Social media was buzzing earlier this month as Alden Richards’ upcoming international film, ‘Big Tiger’ showed its teaser during his ARXV: Moving ForwARd concert in Laguna.
Fresh from being the actor, producer and director of ‘Out of Order’, which was released on Netflix, Alden is ready to show a different side of himself in ‘Big Tiger’ – his kontrabida era.
But how did he become involved in this project?
“I’m not new to wearing different hats in one project, which is of course, naipakita natin sa ‘Out of Order’, where I was the producer, the director and the actor at the same time. Being able to do a lot of things in one particular project really opens up your keenness to learning. Parang mas eager ka matuto ng mga bagay na hindi mo pa nae-experience and right now, to be part of this project as an executive producer and as a director means, we get to be more specific with the things that we want to show for our audience and aside from just taking care of my role in the project, I had to make an initiative to have an overview of the storytelling. Hindi lang kanya-kanyang gaming ba. I’, just so happy and so blessed to be able to have this kind of partnership with these people kasi mababait sila, hindi sila mahirap katrabaho,” Alden shares.
“You’re all great people and you’re all not hard to work with. That’s what I was saying,” Alden translates for Katherine and Byron.
“Before, I was really skeptical on venturing out of my comfort zone, which is the Philippines, because I don’t know how they do films outside the country. But I was wrong, because of this experience, ang dami kong natutunan and it really opened my eyes that there’s always beauty in collaboration and it’s always best to encourage people to come and see the Philippines. I think, that’s what this is all about,” Alden continues.
With this project having a multi-national cast and crew, we asked writer and director Keoni Waxman, actress Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunters) and Byron Mann (Street Fighter, Skyscraper), how it was working with Alden Richards:
“Working with Alden is great. Like he said, he’s playing a role that he’s normally been playing, a type, but that enables him to play against that type. I mean, he’s very charismatic if you guys know. So, to have a charismatic bad guy, not an antagonist, it’s fantastic. That’s a lot to go with,” writer and director Keoni Waxman shares.
“I can only echo that and say more. I mean, the thing that I love about the film industry is that no matter where you go anywhere in the world, you find the same people, you find the same spirit, you find the same joy for what you get to do, and we’re so lucky to do it every day. And that is tenfold here in the Philippines and truly kidding, I had no idea that you had never played an antagonist until today. I truly had no idea because he’s so fantastic in the film and we had the best time together. Although now I’m begging to do a film with him where we don’t have to hate each other. We can still kill people but, we kill the same people and not try to kill each other, because he’s just such a joy to work with and it’s so wonderful to get to chat and share our experiences and learn about the industry, as in how we’re all the same and yet different. How can we learn from each other? Also, we have way too much fun on set, so anytime I can work with this man, I will,” Katherine McNamara gladly answers.
“I had the fortune of not ever having seen your romantic comedy films. So, I didn’t know what I was up against. I just met him for the first time on set and he was supposed to be the big villain in the movie. It was very easy to work with him, obviously, and I just assumed he was a bad man in real life. He’s very, very gracious and very charming and a wonderful actor to work with,” Byron Mann jokingly adds.
Watch our video coverage from the Big Tiger media launch below: