Not the one to back down, director Mike de Leon accused TV host Atom Araullo of being disrespectful during the shoot of his much-anticipated comeback indie flick “Citizen Jake.”
Responding to the lead star’s statement issued Tuesday, De Leon recalled how Araullo supposedly “completely ignored” his direction and some rehearsed scenes.
A Reply to Atom Araullo from Mike De Leon, the creator of Citizen Jake (Enhanced Version).Thank you for breaking your…
Posted by Citizen Jake on Tuesday, May 29, 2018
“The following day, I told you that never in my career as a director have any actor disrespected me as much as you did. I told you then if you wanted to direct yourself, then by all means do it. You can overact all you want. I will just shoot whatever you wish to do,” the filmmaker wrote on Wednesday.
“Then I said ‘Bakit ganyan ka, bakit ba ang yabang mo? Bakit ba ang tingin mo sa sarili mo you’re better than everyone else. As an actor, you’re ok pero marami ka pang kakaining bigas.’ And you said: ‘Yes, I know that but no one has ever told me that before.’ So I concluded by saying ‘Well, it’s about time somebody did,’” De Leon added.
De Leon and Araullo are embroiled in a very public spat, airing their grievances about each other on Facebook.
On acting
While he initially praised Araullo’s neophyte acting, De Leon offered more scathing opinions this time, in which he implied some “horribly acted scenes” that even his team “overruled” to be kept from the public.
“You know how your performance was enhanced and ‘fixed’ in the editing. I had to use two cameras all the time in anticipation of this,” De Leon said.
On Araullo’s accusations that De Leon is “deeply troubled,” the director admitted he is going through things, but he did not spare Araullo of a similar problem, saying he also has his won “demons” to deal with.
On personal views
The director also sought to disprove Araullo’s explanation that he is not his character, journalist Jake Herrera.
De Leon claimed Araullo is “narcissistic” and has “no empathy,” having only used his journalism career to become a celebrity.
“So accept that you are a celebrity and don’t use the noble profession of journalism to hide your inadequacies as a human being,” he said.
The long-time filmmaker cited Araullo’s recent McDonald’s commercial in Marawi, in which De Leon accused Araullo of exploitation.
“Don’t bother to cringe anymore because you revel in it. You make commercials now and you exploited the Marawi bakwit by making that offensive commercial featuring yourself, monologuing like ‘Citizen Jake,’ all under the sponsorship of McDo,” De Leon said.
“Citizen Jake,” which is still showing in Philippine cinemas, is De Leon’s drama noir that he worked with Araullo and comic book writer Noel Pascual.
