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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Making it Interesting

Making it Interesting
Article posted August 4, 2008

With so many shows associated with Richard Gutierrez—how does one go about changing people’s expectations and impression of Richard? The young actor himself tells all about the who’s and what’s of his latest primetime series, ‘Codename: Asero’. Text by Jason John S. Lim. Photos by Mitch S. Mauricio.

After the successful run of Carlo J. Caparas’ Kamandag, Richard Gutierrez teams up once more with the same team for Codename: Asero, the latest offering from GMA that’s proving to be a great lead-in program for Mars Ravelo’s Dyesebel. And Richard attributes this to having an outstanding creative team.

“We made sure that people would see a different side of us—the whole team, and [a] different look.” The actor explains that they wanted to shift away from the previous shows he has made, especially Lupin which also dealt with espionage.

“We had a hard time,” he admits. “But we love the challenge—kami ni Direk Mark? ‘Yun ‘yung fuel namin sa trabaho. How we’re gonna make different, and how we’re gonna make it better. So ‘yun, constant work ‘yun.”

But exactly how is Asero different from his previous shows, Richard says it is more of a science-fiction thriller. “It’s a genre that we’re trying out.”

Richard explains that unlike the more naïve Vergel of Kamandag or the more charismatic Lupin, his new role as Grecko Abesamis is more serious and “more complex when it comes to his emotions.” The program devotes its first two weeks in establishing just who Grecko is, before the story requires him to become a cyborg.

Now that he is one though, the actor says to watch out because “it’s gonna be a major transformation for the character.”

Comedy, in Action

From talking about Richard’s character, it sounds as if Asero would be hard-packed action. But in truth, it’s not—there are laughs to be found throughout the show!

“Yeah, there’s a lot of comic relief in the show.” Richard admits, “we didn’t want to be too serious and too dramatic, because parang ganu’n na ‘yung nakikita mo sa TV lahat eh. And gusto ko rin siyempre na matuwa ‘yung audience, masaya ‘yung audience, so we made sure that we have good comic relief: nandyan si Janno Gibbs, nandyan si Michael V—just them together is dynamic duo na sila eh.”

“And with Kuya Janno,” he adds, “I’ve worked with him before. It’s fun reuniting with him. [Richard Gomez] also. So masaya, kasi close ko na sila and may bago kaming project.

“I really think that we have the perfect team for the show, perfect casting, it’s just a matter of developing the story, telling the story—but so far perfect, I think.”

Making it Interesting

With so many viewers today complaining about the lack of original plot, Richard defends his show as something they made with a lot of heart. And it’s no longer about being original in idea, but being original in how the story is told.

“We have really good visuals, but at the same time kailangan may kakapitan ‘yung mga tao sa istorya and we made sure of that. And not only that, we have great actors in the show. We have great support team and good comic relief. And it’s also the first time that Heart Evangelista is part of a GMA-7 [show], and it’s the first time that we’re gonna be working together—I think that’s something new to the audience also. So there are a lot of things happening for the show.”

And to make it more interesting, especially to those who have become invested with Richard’s former female partners, the show has something in store for them too:

“Some old leading ladies are part of the show: Chynna Ortaleza is here, Rhian Ramos, Ehra Madrigal—it makes a good combo, you know? There! Put that all together, I think it’s going to be one great show to watch every night.”

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