This year marks the 10th anniversary of Esquire Philippines. What better way to celebrate than with our annual Man at His Best (MAHB) event. This year, we honor 10 heroes and mavericks from the worlds of film, music, business, art, sports, politics, and more. These are men and women who have inspired us through their work, achievements, and advocacies.
We present Esquire’s Actor of the Year, John Arcilla.
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I feel that acting is such a noble thing to do. You impart knowledge, you give lessons to the audience, you can heal some broken hearts or liberate some lost souls by making them laugh or cry through the characters you create and through the stories you tell. Acting is not just for self-fulfillment. You’re part of the whole community, and you are giving them a part of your life. You are the reflection of the things that are going on in your town, city, or in a particular place, and that is, for me, a noble thing to do.
For me, acting is a study of human psychology, a study of human behavior. You study characters, and discover where they are coming from, why they think this way, why they behave that way. Acting is also a study of social science. When I was in theater, we also discussed the periods, the relevance of each generations, the culture of the particular writer or a play. Where and when did it happen? We had this script analysis about what generation a play is written in and what is the milieu that influenced the behavior of the people of a particular period.
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I’m doing work that I love to do, but at the same time I’m able to incorporate the things I love to do and analyze its characters, situations, values, cultures and the matters that influence a group of people or an individual why they act the way they act.
PHOTO: Cyrus Panganiban
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I think most of my projects are relevant.Heneral Luna is a historical film, but the theme it is actually tackling is still very relevant these days. And should I say it’s good? I think it’s good from a marketing point of view because people can still relate to its issues but it’s kind of sad that after a hundred years and more, it is still relevant.
Jerrold Tarog told me that I am a combination of instinctive and “studied.” As an actor, I believe that there are three or four kinds of actors. Those who are instinctive, who don’t need to do workshops, and those who are studied. Then the combination of the two. I was happy about Jerrold Tarog’s observation because that’s how I really work. It’s not easy to tell people I’m both instinctive and studied, maybe it won't make sense to them anyway. The fourth one I think are those who are there because they’re beautiful, then were able to learn the craft and they’re amazing.
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When I study a character, I combine it with the principles I’ve learned in acting and my take as a person or I take my experiences as reference. There’s this very basic study on characterization which I got from my lessons on Stanislavski’s method of acting. It invites an actor to create a character by studying the three dimensions in character building: The physical, psychological slash emotional, and the sociological. For me, it is actually less complicated to study the character if he‘s a real person because these three dimensions are already available. In fictional characters, you have to create those three dimensions of a character yourself: How old is this man? What happened to him during his childhood? Why did he become this particular character? Where does he belong in society? Did the character come from a family of rich people? Are they the old rich or the nouveau riche or something else? And sometimes you express a particular interpretation in a particular situation depending on what you are getting from your co-actors.
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As an actor, if I already know the particular context of a sequence or a situation, I can actually play around with it while incorporating the moment-to-moment reaction of other actors as characters in the scene. But still, you should not go far away from the context of the whole sequence and the super-objective of the whole story.
PHOTO: Cyrus Panganiban
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I prepare myself for anything. I do not take those “anythings” against anyone. Whatever their disciplines or styles are, I will commit in every scene and then work on it. Whatever style you have, behavior, habits, tantrums...I work on it. Whatever they would give me I will work around it.
Definitely, I will not screw with my job or my interpretation just because a co-actor has the tendency to destroy his own. Sometimes I silently cooperate or guide a scene to its objective utilizing whatever I am receiving from my co-actor.
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PHOTO: Cyrus Panganiban
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I read somewhere—I think if I am not mistaken, it’s from Ambeth Ocampo—that we are a country in transition. I really agree because we were colonized by the Spaniards for 350 years or so, and even before we got our sovereignty to realize our identity as Filipinos, we were sold to a big country which is you-know-who. But we’re still being influenced by their policies in many ways. That means even before we realized our own identity, we already became brown Americans and after those years… our government was influenced by another country.
We haven’t fulfilled our real identity yet and here comes another big continent influencing our people and officials. I think as Filipinos we don’t know what to fight for yet because we don’t know who we are yet. Who are we trying to fight? What are we trying to fight for?
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I think Filipinos tend to idolize people, we tend to identify ourselves with a persona, instead of looking at ourselves as a group of people to determine our needs. We always think that what we need is to look up to an idol, and idols empower them as people.
