“Kung madali lang ang trabaho, why bother doing it?” Ziv Rei Alexi top and Wataru Sakuma skirt. Photographed by Artu Nepomuceno, Vogue Philippines, October 2024.
The role that Dolly de Leon embarks on for Request sa Radyo will, admittedly, be a challenge, but she’s never been one to back down before. Here, the actress talks about having dinner with Lea Salonga, missed calls, and pre-show rituals.
When Dolly de Leon heard that Lea Salonga was heading to Manila in August, she invited her out to dinner, just the two of them.
She knew they were going to do photoshoots and interviews together over the next few weeks, to drum up publicity for their upcoming October show, Request sa Radyo, and she wanted to break the ice ahead of time. Because while both women had garnered international praise and recognition as noteworthy actors, they had never actually met.
“I wanted to get the awkwardness out of the way, and this helps with the process. So I booked a room to give her some privacy, after all, she is Lea Salonga,” says Dolly, seemingly still oblivious that she is Dolly de Leon, hugely admired as the first Filipino to be nominated for a Golden Globe award for supporting actress in any motion picture, for her role in Triangle of Sadness, back in 2022.
Dolly, a character actress who says she felt invisible practically her whole career, sometimes being assigned roles without any names, just the generic “doctor” or “judge,” says she hasn’t gotten used to the idea that she has joined Lea on the world stage as a performer who is a source of much national pride for fellow Filipinos.
“It’s a lot of pressure, you know,” she says.
For her role in Triangle, Dolly’s character was given a name, Abigail, a cleaner on a luxury yacht, invisible at first to the privileged passengers on the ship. She later turns the tables and makes her presence strongly felt, as she wrests control of other people’s lives when they are shipwrecked on an island.
For their upcoming role on Request sa Radyo, Dolly and Lea take turns playing the same character, an overseas foreign worker, a caregiver, a Filipino in a land that’s not home, practically invisible to everyone else.
“It’s a good thing to have that fear though, to make sure we do it right. Because kung madali lang ang trabaho, why bother doing it?”
“It’s about someone who lives alone, and how she deals with loneliness,” says Dolly. “I know how it feels to be alone and isolated. I just came from Munich, and it wasn’t easy. I have four children, but I couldn’t just call them at any time because of the time difference. By the time I’d get home, it was already 10 P.M. in Germany, which meant it was early morning in Manila and everyone was asleep. I’d be so tired and lonely and I just wanted that human connection, but I couldn’t get it.”
Instead, Dolly said she’d sometimes get home to her dreary apartment in the dead of winter and just cry.
“And to think I was away for just six months. The experience taught me a lot, gave me a peek into how many OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] live their lives. It’s very lonely,” says Dolly. “Many never know when they’ll get a chance to go home. Some have to work for five years before they can buy a ticket to fly back.”
“They’re heroes, really. They bring in dollars, improve the quality of life of their families back home,” says Dolly. “There are 1.9 million OFWs all over the world. Everywhere you go, you see Filipino workers. They’re making a sacrifice for the greater good.”
Dolly says part of her process before each show is putting on her own makeup.
“Having a makeup artist is kind of intrusive, it gets in the way of my creation of a character. It doesn’t make her 100 percent mine,” says Dolly, who asks to be left alone once she enters her dressing room. “For me, the makeup process is part of the creation of the character, part of my process of creating her.”
The upcoming show will be an intimate one. The performer will be alone on stage, in a round surrounded by the audience.
“I’ve gotten used to big productions, big setups. It’ll be daunting to have the audience so close. When you’re on stage, you tend to be hyper-focused on what you’re doing. Having people present may throw you off,” says Dolly. “It’s been six years though since I’ve done a play, since I’ve been working with film for so long. This will be a challenge.”
Dolly continues: “Since the audience will be sitting very close, the pressure will be incredible. It’s a good thing to have that fear though, to make sure we do it right. Because kung madali lang ang trabaho, why bother doing it?”
For Vogue Philippines’ October 2024 cover story, the creative forces behind the new stage production Request sa Radyo talk about isolation and loneliness, the need for community, and what it means to feel seen. See the stories of Lea Salonga, Clint Ramos, and Bobby Garcia below.
By YVETTE FERNANDEZ. Photographs by ARTU NEPOMUCENO. Fashion Director PAM QUIÑONES Beauty Editor JOYCE OREÑA Styling by NEIL DE GUZMAN & LEANNE LEDESMA. Makeup: Ting Duque. Hair: Bill Watson and Cherry Reyes of Toni&Guy. Scenographer: Clint Ramos. Production Design: Ohm David. Nails: Extraordinail. Art Director: Jann Pascua. Producer: Anz Hizon, Bianca Zaragoza. Beauty Writer: Bianca Custodio. Associate Producers: Divine Lorenzo, Julian Rodriguez. Supplementary Interviews: Chelsea Sarabia. Photographer’s Assistants: Jorsette Vallespin, Lourenco Narciso, Meg Manzano, Odan Juan. Stylist’s Assistants: Charlotte Sombillo, Jia Torrato. Makeup Assistants: Nikki Duque, Lalaine Samson. Hair Assistants: Glenda Eugenio, Jessica Riva, and Lindsay Agapito of Toni&Guy. Production Design Assistants: Cheska Cartativo, Boyet Matabulos, Giemmuel Caldona, Raul Avila, Kim Blanes. Production Assistant: Franky Tan. Backdrops: Schmidli Backdrops from Espacio Creativo Escolta. Puppet designed by Mikayla Teodoro. Puppet made by Puppet Theater Manila. Scenographer: Clint Ramos.
Shot on location at Samsung Performing Arts Theater. Special thanks to Christopher Monani, Managing Director for Circuit Performing Arts Venues, Kenneth Cobonpue, and Rita Nazareno.
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