Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — Two years ago, at the ripe old age of 26, Enchong Dee hit a wall.
“I just ended doing a soap,” he recalls. “And after two days, I started doing another soap … It’s like, ‘Boom!’ I think we were the show that replaced that [other] show.”
Having gone from soap to soap while working on three movies in the same time frame, the actor felt close to burning out. “Don’t get me wrong, I was happy,” he says. “I was very thankful. But I was getting tired — [and] I don’t like saying the word tired.”
He made a decision to stay away from acting for two years — a risky move for any actor, but almost a death wish for one just managing the transition from teen heartthrob to leading man. Dee stacked the cards in his favor, though. He stayed in the limelight through endorsements (Coke and Bench are longtime partnerships), guest spots (“Pinoy Big Brother: 737”), and the biggest surprise of all, a self-titled dance album and a sold-out concert (“DeeTour”) — both of which he produced himself, running risks but also showing teeth, for the first time in his career.
After eight years of largely coloring within the lines and following the showbiz playbook, it felt like the actor was finally taking chances. “The bad side would probably be that there’s a certain confusion kung ano ba talaga ang gusto kong gawin,” he says. “But I guess when you love and you know what you want, hindi ka mawawala, eh. I mean, sorry for the language, but fuck it, ‘di ba? I am the person who’s working for this, not any other person. So I know what I need to do just for me not to get burned out.”
The two years he spent away from the camera taught him to value his craft more, realizing that he wanted to take on more challenging roles and start taking left-field choices. In that sense, he’s truly lucked out on the recently released “I Love You to Death,” a movie that has become both a box-office hit and one of the best reviewed in his career. “It’s a cult film in the making,” the film critic Philbert Dy said in a tweet.
“I Love You to Death” is a weird movie: a romance, a comedy, and a horror flick all in one. In it, Dee plays against type, as Kiray Celis’s back-from-the-dead childhood lover — one of showbiz’s most kinetic performers suddenly tasked to quite literally play dead. “Definitely a dead person wouldn’t [move as well] as a person who’s alive,” he says. “Of course you have to be careful with your reactions because you can’t be surprised all the time, or [make any] quick movements — baka kasi kumalas yung isa mong kamay.”
To prepare for the role, he made a point to not be so talkative and social on set. “I was just reading this article about [the making of] ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ and [how] Meryl Streep had to put some space [between her and] all the other cast [members] just for her to feel the relationship between her and the character of Anne [Hathaway],” he says. “So it’s pretty much the same. I mean, you can’t be as makulit and talkative and then all of a sudden at the snap of the director, you’ll be [in character], ‘di ba?” It seems the preparation has paid off.
“When [you’ve had] 10 years in the business, you want to do something that will drive you or bring the fire back,” Dee says. “And I can’t see myself doing the same old stuff. Nothing against the TV [shows] or the movies I did before, but you just want to do something different. And that’s why I initiated the album, that’s why I produced my own concert, that’s why I experimented on “Lila” or “I Love You to Death.” Just to make me feel alive again.”
That restless spirit has led him to indie movies. After Gino Santos’s “Lila,” which was shown in April as part of Sinag Maynila, he’s doing a Cinemalaya movie with the director Mes De Guzman.
Of course, he’s also got his big-studio bases covered. He has an upcoming ABS-CBN teleserye with Bea Alonzo, Ian Veneracion, and Iza Calzado. And he’s set to star with Richard Yap and Janella Salvador in a new installment of the “Mano Po” franchise slated for the Metro Manila Film Festival.
His dream project? “Maka-trabaho si John Lloyd Cruz,” he says. “Even if we’re in the same business, I’m still such a fan in front of him.” And his dream role? Something like Ryan Phillippe’s role in “Cruel Intentions.” “Yung sex addict — pero wala namang offers na ganun, eh,” he says with a laugh.
“Of course, you have to take care of the box office [but] at the same time, you want to take care of your craft, so I made sure to separate it,” he says. “But of course, just because it’s box office-[friendly] doesn’t mean you won’t take care of your performance, and if it’s independent, you want as much as possible for a wider audience to see it.”
At 27, Dee is at that weird place a lot of teen stars in their late twenties find themselves in: experienced enough to say he’s worked for 10 years, but young enough to strive for real growth. He’s been around long enough to know that a showbiz career doesn’t last forever — he’s got a backup plan in place, with a Peri Peri Charcoal Chicken in SM Megamall and another soon to open in UP Town Center — but while he’s in it, he’s determined to make the most of it.
“Now that I’m celebrating my 10th year, I want to give back to my audience,” he says. “I want to go back to why they loved me in the first place. Yun lang yung pakiramdam kong kailangan kong gawin para lang hindi ako ma-burn out. I needed the [two-year] break just to experiment and just to find what I really like.”
