Scene 2 Seen Podcast: Dolly De Leon Discusses ‘Ghostlight’, ‘Between The Temples’ And The Difference Between Making Films In The Philippines And Hollywood
Hello, and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast!
I am Valerie Complex, an associate editor and film writer at Deadline. Today, I am chatting with actress Dolly De Leon, veteran stage and screen actress from the Philippines whose star is on the rise in Hollywood.
More from Deadline
She received her long-overdue international breakout role in Ruben ?stlund’s 2022 critically-acclaimed feature Triangle of Sadness, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was released in theaters by Neon.
De Leon was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize by the LA Film Critics Association and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role—the first Filipino to be nominated in an acting category at either association.
More recently, De Leon starred in the Filipino box office sensation A Very Good Girl co-starring Kathryn Bernardo, the drama Keys To The Heart in which she plays the mother of an autistic piano virtuoso (currently streaming on Netflix), and The Missing, the first feature-length animated film to play at the Cinemalaya festival. The Missing won Best Film at the festival and Dolly was awarded Best Supporting Actress and a special NETPAC award for her performance. It was selected as the official Oscar entry for the Philippines this year.
Upcoming projects include Paul Feig’s feature film Grand Theft Lotto with Awkwafina and Simu Liu and Amazon’s series Nine Perfect Strangers, along with two indie films, Nathan Silver’s Between The Temples starring Jason Schwartzman and Ghostlight, co-directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. Both films premiered at Sundance 2024.
Classically trained in the theater, the actress has starred in more than 30 stage productions ranging from Shakespeare to Harold Pinter to Samuel Beckett, and has received numerous accolades for her contributions to the theater community in the Philippines. In film and TV, she has worked with highly-regarded Filipino directors Lav Diaz in his Historya Ni Ha and Erik Matti on the HBO anthology series Folklore, in which she played the leading role. She also won a 2020 best supporting actress prize at the Philippines’ Academy Awards (FAMAS) for her performance in Verdict.
In this episode, De Leon and I discuss Ghostlight, Between The Temples, how music and theater can be healing and the main differences between starring in films in the Philippines and Hollywood.
If you like what you hear, be sure to like, review and subscribe to Scene 2 Seen on Apple podcast, Spotify, and iHeartRadio.
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