Our citizens have experienced poverty for so long that they do not know the social services they deserve. They think that being poor is just a natural thing, that being poor means families who don’t eat three times a day, have no privilege to own a house, and to be treated well in a hospital. In other countries, poor means you have all the social services being provided by the government. That’s what is poor to them. In First World countries, not being poor means you have a choice to study in a private school or to go to private hospitals or to travel every now and then. For them, when you are being provided by the government, even housing—that’s what being poor is all about.
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In our country, being poor for Filipinos is like a fate and they thought governments have nothing to do with it. They are not even aware that the standard of living should be resolved by whoever is in the government, and that the government is actually the people and the officials—we are the government, not just the officials.
Officials are Public Servants. Most Filipinos, I think, are not even aware that we deserve more, that our taxes should make our standard of living better. That we should be able to afford all the basic things, like food and transportation, etc. But instead of realizing those needs, Filipinos look up to different idols and these idols with different idealisms and interests separate us from one another and disunite us.
I think we should mature as a people. We should find our identity and stop idolizing personalities to realize what we need in this nation and as people of this Country. As if we’re going to be saved by personalities rather than by ourselves as a nation.
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My dream is that someday, may we finally realize who we are as Filipinos, determine our own identity to know what we are supposed to fight for.
A better Philippines is when the disparity between the rich and the poor is not that far from the other. When a lot of people can enjoy all the social services they deserve.
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In 1972, there were a lot of things going on in Manila, my family had to transfer to Baler for good. I was six years old then. Suddenly from a city boy, I was in the middle of a coconut plantation. As early as those years, I could see myself every night, watching our ceiling, actually seeing myself there playing characters; I’m shaking hands with people, entertaining them, doing shows on television, or performing on stage. I could see myself every night and in the middle of our coco plantation, I would shout. I would ride on carabaos. My mother is not a professional singer, but she loves singing, she loves films very much. I grew up watching my father hosting parties in his company. My family loves food parties and gatherings. They usually indulge with...whatchamacallit...spoken word! They do that as early as those years. Almost all elders would just render poetry extemporaneously.
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It’s actually my family, my clan, who are my biggest influences. I have a very close family. The clan is very into yearly reunions. We have programs every year and we change hosts from one sibling to another. My greatest influence was actually my grandparents. I felt that they loved us so much, and they were able to transfer that kind of “legacy” to us all and our generation was able to do that to our siblings, nieces, and grandchildren as well. I can see how they influenced me with performing. They’ve been performing at parties aside from spoken word as early as those years. Spontaneous poetry, on-the-spot performances.
Right now, I still can't connect the word death when I talk about my youngest sister. It was so sudden and I feel that it is so untimely. If we had a better situation these days, I don’t think it would have happened to her. Of course, I’m working on letting it go, letting the pain go but keeping the love. I promised myself that this will not hamper the dreams that I have for my family. These people are my first fans, big fans, and they are also my biggest inspirations as an actor and everything I do as a human being. Their absence should not make me stop dreaming for myself and for the family. Whatever I do, I know I’m also doing it for all of them. I’m transforming that grief into inspirations so that I can pursue all the dreams that I know will make them proud.
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The Volpi Cup actually did not change any perception of myself. It actually gave me an affirmation that I’m on the right track. That after those hardships and all the lessons I’ve learned in my work as an actor, they’re giving me an affirmation that I'm traveling on the right path. What you’re doing is good. Your dreams are being affirmed; that if you want to make sense about what you do, these recognitions are telling you that you’re making sense.
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It made me more inspired, just like a cue to dream more. Maybe bigger. A Silver Bear from Berlin or an Oscar would be nice, or a trophy from BAFTA. We already have a Palme d’Or, but I still want to have one. They said if you dream, you dream big! So why not?
Before I’m an actor, I am first a human being. Acting is just a tool so that I can express my dreams for the community, for the bigger world, for humanity. I wish I can inspire people to do things that will not only make a difference, but will make this world a better place, and will make this country a great nation.
PHOTO: Cyrus Panganiban
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In this story
Creative direction and interview by Anri Ichimura • Photographs by Cyrus Panganiban • Makeup by Muriel Vega Perez • Hair by Virgie Jayme • Styling by Paolo Chua • Photographer's assistant Michael Angelo Pabon • Shot on location at Okada Manila • Special thanks to Star Magic and Okada Manila
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On John
Grey windowpane blazer by Tiño Suits; suit, shirt, and trousers by Van Laack
Man At His Best (MAHB) is Esquire's annual celebration that honors the life and work of inspiring men and women throughout the year.
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