Marriage seems to suit Matteo Guidicelli. He is relaxed and composed as he sits down to talk about his latest projects: Metro Manila Film Fest 2023 entry Penduko and his latest business Studio G, which he says was borne of his and wife Sarah Geronimo's pandemic lockdown experience.
"During the lockdowns, Sarah was submitting her videos to ASAP and all, so I was the one shooting them on green screen," he says. "It even came to a point that I shot a commercial and even song numbers for her at home using equipment like cameras and microphones that we invested in. We started joking about putting up our own production company."
PHOTO: Courtesy of Viva Entertainment
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Those light moments turned into a lightbulb moment, and the couple soon registered their company G Productions, which began by co-producing Sarah's concerts, music video, and songs with Viva, with the support and guidance of its big boss Vic Del Rosario.
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When they also realized that there is no large-scale studio South of Manila, they hatched another business plan. "We were thinking about putting up a studio in another location, but one of my friends, who owns Landers Superstore offered me this space at their branch in Alabang West and we grabbed the opportunity right away."
PHOTO: Courtesy of Viva Entertainment
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The studio is billed as the "New Creative Space in the South" and aside from offering studios for photo/video shoots and podcast recordings, they can also host parties and events. They have also started offering various dance classes for enthusiasts of all ages, led by the choreographers that Sarah personally works with.  Â
Their own experience in front of the camera helped them to create a studio that makes clients feel at home. It has comfortable dressing room facilities, high ceilings that can be used for drapes and drop lights, and even a kitchen for food shoots. "Everything is very customized to what we do as artists," Matteo describes.
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Fantasy and folklore
Matteo talks about his other project, Penduko, which is a take on the komiks character created by National Artist for Literature Francisco V. Coching, published in Liwayway magazine back in 1954. The story is updated for the modern times, even veering away from the comedic turn by Janno Gibbs back in the '90s to delve deeper into the self-awareness journey of the protagonist, which he plays.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Viva Entertainment
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"From Ramon Zamora, Janno Gibbs to Matt Evans, I think they all did their own thing and they placed their own trademark and flavor," Guidicelli says. "This Penduko today was written four years ago and was rewritten again by director Jason Paul Laxamana because of the pandemic and everything that happened. It is still with the same Penduko elements that we all remember...the folklore, the agimat, the anting-anting. All these Filipino cultural aspects are still there, but character-wise and setting-wise, environment-wise, it's today. It's based in the modern world, with social media and the current modernization of life. When Penduko gets beaten, he stands up with a smile and learns from it, and improves and goes again, just like any other ordinary Filipino in our time."
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The actor says there is a need to revive interest in Filipino folklore, because the youth of today are more familiar with Western mythology through books and movies. "I grew up in Cebu so I'm kind of biased with Cebuanos. I feel like we know more about mga duwende, mga manananggal, mga aswang. I think I'm still a little more well-versed with these folklores than my brother, who is 16 years old. My yaya would say, 'Huwag ka pumasok diyan, may White Lady.' Sila Paolo, my brother, wala nang ganoon eh. I think iba na yung kinatatakutan nila; it's things they watched on the iPad. We're getting more and more modernized and all, but it's very important to remember our traditions because these elements are part of being Filipino."
Stephen King said, "Monsters are real and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us and sometimes they win." Matteo interprets this as, "When blessings come in, when success come in, that's when you're more vulnerable to the negative, to these demons and temptations. It's easy to allow in because ang sarap, eh, but you don't know, it's greedy pala, it's selfish pala, and eventually, you're hurting somebody or disrupting an organization.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Viva Entertainment
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"I believe that the demon or the monster's somewhere there, but it's up to us, bilang Filipino, on how we grew up, our morals and values, and how our parents taught us," he adds. "We have to stand by our morals and values. For me and for Sarah, we just want to put out content that will inspire somebody, will make somebody feel good about themselves, would make somebody have that motivation to achieve their goal, that's the whole objective about why we're doing what we're doing."
On Marriage and Masculine energy
Guidicelli, who tied the know with pop superstar Sarah Geronimo in February 2020, says married life is great. "It comes with its challenges here and there, but then, at the end of the day, you know, it's nice to know that you have a teammate, you have that partner, you have that somebody who's always there for you and vice versa. And you do things together, you dream together, you motivate each other, inspire each other and you work hard together to achieve all these goals and dream."
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The two make time for each other, despite their busy schedules. "Sundays, we treat as family days with us, with the family, with the dogs. It's either we go to the beach or go somewhere with the dogs to make them run around and have a good time. We also just came from a trip to Europe again. We like traveling because it is a very nice time to just recharge, explore the world and get a fresh perspective on everything."
The couple have been married now for three years, experiencing a lockdown and seclusion soon after their February wedding. "Every day, I'm still learning, and I always try to get advice from people who have been married for a longer period of time. I like speaking to older people, people with more experience, like my father, my mom, and generally, just older people, and always ask their secret to marriage. They say just listen, just adjust, just meet in the middle. The advice I consistently get is always put God in the middle. So that's what we try doing and working at it. We're very new in the marriage journey, but we look forward to all the years to come, and it's exciting."
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When it comes to being a 'real man', Matteo who started off as a racer, gets so many green flags. "I think masculinity is knowing how to respect--knowing how to be a man but respecting your partner, your loved one, your friend. They say, 'Oh, your wife has to be submissive to you...' Yes, but at the end of the day, it's a give-and-take thing. We can't be the ruler of the world, it has to be a synergy. Yes, I believe I'm a man and I have to be this and do that, but I also believe in listening, being open-minded and using love as the power of all.
"If I could choose a superpower, I want it to be that if I touched somebody, sana that person will be full of love. I think that's what being masculine is all about and how it is. It's about spreading love. That doesn't make you soft; It actually makes you stand stronger."
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