It’s great to see that Mike de Leon or whoever manages the @CitizenJakeFilm are engages with the fans, who commented on the post.
Here’s the full text of the post;
Quoting Mandy in the film: “You don’t care about anyone who isn’t Jake Herrera!
Mike De Leon – “Atom Araullo is not a professional actor and I only came across his name when I read that he had resigned from his job as a reporter in his former TV network (I don’t watch television). And since I never wanted a professional actor for the lead role in Citizen Jake, I thought it interesting to work with someone whose work was journalism and who I thought shared my political convictions. I have known and worked with outstanding journalists before when I was politically active during the latter years of the Marcos era. I only realized later that Atom’s journalism was not exactly the kind of journalism I had in mind. It’s not the gritty kind but more of the celebrity-centered schlock that sometimes verges on entertainment, even showbiz. Looking back, I can see why he wanted to become a movie actor. Perhaps the journalist was really a closet movie star. Nevertheless, his contribution to the screenplay was substantial. I can also say the same about Noel Pascual, my second co-writer. But in the end, like in my other films, it was my job to put together the entire screenplay, not Noel’s and certainly not Atom’s, him being a complete newbie in screenwriting.
As an actor I believe he did a good job and I won’t say the usual “in spite of…” There were scenes where he acted unevenly but there were also scenes, many of them major, where he was terrific. Perfect for the role of Jake, the self-absorbed millennial. Even if Citizen Jake is my most personal film, sometimes I feel it’s a film Atom and myself made together, through thick and thin, through upheaval after upheaval and unfortunately there were many. But I hoped that in the end, we would still share the same convictions we started off with. Alas, that was not to be. Now I find myself alone in speaking for the film, defending the film against those who would exploit it for political mileage and those who would wish it harm, two types of people of basically the same mold.
I think atom and i are both relieved to close the book on this collaboration and finally get out of each other’s lives. What is important in the unique world of cinema is that Citizen Jake has now acquired a life of its own, separate from us. As Francois Truffaut, the late great French Director, said in “Day for Night,” his film about filmmaking: ‘The film is king.’ The only thing left is for people to watch it. (this is me, not Truffaut).”
