For Luigi Revilla, getting into show business was just a matter of time.
Luigi Revilla
With Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla as his father, he went full blast with his acting career in 2010 then stopped for awhile only to resume this year.
“When Papa (Bong) said that we do a movie, I was really nervous because it was a very long time since I did acting. But I felt at home because I am in the company of my brothers Bryan and Jolo Revilla. Papa gave us a chance to prove our worth as actors. When I learned that I’d be back in acting, initially I was nervous. After that, we did some workshops, we kept our bodies buffed and we went through training,” he said in Filipino.
The movie is “Tres,” a trilogy that tackles drug addiction. His episode is “Amats.” He plays a rich guy character who becomes penniless because “I depended on my parents and when they died I wasn’t able to save up for my future. Then Assunta de Rossi’s character came. She introduced me to drugs. She told me to sell drugs.”
Luigi’s acting career is being guided by his senator dad.
“He said I needed to immerse into my character, not just reading and mouthing his lines. He told me I should be the character I am portraying and people should not see me as Luigi.”
Acting on teen soap operas has led to Luigi discovering what acting is all about.
“When I was starting, I could hardly act,” he declared. “What I was thinking of back then were my lines. I only really got the hang of it when I attended workshops.”
Admittedly, he said that he had to hurdle some challenges in portraying the role of a drug addict in “Amats.”
“I find it difficult to act like you’re high so I watched some movies to learn how to do it.”
The action parts were easily addressed as Luigi is into Muay Thai.
“We have different attacks in the episodes of the movie. In my brother’s part, there was blasting and gun fighting. In my episode, since it’s a millennial action movie, we concentrated on hand-to-hand combat.”
Luigi took inspirations not from local action stars but from real-life characters like George St. Pierre, a Canadian mixed martial artist.
“He’s my idol. So, before the start of the shooting, Papa told me, ‘Hey, you start practicing so that you will not hit your co-actors,” he said.
“But true enough, in this movie, accidents happened. It can’t be avoided. Once, I was punched in the nose by Sandino Martin. In another scene, I kicked Markki Stroem. It was so hard that his tooth loosened and got extracted. We had blocking but the fight scenes were intense and fast-paced. I fought six guys so there were so many takes,” he related.
Before filming, Luigi admitted that his brother Jolo Revilla was his motivation.
He said, ‘You and Bryan should do workshops.’ I felt, doesn’t he trust me? When I went home, that was the thought in my mind. That I need to do my best really. Just because you’re a Revilla doesn't mean you are licensed to take things easy.”