He’s Anthony Bova, acting guru to some of the best Hollywood stars, theater actors, coach to the world’s best corporate executives and GMA’s brightest stars. He’s back in Manila to work on GMA’s home grown talents, their curriculum and even those who are behind the camera. The noted expert from the US is planting seeds once again - to level up what he’s been doing in the past few years, and celebrities welcomed this with open arms, hearts and minds which is needed for his course.
Anthony Bova says “Before we start, I am a friend of Direk Maryo Delos Reyes. As we go forward in this training, the beautiful actors, this is a continuation of that spirit. This empowerment thing was a part of that talk with him and hopefully he is with us and continually be with us, this is for the love of that man.”
“In GMA, I did a lot of listening and tried to see where the actors are in their craft and their career. I hear what they need in their programs, I create a curriculum that fills a couple of holes. We show what we learn, not to do scenes, no plays, something different that they do what is demanded of them, to turn it on and off into their character which happens to a lot of actors without a lot of time.”
“We train them to have access to their parts that can be used as tools and do it very quickly. They need a strong foundation, then use the tools to deliver. In January, they need to do it twice in different executions, into different scenes. Completely different performance in the same scene, that’s an example. Actors here are very earthy, very connected emotionally, no ego like some hollywood actors I’ve had to work with so out job is easier. We don’t have to spend energy to get to their bodies.”
“Their weakness is being so humble, it makes them small, a very delicate line, but no, they have to get their space. That subtlety takes away from the actors part. One is to make them have awareness, it shouldn’t be subservient. In roleplay they need to know how they feel when they act, they learn how they feel and empower them to contradict that even if they feel the opposite. They don’t have to overact, they have to honor it and be grateful by educating them through that science. When we worked out my curriculum with GMA, there were a lot we had to put there with Ana Feleo filling in when I’m not here. I gotta go to work to know we make decisions that is systemized from a place without any deficit.”
“They must know it’s not an actor thing, the x factor of the human being. There is nothing better than the colors and layers in this room, to cultivate that talent, much more than an IT factor. It has to have bravery and discipline, I normally hate questions but these are great!”
He adds “I am not just learning from you, but learning from the talents of GMA because they have been so passionate they have been easy to work with. They come to class so awake, hungry to do their homework, and this makes our job easy because they don’t have their egos in the way.”
Mikoy says “I find workshops therapeutic, when he came in, he taught us a different attitude, you become empowered when you are on set, not just the attitude at work but life. You have you, you’re a giant, it changed how I see life. It’s really helpful but the homeworks are crazy, but if you do it, you see the effect at home, you see how you become a better person overall. You doubt yourself less.”
We asked him about his recent tweets too that had me worried a bit, he answered quite nice.
Andrea says “His homework includes reading, answering a set of questions like your goals, how to achieve that and see your blessings unfold. You want to explain yourself, on how you feel.”
Chynna says “I really took it on 100% and I was scared to show who I really was, I double guess myself but because of this and two years we’re doing this, it made me take on decisions that I jumped into, opportunities and roles that made me feel self psych talking to myself, now I have a family, a daughter, creative writing, even if I feel I don’t have time, we just be.”
Ben Alvez adds “He sees us as humans first and not just teach us how to be actors. We do 30-40 scenes a day, that’s a short time, but being more attuned with myself, he has brought that out. We can work from there. You are constantly discovering yourself in layers, you surprise yourself.”
Anthony also is known for furnishing some weird homeworks for the actors. Thea Tolentino says “I didn’t know how I improved as you continue to do the homework. You go up and down, you don’t know why but you observe where you are. It’s difficult to answer too because it’s all in English (she jokes). But now I can do my contrabida roles effectively, in different ways which I have learned in the past year, hopefully this year too.”
I also asked her about recent Twitter trolls that attacked her, she still was so nice and adamant about dealing with them. That takes class!
GMA Executive Ms. Gigi Santiago says “Anthony Vincent Bova is back in the Philippines and we love to have a caliber of people like him and Ana Feleo, training all our artists. We welcome you back to the Philippines. These guys are very into it, they know we have a special thing going on. We are planning to include production people, even our boss is going to be included, she’s asked us who will be there so she too can prepare, I couldn’t even believe that. We are slowly doing it and we have seen it bear fruit.”
It’s one of the reasons why the network is now saving money, time and effort on their actors. They have changed culture, it takes a lot to do that. It’s also the reason why you see huge improvements in the shows they are doing - and for the years to come. It currently is only available with GMA’s talent pool, they’re very lucky.
KUMAGCOW
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