Janine Tugonon on Hollywood

Filipino Actress Janine Tugonon On Hollywood's Asian Representation

Katie Chow
Refinery29.com
11 June 2019

Model and actress Janine Tugonon’s career path was supposed to be straightforward: At 20 years old, she'd go into the medical field like her grandmother, mother, and aunt before her. But while studying pharmacy in her native Philippines, her classmates entered her into a school pageant, and in no time at all, she was winning national competitions.

After visiting America for the first time in 2012 to compete on the world stage — where she won first runner-up — Tugonon fell in love with the U.S. and decided to leave the Philippines to pursue acting and modeling. Now, she splits her time between New York and L.A., going wherever work and acting classes take her.

Leaving behind the recognition and job security she had in a pageant-loving culture was a big risk for Tugonon, but she also had to contend with the even greater challenge of breaking into two fields in which Asian representation is still lacking. So far, it's paid off — she became the first Filipino model in a major lingerie campaign, and you might've also spotted her in ad spots for other big-name retailers. In partnership with Toyota — whose all-new 2020 Corolla was built on the principles of perpetually evolving and doing the unexpected (sound familiar?) — we talked to Tugonon about finding a career she’s passionate about, the future of Asian representation, and why she never takes the easy way out.

When you were growing up, who inspired you to be an actress?"I feel like it's always been there in me. But when I was in the Philippines, with my family, going into acting was not always the number-one option. We were all in the medical field, so it's something I just put aside and didn't even think of pursuing. When I moved to the U.S. in 2013, that was the first time I ever did acting, even just going in front of people and doing a script. So then I studied, and I really loved it. I wouldn't say there was one particular person who inspired me; it was just me watching a movie and doing what they were doing that stuck in my head, like, That's really cool and challenging, and I want to do it someday."

Asian representation in American media has grown rapidly in the past few years, but there's still a long way to go. What do you hope to see in the future?
"My first struggle when I moved here was with modeling. Yes, they liked my beauty, but in general, if [brands] get Asian representation, it's usually [someone who is] Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Some [models] have darker skin tones, but I feel like [brands] got used to Asians with lighter skin tones. So a lot of the Pacific Islanders, the Asians down in the islands who have darker skin tones, are still not globally known or widely used [in campaigns]. I would get some jobs that would put me on hold and then release me, because my target market is not widely known. That's one thing I would want to see, for Asians coming from the islands or from the southeast. I hope that eventually, we'll be in the spotlight and be recognized in the U.S."

Which industries do you think have seen an improvement in Asian representation?
"I would say the beauty industry... I've gotten a lot of beauty jobs [that aren't] only limited to Asians with lighter skin tones. In fashion, maybe they're not yet there.

"I also feel like in TV now there's a lot of diversity, even in movies. [Watching a recent superhero blockbuster], I thought, Wow, this is a lot of diversity. It looks good; it actually looks more fun. I feel like the film industry is growing faster than the modeling industry in terms of that. I watch a lot of movies and TV series, and I see many nationalities or races there.

"I've even noticed some of them don't have American accents. Now, I feel like they're using actors that have a different accent for a specific role, which is good. For someone coming from a different country, it's hard to learn an American accent in a snap. But they're opening more roles, like, 'Okay, let's make this role for this person, so it's okay for him to have an accent.'"

Have you felt any pressure to get accent coaching?
"Yes, I did it in L.A. when I first started there — it's just so expensive. It's a lot of pressure because when you don't have an American accent, your roles are limited. Mostly, when they hear you speaking differently and you know that the role is for someone who's from here, the casting directors will just be like, 'Okay, it's going to be hard to cast her for this.' Instead of having a huge amount of auditions you can go to, it's limited to a few."

You’ve been the Philippines’ representative to international pageants. Do you feel pressure to represent that culture in your day-to-day life now that you live in the U.S.?
"Filipinos, we always love representation. When they see someone who's Filipino, or even part Filipino, they're happy. We have that feeling of, Wow, she's Filipino, good for her! We're going to support her. I was born and raised there, so of course I'll always keep that identity. If I do something big, for them, it's going to be a huge thing. And I want them to feel that I am here because I'm carrying your name as well, for them to see that a Filipino made it."

