MANILA, Philippines – Viewers would be familiar with Barbie Forteza and Ken Chan for their team up in the GMA drama, Meant To Be. Barbie played Billie, who is caught in the middle of 4 guys vying for her attention, including Ken’s character Yuan, but in their first movie This Time I’ll be Sweeter, it will be very different. 

During the press conference for the movie on Monday, October 16, the two were asked how their roles were different compared to Meant To Be.

“Dito, siksik lahat, lahat ng pwedeng mangyari sa teleserye na 3 buwan mangyayari sa pelikula ng dalawang oras, max. Kaya kaming lahat dito, lagi kaming kargado, kasi hindi kami pwede maubusan sa set. Hindi kami pwedeng ma-blanko, so in all fairness naman sa amin prepared din kami sa ganito.

(Here, everything that could happen in a teleserye running for 3 months has to be fit in a film of two hours, max. That’s why we’re all always on our toes, because we cannot run out of things on the set. We cannot afford to be blank out on our lines, so in fairness to all of us, we were prepared for it.)

“And s’yempre, yung unang beses na sinabi po sa akin ay rom-com talaga ito. Tapos nung binigay po yung script sa akin, wala po akong nakitang rom-com, napaka-heavy po,” Barbie said. 

(Of course in the beginning, they told me that this was a rom-com. But when I got the script, I didn’t see any rom-com at all. It was all pretty heavy.)

The actress said that she had to read the script 3 times just to be sure of the movie’s theme. 

Ken meanwhile said: “Yung pinakamalaking adjustment na ginawa namin ni Barbie dahil dito nangaling kami sa romantic-comedy na Meant To Be, so napaka-light lang. Bawat eksena lightand parang ang gaan-gaan nung mga eksena na ginagawa namin. Tapos kasi after ng Meant to Be ang next project kasi namin is itong pelikula This Time I’ll Be Sweeter na romantic love story. So yung adjustment namin na light tapos dito mas mabigat na…ang daming mabibigat na eksena na ginawa namin…and nag-adjust kami ng kaunti sa age namin and the way na i-execute yung acting namin and tinulungan kami ni direk Joel [Lamangan] doon.

(The biggest adjustment that Barbie and I had to do here is because we came from Meant to Be, which was a romantic-comedy that was very light. So every scene was and very easy to do. And after Meant To Be, our next project was this movie – This Time I’ll Be Sweeter, which is a romantic love story. So the adjustment was really the light to heavy…we have so many heavy scenes here…and we also had to adjust our ages and the way we had to deliver our lines. Diretor Joel helped us with that.)

“Kasi sa Meant to Be, tweens dating natin doon, so tinulungan kami ni direk Joel kung paano i-execute yung character namin na nag-umpisa sa youngand tumalon sa pagiging mature.”

(Because in Meant To Be, it was more on tweens, so direk Joel really helped us flesh out our characters, starting from the time they were young up to being mature adults.)

In the movie, Barbie plays Erika, who has a crush on her classmate, Tristan, played by Ken. The two become closer, but Erika is left heartbroken after they part. Years later, as a reporter, Erika covers an accident which coincidentally involves Tristan’s family. The pair reconnect and Erika helps Tristan recover. But is Erika willing to get hurt again? Will love be sweeter for them the second time?

As the movie tackles those hoping to be loved and those who unexpectedly makes someone fall in love without meaning to, Ken and Barbie were asked if they ever were in that time of situation.

For Barbie, she has experienced both the feeling of hopia (hoping to be loved) and inadvertently making someone fall for her (pa-fall).

“Ako, na experience ko yung maging hopia and pa-fall. Pero ano naman, parehong may lesson naman sa akin pareho yung pagiging pa-fall. Grabe, sobrang nakaka-guiltly in all fairness naman. Hindi kasi nakikita ko pa rin palagi so parang ang kahit pilitin ko na okay kami, okay kami, alam ko may kasalanan ako sa kanya so may ganung feeling, eh,” she said.

(For me, I’ve experienced being both a hopia and pa-fall. But I did learn lessons from both experiences. It made me guilty, in all fairness. Because I still see the guy a lot, it’s like even if I say we’re okay, I know I still made mistakes, so there’s that feeling.) 

“‘Yung pagiging hopia naman, I think forever naman kay Dennis Trillo iyon, noh,” she joked, adding she’s happy with having a crush on the actor. (With regards to being hopia, I think I will forever have a crush on Dennis Trillo.)

As for Ken, he also said that he experienced in hoping to be loved and unexpectedly making someone fall for him by accident. Although given a choice, he would rather hope to love.

“Masakit yung umaasa s’yempre dahil kapag nagpa-fall ka, ikaw yung makakasakit. So doon na lang ako sa umaasa para ako na lang yung nasasaktan di ba?” he said.

(Of course it hurts to hope that you’ll be loved in return because if you’re the one who made that person fall in love with you, you’ll be hurting the person. I rather be the one who’s hoping to be loved so I’ll be the one who will just get hurt.)

Directed by Joel Lamangan, This Time I’ll Be Sweeter also stars Thea Tolentino, Kim Rodriguez, Akihiro Blanco, Hiro Peralta, Jai Agpangan, Fiona Yan, Kaki Ramirez, Neil Ryan Sese, Yayo Aguila, and Ara Mina. – Rappler.com