From the
Inquirer.
LOS ANGELES—In separate interviews recently, “The Bourne Legacy” director Tony Gilroy praised the pool of Filipino actors as “an embarrassment of riches,” while the film’s Oscar-nominated producer Frank Marshall described Palawan, one of the locations, as “the most beautiful place” he had ever been to.
At a packed press screening in LA last week, we finally got to watch “The Bourne Legacy,” a tight action-thriller whose climactic last part (about 40 minutes) is set in various places in the Philippines. Some of the locations include the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila Yacht Club, the Metro Rail Transit station in Pasay, San Andres in Manila and Palawan province.
To avoid spoilers, let’s just say the original story written by Tony—inspired by the “Bourne” series created by Robert Ludlum—involves complications arising from CIA efforts to eliminate everyone involved in Outcome, a program developed by the US Department of Defense to create better spies and warriors.
Reliable, effective
This conflict takes Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), one of six agents being trained under Outcome, and Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), a research scientist with top-security clearance, to the Philippines, where a big pharmaceutical plant is located.
Jeremy and Rachel, always reliable actors, are especially effective. The movie’s highlight is a thrilling, extended motorcycle chase scene through Metro Manila traffic and people-clogged streets.
But for us, personally, the fun part was seeing the Filipino actors, all of whom did well. We have to clarify that these are small roles, most of them without speaking lines.
Among the Filipino actors we recognized were Lou Veloso (he plays a boat owner and captain) and Madeleine Nicolas (landlady of the house where Jeremy’s and Rachel’s characters seek refuge). “I know them well,” said Tony—who also wrote the previous “Bourne” movies—referring to Lou and Madeleine. “I wish we had more for both of them to do. I really do. We take a great deal of pride in casting great actors in small parts. In the Philippines, it was just an embarrassment of riches … You’re taking these stars and saying, ‘Will you come and do bit parts in our film?’ But for us, it was a big advantage because everybody was so talented. There’s a really rich talent pool there.”
Tony added that Lou was “really helpful” in finding the child actors. “He also brought in the kid to play his son. We were stunned. I don’t want to get anybody’s name wrong—I got too much going on in my mind now. The guy who plays Joseph at the factory gave an amazing performance. I remember we started rehearsing the scene to get blocked in.” (Later, we asked if the actor was John Arcilla; Tony said, “Yes, and he’s brilliant.” Tony related that Rachel was so impressed with John that she asked the filmmaker, “Who’s this guy?”)
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