The many faces of Abe Pagtama. (Photos courtesy of Abe Pagtama)
Most actors begin their careers at a very young age. Indie character actor Abe Pagtama began his at 53.
That was when he was first cast in a small role in Gene Cajayon’s 2000 Fil-Am drama, “The Debut”. Since then, Abe has been appearing in several television commercials, TV shows, independent short and feature films, mostly by Fil-Am directors. He also appeared in the Keanu Reeves starrer“Constantine” in a small, uncredited role.
Based in Los Angeles, Abe already had a nice cushy job at the US Postal Service when the acting bug bit him. He then thought of enrolling in an acting school by using his GI Bill, a government-sponsored educational program that he received as a former US Air Force serviceman.
“I’ve always wanted to be an actor,” Pagtama recalled to InterAksyon in a recent interview. “One of my earliest and most memorable projects was a popular Pepsi commercial that was seen by 150 million people all over the world. That convinced me that I could actually do this for a living.”
Still, it wasn’t until last year when Raymond Red decided to cast Abe in the former’s acclaimed homage to silent films, “Kamera Obskura”, that his career as a character actor began to really take off.
In the award-winning film which was an entry in the Director’s Showcase section of Cinemalaya 2012, Abe played the role of the shop owner where Pen Medina got his mysterious Kamera Obskura.
Now 66, Abe says he can play any character between the ages of 45 and 85. “I’m good at researching characters so I believe I can do justice to any role given to me,” he insists.
In most of his US projects, he is usually cast as either Chinese, Japanese and even Hawaiian but strangely never as a Filipino. Not that he’s complaining. Every project, every role is always a new challenge for him.
In addition to being an actor, Abe is also often credited as associate producer for most of his films. He actually produced “The Sky is Falling”, the very first feature film of Christopher Ad. Castillo, in 2002. So when Direk Chris decided to do “The Diplomat Hotel”, Pagtama was an easy choice for a role originally intended for legendary filmmaker Celso Ad. Castillo.
“Emotionally it was very difficult to replace my father and in terms of acting talent, I looked at big name actors like Eddie Garcia and some off-the-wall choices like Tikoy Aguiluz,” Castillo said at the time. “In the end, Abe won out after reading for me and losing a lot of weight to capture the desperate look of the character. I am very familiar with his work and I thought he’d do justice to the spirit of my father.”
Abe added that he literally had to transform himself to clinch the role.
“Even though Direk Chris and I have been friends for 15 years, the role was not given to me until I lost 25 lbs. and that entailed a lot of hard work on my part,” Abe added. “It’s a very pivotal character because without it, there would be no movie,”, he noted.
Aside from “The Diplomat Hotel” which is still currently showing in theaters nationwide, Abe was also in the cast of another Cinemalaya entry, “Rekorder”, but is more active in marketing the film.
“I’ve known Raymond Red since he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes for ‘Anino’. So when his son Mikhail asked me if I can be in ‘Rekorder’, I said I could also help out in financing and marketing since I’m also in the real estate business here in the Philippines,” he revealed.
Even with three Cinemalaya films to his credit, Abe continues to shuttle back and forth from Manila to Los Angeles as he has found a system that allows him to shoot films in the Philippines and promote and market them in the US.
Up next for Abe is Ian Del Carmen’s latest indie, “Sabine”, headlined by Bangs Garcia and slated to be shot entirely in Davao.
“But I’m very much open to doing mainstream projects here as well, even teleseryes which would give me an excuse to stay in the Philippines longer than the usual four months a year that I spend here,” he said.
Senior character actor finds niche in indie films both as performer and financier
Source: InterAksyon.com (September 09, 2013 at 09:01AM)
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