What has been your biggest challenge in moving to the U.S., and how did you get through it?
"The biggest challenge in the beginning was being able to stay here, because it's always been hard to just move here, especially if you're coming from the Philippines. It's not easy, with all the immigration laws and everything. I had friends who helped me with a place and getting a car — letting me stay for free in their homes and driving me around. And these are people who aren't even my close friends. That's one thing about Filipinos: They're very family-oriented; they'll help you even if they don't know you personally. Since they knew what to do in terms of immigration, they also helped me with that, and getting a part-time job. I also had a friend in the Philippines who had me meet up with an agent, who became my modeling agent when I was starting. They just helped me all around."

As a model and actress, you're constantly subjected to other people's approval. In spite of that, how do you stay true to who you are?
"In the beginning I would be like, Oh, you have to do this and that, but eventually, you start to know yourself more and who you are. That made it easier for me to [realize], Okay, this is me, and this is how it's going to be. I would just have to improve based on that [personal image of] me and not on what other people want me to be. I've learned that through the years, and even now I'm still trying to learn. It's hard being in this industry — every day people will say things, even your agent or a friend. But once you have that foundation of your character and who you are, then it's easier to shrug off comments that won't help you."

What's a piece of advice you'd give to yourself from five years ago?
"I would say don't waste your youth. I feel like when you're young, it's so easy to chill and think, Oh yes, I'm just 18 or 19, and I can still do this; I can be lazy or not think about what I'm going to do. I've been saying that to a lot of young people recently: 'Don't waste it! Start doing what you think you want to do.' Time goes by so quickly. You have to think, What do I have to begin with that I know can make me go further? And once you've found what you really want, don't waste time — start working, start training, start doing everything you can."

Avengers Endgame shoot in PH

Production outfit confirms: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ also partly shot in Philippines 

Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo

Philstar.com

May 3, 2019 

MANILA, Philippines — Warning: this story contains spoilers.

Just like its predecessor “Avengers: Infinity War,” Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Endgame” was also partly shot in the Philippines, an international production company working with Marvel Studios confirms.

In its Facebook page, Indochina Productions revealed that it is among the production companies that worked on the movie in the Philippines.

“Super proud to have been part of AVENGERS: END GAME and also get credited for our work in The Philippines,” Indochina Productions said.

Members of Indochina Productions’ team confirmed in the post’s comments section that the aerial and ground shots of the villain, Thanos, going to what seems to be a Filipino nipa hut or “bahay kubo,” were shot in the Philippines.

Scene shot in the Philippines showing the "bahay kubo" where the villain Thanos retired after annihilating half of the universe's population. Disney, Marvel Studios/Released

It is unclear though if the movie’s stars went to the Philippines to shoot the scenes.

The post also showed a screenshot of Indochina Productions’ filmography, which includes “Avengers: Endgame” with a budget of $400 million and a global gross sales of $644 million as of April 29; and “Avengers: Infinity War,” with a budget of $321 million and a gross worldwide sales of $2.05 billion.

Last year, right after “Avengers: Infinity War” opened in Philippine cinemas, Indochina Productions confirmed on its Facebook account that the final scene showing the villain Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, was shot at the Banaue Rice Terraces.

"Avengers: Endgame" recently broke box office records with a haul of $350 million in North America and $1.2 billion worldwide, according to the estimates of industry watcher Exhibitor Relations.

“Avengers: Endgame” also showed dominance in the local box office as it not only posted the Biggest Opening Day record, it also continued its rampage over the next four days, earning a total of Php937,521,966 ($17.7 million) to date, posting the Biggest Thursday, Biggest Friday, and the Biggest Opening Weekend of All Time, setting yet another local box office record.

The fourth film in the Avengers franchise and the conclusion to 22 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already surpassed the $1-billion mark in the global box office, reaching an unprecedented $1.2 billion in just five days.

Filipino Oscar nominees

Filipino artists receive Oscar nod


Jan Milo Severo
Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will be represented in the upcoming 91st Academy Awards as several Filipino creatives and their films have been nominated in various categories.

Filipino-American Matthew Libatique is nominated for Best Cinematography for his work in Lady Gaga's "A Star is Born."

Filipino-American Matthew Libatique is nominated for Best Cinematography for his work in Lady Gaga's "A Star is Born." 

Facebook/A Star Is Born

He was also nominated at the recently concluded Critics’ Choice Awards but was bested by Alfonso Cuaron of the film “Roma.”

