How the ‘stars aligned’ for Charo and Dingdong’s first film together

It’s not hard to say that seeing Charo Santos and Dingdong Dantes together on screen for the first time is worth the seven years it took to happen.

The STAR attended an early screening of their upcoming movie, “Only We Know,” directed by Irene Villamor. Although we can’t say much yet due to a non-disclosure agreement, we came out of the theater thinking that whoever thought of bringing the two together pulled off a casting masterstroke. This film will prove that unconventional stories like this have a place in Philippine cinema.

During the screening, there were laughs, tears and squeals in reaction to the movie that tells the story of Betty (Charo) and Ryan (Dingdong), whose age difference doesn’t matter in their developing relationship, the nature of which only they fully know and understand. Betty is already a retired literature professor long separated from her husband, when she gets to know Ryan, an architect still grieving over the death of his wife.

The image used for the official poster is one of the most crucial scenes that also best captures their chemistry, which we learned from the stars was also a process in itself.

On how they broke the ice on set, Dingdong said during our interview: “It was a long process because this was seven years in the making. So from the first meeting until we (started working on our) characters, our connection also gradually built up.

“When you’re in that creative process, when you’re in that process of creating your characters, the bonding already starts there. And that’s something I appreciate — for us, it was a good practice, something that I would treasure. In fact, more than the shooting, it’s really the process of building the characters that I won’t forget.”

Charo admitted she no longer expected the project to push through after such a long wait. That’s why she’s especially grateful it finally did — and she hopes viewers will embrace their characters the way they’ve connected with other iconic screen couples.

“As Dingdong said, this was pitched seven years ago. I was still bagets (laughs). When we finally decided to shoot, so many years had passed so I didn’t think he’d still do it and I would understand if his mind had changed because a lot has changed and happened,” she said.

“And I would understand because (the film is) different. It’s not your typical love story because first of all we’re not a love team. We’re two professionals who got together to deliver a good story so the film is very different, right?

“But then I’m so thankful that we were able to create a love team in the characters of Betty and Ryan. So if there’s Harry and Sally, and there’s Miggy and Laida, I think the audience will look forward to watching and getting to know Betty and Ryan.”

Direk Irene previously revealed that the script underwent several revisions and iterations to adjust to the times and production limitations.

But for Charo, the story just “got better and better and better” after the “meetings and conversations with direk Irene.”

The bigger challenge though was, as the former ABS-CBN boss put it, “How do we drop our personas? Because Dingdong has his persona, I have my persona… how do we drop them in portraying the characters of Betty and Ryan… It was a lot of hard work and studying the character, communicating and you know, collaborating with each other and direk Irene.”

Asked to sum up their first work experience, Dingdong said, “It’s once in a lifetime because I can’t imagine when this will happen again — getting to work with Ma’am Charo, who used to be just on our wishlist, and now it actually happened.

“It’s also once in a lifetime because of the story, which is just fitting and direk Irene (who directed the actor in the movie ‘Sid and Aya’) is also there. I think everything just fell into place at the right time,” the Kapuso leading man said.

He also confirmed that his wife, Marian Rivera, was among the first few to watch “Only We Know” in advance.

“She loves the idea. She loves this movie, especially as a woman,” he said.

According to Charo, it was one of those times when everything simply worked in their favor.

“Sometimes in life, there are moments that feel like the mix is just right. The elements are right, the stars aligned, so to speak, right? So this is one of those moments — it was the right timing,” she said.

“I never thought ever, at this stage of my life, that I’d be doing a story about love — romance even — at my age, and that I’d be starring in a movie with Dingdong? That wasn’t in my consciousness, but it came.

“So, it’s a story about waiting, too. It pays to wait. In life, it pays to wait,” she concluded.

Produced by Star Cinema and Agosto Dos Pictures, “Only We Know” opens in theaters nationwide on June 11.