ANGEL THOUGHTS
Lopez twins Rex and Roy in their biking attires.
Twice the fun, twice the love spread all around!
Meet our third set of twinnies, 45-year-old filmmakers—Rex and Roy Lopez, sons of Rene and Susan Lopez.
Rex has been married to Claire for 20 years. They have two daughters, Alex and Max. His twin Roy has one daughter, Denise.
The twins are identical and they share a lot of things.
Rex is the more approachable of the twins. He describes himself as “an adviertising slave turned filmmaker.” He is currently busy trying to finish rewriting a script for their first “Hollywood”-led cast that is scheduled for production next year. “I took Fine Arts at UST with Advertising as my major, not my first choice. My initial plan was to get into the Philippine Military Academy, but they said I was too young at that time to be accommodated. Luckily I enjoyed Fine Arts. I discovered my talent for advertising, in which I pursued a career later,” he says.
Rex started as a visualizer in a small local advertising and media company and worked his way up to creative director at Ace Saatchi and Saatchi. “I was fortunate to have had a successful and colorful career in advertising before dipping my finger in the film industry,” he says. “With a couple of friends and my brother, I established Psyops8 and BlackOps Studios Asia. In 2018, Netflix acquired one of our projects, Maria, the first “Netflix original” from the Philippines, which was released worldwide in 2019. I am now a business partner with Roy, who is COO, and I am head of creative and film producer.”
We ask the brothers what it is like being half of a twin. Rex shots back, “It’s pretty much normal for me, I guess, since I have never experienced not being one.”
Roy is more expressive. “I guess same as just having a brother who looks like you. The main difference maybe is that we could relate more to each other. Mababaw. Neithe of us is kuya. No one has authority over the other. I guess one real advantage of having a twin is I never had to wait for a playmate. When you wake up in the morning until the sun goes down, it’s always game time. I remember when we used to fix our bikes (BMX), friends would need to go home for dinner and playtime would resume the next day. Not for me and Rex. When we got older, I built my race bike around what his bike has—same pedal platform, same number of cogs/gears, same bike fit. So when one needed an extra bike or spare parts, we could just switch.”
What do they do if people mistake them for each other? Rex shrugs it off, although, sometimes, he corrects his friends.
But in their company, Rex admits it can be a little problem for some employees. “I head the creative department, and my brother handles the operations side,” he says. “They see my brother as the friendly one and me as the strict version. My department comes with high expectations, stress, and pressure. The team usually feels nervous, especially the new hires, when they see my brother, thinking it’s me.
There are also times people act weird around me when I don’t say hi since I don’t know them. More than a couple of times, friends or colleagues will call me up to confirm where I am or who I am with, as most of them will have a bet if the person they are seeing is me or not.”
Roy finds mistaken identities annoying at times, especially when they were growing up. At least their parents very seldom mixed them up, the twins said in jest.
Rex says that in many ways they are alike. “Music, hobbies, career path. We also dress similar but not the same and most of the time we have the same haircut. We are both even on the same cycling team. We are also both visual creatives. We have the same passion for cars.”
Roy agrees. They are both into retro cars, and biking. They also took the same college course. “Now, we’re both in the same company,” he says. “We live very close to each other too. I wear glasses, he doesn’t. And I am skinnier too.”
Rex likes good conversations and puzzles, and hates excuses. Roy is a collector of cars, bikes, and combi vans and hates eating squid. They work well as business partners.
Roy has never felt anything unique or different about himself and his twin. “But friends would say it’s unique that our life paths are always linked. We’re more alike than we are different. Same work. Same hobbies, same neighborhood!” he says.