Matthew Libatique

Matthew was first nominated for an Oscar in 2011 for his work in “Black Swan." 

Disney’s “Ralph Breaks The Internet” is nominated in the Best Animated Feature category. One of its story writers is Filipina Josie Trinidad, while its special effects team was headed by Cesar Velasquez.

Josie Trinidad

Nominated in the same category is “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse” which featured Filipino-American Hailee Steinfeld who voiced Spider-Gwen.

Hailee Steinfield

Filipinos Louie del Carmen, Ryan Rubi and John Butiu formed part of the movie's animation team.




Meanwhile, two works by Filipinos are nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category: "One Small Step" co-directed by Bobby Pontillas and "Weekends" by Trevor Jimenez.

Bobby Pontillas

Trevor Jimenez

Popularly known as the Oscars, the Academy Awards will be held on February 24 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Marvel's New Superhero

Marvel to introduce new Filipino superhero 'Wave' 

CNN Philippines Staff
16 February 2019

Metro Manila — Marvel Comics is about to bring a new legion of superheroes in the multiverse, one of them a Filipino heroine named "Wave." 

Wave will be among the new "Agents of Atlas" that will debut in May this year. 

She, along with other new characters — Aero and Sword Master from China — are tasked to save the world in "The War of the Realms" set in Asia.

"War of the Realms is this big, big Marvel universe story involving all the heroes from the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine, the whole line," Marvel editor Will Moss explained. 

Pinoy Disney character

Soon a Pinoy Disney character? 


Nathali Tomada
The Philippine Star
14 November 2018

The Pinay artist during the roundtable interview to promote the latest Disney animated film Ralph Breaks The Internet — a follow-up to the 2012 Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph 2’s Fil-Am animator Josie Trinidad would love to see a Filipina Disney princess warrior and definitely thinks ‘that’s in the future’

MANILA, Philippines — Want to see a Filipino Disney character? For Fil-Am Disney animator Josie Trinidad, she would love to see a Filipina Disney princess warrior and definitely thinks “that’s in the future.”

“I definitely think that there will be a lot of stories that can come from and be inspired by the Philippines because culturally, artistically, creatively, it’s such a rich world that (it) would be very exciting to see. And I definitely think that’s in the future,” Josie told the media, including The STAR, last Friday when asked about the possibility of a Philippines-inspired Disney animation similar to other “culturally-themed” films like Coco (Mexico) or Moana (Polynesian islands).

The Pinay artist was here to promote the latest Disney animated film Ralph Breaks The Internet, a follow-up to the 2012 Wreck-It Ralph, which opens Nov. 21 in cinemas. She is the film’s co-head of story, which means she oversees the story team responsible for translating the script to its first visual form. Her other Disney credits include 2016’s Oscar-winning feature Zootopia, Tangled (2010), The Princess and the Frog (2009), among others. She was also part of Wreck-It Ralph 1.  

Ralph Breaks the Internet brings back to the big screen video-game bad guy Ralph and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz. They leave the video arcades behind and venture into world of the Internet.

Said Josie, “Ralph is a character who doesn’t quite get the Internet…He thinks it’s easy to get viral.

(For) writers and artists we know, it’s such a challenge to create viral content… (Ralph) thinks it’s going to be easy. And then there are great things about the Internet and not so good things like comments and being trolled that we felt like, won’t it be fun to take a naïve character like Ralph and put him through that?”

She also shared how the sequel came about.

“Rich Moore (as director) and Phil Johnston (as screenwriter) worked on the original. This is the first movie where we have the original filmmakers making the sequel and after they finished the first one, they said, you know what, this is great, this movie, we’ve ended it where we wanted it to. And then they have the idea, what if Ralph went to the Internet, broke the Internet, like that’s really funny that this videogame character could think that he could destroy the internet. That sort of opened up the whole world of possibilities.

“The biggest challenge was toning it down — what we were going to focus on because there was too much good stuff going on here to play with. When we focused on their friendship (between Ralph and Vanellope), these two kids from a small town and kind of going to the big city, that’s when we really, OK, it was still really compelling and fun and hilarious and also full of heart.”

Josie, who still has a lot of family in the Philippines and has come home often, was also asked about her Pinoy roots, and what it’s like being a woman in animation, which in her own words, is such a “competitive” and “laborious” job.

