Even though the three of them are still new in the industry, we can perhaps agree that promising young artists Tommy Alejandrino, Gela Atayde, and Ralph de Leon delivered impressive performances in “High Street.”
Tommy impressed us with his dramatic prowess as Kenjie Juan, the scion of a wealthy family who owns a canning corporation. He is the ex-fiancé of Gela’s Sanya Alba, who used to work alongside Kenjie in their family business before their relationship tore apart because of a scandal. In spite of that, they’ve remained friends with Roxy (Xyriel Manabat), who once had a romantic affair with Dr. Kevin Gonzales, played by Ralph.
And before they completely bid farewell to us as the youth-oriented series approaches its “Final Destination” finale this coming August 30, ent.abs-cbn.com had them revisit some of their scenes to which they had to “Rate and React,” as well as share little trivia or behind-the-scene stories about each, during their recent Kapamilya Chat guesting.
The first clip shown to them was Kevin’s intense altercation with Archie, played by Elijah Canlas, after the former yelled at Roxy during the intimate birthday party that the latter arranged for his and her son, Riley (Argus Aspiras).
Gela reminded Ralph to not be too hard on himself and don’t forget to give himself credit for delivering impressive performances and for being able to keep pace with seasoned young actors Xyriel and Elijah. Thus, both she and Tommy gave Ralph a 10/10 rating for a job well done. Ralph, on the other hand, gave himself a 7.5 to 8 score because, although he believed that it’s one of his better scenes, there are still a lot of things that needed to be polished.
The second clip was the confrontation scene between Sanya and Kenjie a few hours before their wedding, wherein he told her that he couldn’t marry her, which, of course, hurt her so much. Ralph gave it a 10/10 because of how it still stuns and compels him just like the first time that he had seen it. While Tommy also gave it a perfect score, Gela couldn’t help but cringe and be critical about her performance and gave herself 4 out of 10.
Gela explained that she actually didn’t want to watch it again since she didn’t like what she did in that scene at all after she failed to deliver the emotion that she was required to exude. Fortunately, Tommy and everyone on the set were there to help her be able to still pull off that scene and be emotionally and mentally stable again after that, as she recounted how she couldn’t help herself from crying after their director shouted, “Cut!”
Tommy seemingly consoled Gela by imparting that he went through the same dilemma in the beginning of his acting career. He related, “I have a lot of scenes, even on this show, that I also don’t wanna watch again. But I’m talking about other things I have done when I just started doing film stuff. So, for them to have these experiences with a show na super wide ang reach, that takes a lot of pressure to think about.”
He continued, “Just props to these guys for having their first shows and going through that with so many people watching. That’s already hard enough because you’re just learning pa lang how to master yourself in the scene, how to act. Mahirap siya, [so] I’m proud of them.”
The next clip was another confrontation scene among Kevin, Archie, and Roxy at a hospital room, where Archie caught Kevin forcing himself on Roxy. For the second time, Gela and Tommy gave Ralph a rating of 10/10 for not letting himself be left behind by Elijah and Xyriel and for making them see his character and not him.
Ralph confessed that he was actually ‘depressed’ while shooting that scene, as well as the scenes prior to it, since he couldn’t deliver his lines and emotions well. Thus, he apologized to Elijah, Xyriel, and one of their directors, Onat Diaz, after that. At the same time, he thanked them for the help and concern that they’d bestowed upon him.
“At the end of the day, I wasn’t really happy with what I was able to give in that scene. I feel like I could have done so much more with it, lalo na it’s another big confrontation scene of ours, na ‘yon ‘yong mga eksenang tumatatak sa tao. I really felt like I could have pushed it a little bit more,” he said, and gave himself a score of 5.
The last one was the touching conversation between Sanya and Kenjie, wherein the latter apologized for the scandal that he figured in. Ralph praised them for delivering fantastic performances and gave them the perfect grade of 10.
Tommy and Gela also rated themselves with the same digits, as both of them regard that scene as one of their favorites. For Tommy, they were able to convey what their characters felt about each other in the two years that they’ve been portraying Sanya and Kenjie ever since “Senior High.”
“The feeling of doing it with her and knowing everything about her, too – not just her character but each other as friends, that’s what made it 10 out of 10 for me. Because you know the person you’re doing that scene with and you know how heavy the topic is. So, when you’re able to hit the marks on that with someone you genuinely care about and someone you actually know, that’s what makes it memorable for me,” Tommy stated.
They went on to reveal that there were actually a lot of lines there that they improvised and weren’t originally written on the script, which helped both of them to feel the scene more. Furthermore, Gela recalled how their director, Lino Cayetano, wanted her to be mad at Kenjie, but she argued that she knew in her heart that Sanya couldn’t do that at the time because a part of her would want to have him back. Tommy then expressed how delighted he was that their respective interpretations of that particular scene came out on the screen.
Are you as excited as us to see what is going to happen to the characters of Gela, Tommy, and Ralph? Well, you better not miss the remaining episodes of “High Street,” weeknights on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, TV5 and A2Z.