Director Chito S. Rono and Creative Director Kriz Gazmen fearlessly answered questions about the Star Cinema movie, Etiquette for Mistresses in a bloggers conference that took place last Monday, September 28.

Sharing that the film was based on Jullie Yap Daza’s book carrying the same title, Kriz explained how they adapted the novel into a movie. “We were very faithful dun sa rules na nakasulat sa book kasi meron dun mga rule number 1, rule number 2, ganyan. Sa book kasi, there were about 20 rules pero hindi naman siyempre lahat magagamit namin kasi baka maging 5 hours ‘yung pelikula, di ba? So we lifted the most interesting rules for us na magfifit well para dun sa pelikula na ginagawa namin,” he said, adding that Direk Chito also incorporated anecdotes.

Meanwhile, the Creative Director also expressed hopes that people will not judge the movie too soon. “I don’t want people to judge it as just another mistress movie. Because it’s going to be very unfair for the movie na i-judge mo siya ng ganoon.”

He also admitted feeling disheartened when he reads posts such as, “Na parang ito na naman, kuwento na naman ng mga kabit, ganyan, paulit-ulit… Na parang kinocompare pa na parang why can’t we make socially relevant movies and all that.”

He then said, “I’d like to say that this is a socially relevant movie because it tackles a socially relevant phenomenon for me.”

Furthermore, he hopes that people will keep an open mind while watching the movie because, “For the very first time, we’re showing a movie that we’re not basically judging mistresses for what they do… Matapang ‘yung pelikula kasi sinasabi namin sa inyo na ito ‘yung buhay na pinasok nila… So meron silang freedom of choice, that’s what we want to honor… but the movie also shows na if you have the freedom of choice, wala ka namang freedom of consequence which means whatever the consequences of your actions are, pananagutan mo siya afterwards... I can honestly say it’s not another mistress movie, it’s a mistress movie that you’ve never seen before.”

Meanwhile, Direk Chito explained why he did not want Etiquette for Mistresses star Kim Chiu to resort to “teleserye acting” while doing the film. The actress earlier admitted that the award-winning director would call her attention for doing such. Having given the term, he tenderly said, “That’s what I probably see her on TV doing and probably that’s the comfortable way she attacks a scene so I try to move her away from that because it does not feel right for me for that particular character nor does it fit into the acting of the others who are into their characters already.”

Furthermore, he said, “And mind you, you have Claudine Barretto who is really a movie actress. And you have Iza (Calzado) and Cheena (Crab) who surprised everybody because she’s a very natural actress kasi teatro eh… Alam niyang gumamit ng katawan even better than the others kasi mas may training siya. And then si Kris (Aquino), I’ve worked with Kris several times, madali na kami ni Kris nag-uusap tungkol sa attack niya ng character. Each actress I would have a different way of doing it.”

Catch Etiquette for Mistresses on cinemas nationwide starting September 30.