was the fun part of it. Everytime we were running, it was an adrenaline rush.)

She also recalled using the shotgun and falling to the floor from the recoil.

Despite the incident, Dimples said it was fun. “Ang ganda kasi nakaka-empower ng pagiging babae nung paghawak ng baril tapos you’re saving people.” (I enjoyed it because it was empowering as a woman to be weilding the weapon and saving people.)

There was another component of her character that truly terrified her: Bebeth’s pet cat. Dimples happens to be afraid of cats.

“Kung hindi ko lang talaga mahal si direk Mik [Red]. Takot kasi ako sa pusa. Pero kailangan sa shot, eh gusto ko makasama sa Block Z. Eh di gagawin natin ang lahat.” (If I didn’t like Direk Mik so much, I wouldn’t do this. I’m afraid of cats. But they shot required it and I really wanted to be part of Block Z. So I did everything I could.)

Block Z stars Joshua Garcia, Julia Barretto, Maris Racal, McCoy de Leon, Yves Flores, and Ian Veneracion. It opens on January 29. – Alexa Villano/Rappler.com