Hanging out with Dolly De Leon and Iza Calzado
Last week was the second edition of Beyond, an event at Manila House in BGC. It was a gathering to listen to two “bold-faced names” in a candid conversation on a windy Monday afternoon, where Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated actress Dolly De Leon would be interviewed by Urian winner Iza Calzado.
It was a simple setup: Two chairs tilted so that the two amazing Filipina actresses could talk to each other while favoring the crowd that gathered to hear them talk.
From the get-go, De Leon and Calzado confessed that they were happy to do this event, as they are both very close friends. Calzado met De Leon sometime in 2017 while on a television soap. Calzado was part of the cast while De Leon was working as a speech coach for one of Calzado’s co-actors. De Leon narrated how, one day, Calzado just approached her and asked her how she was doing. It was this little act of kindness that De Leon noted Calzado’s personality, and they hit it off and became fast friends.
Throughout the afternoon, they’d constantly remark on how kind and generous the other is, and it set the tone for the conversation. The candid and frank stories that were shared, and the manner in which they were told, created an atmosphere of a gathering of friends rather than any normal sit-down talk of two celebrities.
The lesson of this retelling? Calzado sums it up: “It pays to be kind to everyone.”
Nothing by chance
Calzado had set up a series of questions to sort of break the ice, insisting on writing her own script for Beyond because this wasn’t just a job for her—this was a friend. The two quickly summarized the Golden Globe nominee’s entrance into the world of acting—being the youngest child, the fourth in her family, and how the seven-year gap between her and the third child meant she “felt like an only child”—and how her interest in acting came from the fact that she was not allowed to cry in front of her mom.
It was only after doing a skit in a play in second grade that she was able to cry and that she “found out it was really fun to cry.”
“All I knew was I wanted to be an actor,” says De Leon. It sparked her to take theater arts in UP and work while studying—making appearances in television shows and sitcoms like “Palibhasa Lalaki,” “Buddy & Sol,” and other teleseryes. She was constantly working, but clarified that she “never really wanted to be a star. I wanted to act.” At the time, she just wanted to be able to share a scene with Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis.
De Leon then later reveals that she had to stop acting when she got pregnant to secure herself and her daughter financially. She worked in real estate for three years before returning to acting, then had to stop again to work in PR in 2001. She did this for a few years before she was encouraged by her own children to return to acting.
“I was acting my way through everything,” De Leon says. These skills allowed her to maneuver her way through the non-acting jobs, which made her realize that acting was really meant for her.
Things felt complete when she landed her first regular role in a soap, “Pintada,” which gave her a sense of financial security. She had been working as an actress for four decades—her first credit listed on the internet was in 1991 for “Shake, Rattle & Roll III” as Roommate—and all that work has paid off.
And then, the awards came
De Leon made history by becoming the first Filipino to be nominated for the Golden Globe and for the BAFTA (the UK equivalent of the Oscar and the Emmy). But in a moment of wonderful humility, De Leon admits that the award that is the most special to her was her FAMAS for Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s 2019 film “The Verdict.”
This meant a whole lot to De Leon because it was the first role where her character had a name. She recounts that she had been asked to play doctors, lawyers, or even a judge in some soaps, whose names were unnamed in the script (She would only find out her character’s name when she arrived on the set and saw the nameplate on the desk). In “The Verdict,” she played “a supporting character with a full role” and a name. Unfortunately, the award season of that year fell right during the pandemic, and she had to receive the trophy at her garage via courier.
She didn’t like success at all when it finally came. “I didn’t like the attention,” she shares. “All of a sudden, people were nice to me when they weren’t before.” It circles back to her first meeting with Calzado, and for some reason, the pieces start to fit. The closeness of their friendship stems from that, which allowed us to hear all these candid stories.
Now that it has been four years since her win, De Leon casually says, “I’ll just enjoy it.” She’s thankful that success has come at this time because now she can deal with it—“with objectivity.”
On advocacies and giving back
A large chunk of the conversation stemmed from De Leon and Calzado’s advocacy for the rights of film workers and improving the working conditions of the people in the film industry.
The two actresses, who are members of the actor’s guild AKTOR, get passionate when talking about their cause, consciously stopping themselves from getting too political. Before they stop themselves, De Leon is able to share one insight where she is now in a position to use her stardom to benefit the workers.
As an internationally renowned and acclaimed artist, she is often at the top of the call sheet. And by giving a cut-off, she ensures that the production doesn’t go beyond the legally allowed time frame to shoot. “It’s not for me,” she says. “It’s for the workers.”
It was a topic that kept coming up, which also showed us the kind of artists De Leon and Calzado are—which has probably been instrumental to their success. De Leon and Calzado’s tireless work ethic, skill, and humanity have made them the kind of performers people want to work with. And, in turn, has given them the opportunities to really showcase their talents and artistry.
It was such a pleasant afternoon to just sit down and listen to two incredible artists have a conversation. It never felt formal or rigid. You really felt like a veil was dropped.
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