Below are excerpts from the rest of the interview.
On her Filipino roots and background:

“I was born in the States. My parents migrated to the US in the 1960s. My dad went to UST (University of Sto. Tomas) and he left to do his (medical) residency in Montreal, Canada. My mom went to Philippine Women’s College and she studied nursing, of course, and she went to Texas as a student. I think her visa ran out and she went to Montreal, Canada where my parents met. Then they went back to the United States and they ended up in California.”

On how she got into the arts:
“My family always talks about that. Each side will claim that the artistic side comes from them. But I feel like my dad is someone who likes to tell stories, and he grew up during World War II. As a kid, we always heard about the war, and the Japanese occupation and all these different stories. So, I feel like the storytelling side came from my dad. But you know, things like hard work, things that Filipinos always instill in their children — that came from the both of them.

“I’m the bunso. I’m the first artist in the family. My other cousins are lawyers, doctors and engineers, so I really went out on a limb doing art and animation (laughs). But now they’re very proud.
“I always loved drawing as a kid. I love Disney. When I was 11, my bestfriend and I were watching Robin Hood, and we paused the movie, just kind of playing around, and the movie started to play frame by frame. Then we realized, my gosh, those are drawings… There’s a human being behind these drawings. And so that’s when I really wanted to become an animator for Disney.” (She eventually attended UCLA where she majored in English Lit and Fine Arts, and then studied character animation at CalArts.)

On how her Pinoy roots influence her work:

“I’m very proud to be Filipino and the Philippine culture is so embedded in who I am. I feel like we were so connected to the Philippines. My mom used to always say, back home in the Philippines. You know, we’re so close as a family and friends. All of that encompasses who I am but also Philippine culture. I feel like it’s just… they’re one and the same despite having grown up in the US, because I feel like they transplanted Philippine culture. It just happened to be the United States but all my experiences were surrounded by family.

“You know, there was a time when I was speaking English and learning as a child, I couldn’t distinguish Tagalog from English. I would say words in school with other Americans and they said, that’s not English. It was really, truly how I grew up. We always have family coming from the Philippines. We always have big family gatherings. It’s weird because growing up, I have the Filipino side such as everything at home and there’s the American side, which is everything at school. It kept worlds a little bit separate. But I was weirdly embedded in both.”

On bringing the Filipino culture to Disney:
“At Disney animation, there are at least three Filipinos working in the story department. I have a friend named Jo Mateo, he’s been there with me since I started working there, he’s like my kuya. There’s a kinship that I feel with other Filipinos… it’s just a shared experience that I know, it’s like I’m with family.

“As far as bringing our culture? I think it just happens… For example, there are a lot of Filipinos working in Disney Animation as well. It’s just nice to see familiar faces who have shared experiences, and I can go there and just kind of know that I’m in a trusting environment.”

On the challenges of being a woman in the animation world:
“When I started in 2004, 14 years ago, I was the only female in our apprenticeship program and there was only two women in the story department… Now the story department is nearly half women. It’s women all over the world and many Asian story artists (from) Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand. It’s really wonderful because you get a female perspective and Asian perspective…from different cultures in Asia. It’s nice to have that camaraderie and diversity in the story room so that each artist can bring their unique perspective and they don’t have to carry the mantle of women or that sort of thing. They can just be themselves because the room is diverse.

“I always thought of it as an advantage because I was the only woman sometimes in a story meeting and I felt like this was a unique perspective, that I can say, that’s not how women act. Or that’s not something that’s common. Or that might be a misperception so I could correct some things or I could just enlighten, I guess, and just say, from my experience, this is what it is. I always found it and I find it in general, I’m not a minority. I’m someone who’s bringing a unique perspective to the room. That’s valid, interesting, they can take it or leave it, but I’m not going to not say my opinion, you know.”

On how aspiring animators can make it:  

“I was aided by luck but also a lot of hard work, which I think a lot of Filipinos have. Filipinos are talented and amazing artists. I would just say, stay true to yourself and don’t give up. We offer a unique perspective as artists and as Filipinos, and we have a very unique story to tell given our history, our varied history. That’s something really worth tapping into. So I would encourage, especially Filipino artists and animators, to tell your own story because that’s something I feel that the world has not seen.”