The Golden Boy: Joel Torre speaks about acting, turning 50 and being part of “˜Amigo’1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe saying “as good as gold” indicates something or someone that is of the highest level, excellent and at the finest standard. Among the Philippines’ rich array of good actors, veteran and multi-award winning actor Joel Torre has been acclaimed one of the best, truly as good as gold.
Interestingly, the word “gold” crops up when describing Joel. He started his professional acting career three decades ago playing the lead role in Oro, Plata, Mata ( translated Gold, Silver, Bad Luck).
And recently, Joel turned “Golden Boy” with a party in Manila celebrating his 50th birthday with family and close friends, including Academy award nominee writer-director John Sayles, who wrote, directed and co-produced the independent film Amigo, starring Joel.
A few days ago, Joel was in Los Angeles as part of a multi-city tour promoting Amigo which was shown in Manila in July and has been showing in selected US theatres from August until September. The movie tackles a little known episode in history: the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War. Amigo tells of the struggle faced by a town mayor played by Joel, where he is pressured to choose between collaborating with American troops to keep peace or remaining loyal to his people, including his brother who heads the local guerilla movement.
Aside from Torre, the other stars of the movie include Rio Locsin, Ronnie Lazaro and Bembol Roco; and Academy award winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation), Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men, Deadwood) and Tony award winner, Yul Vasquez.
