Amid the brewing controversy over her alleged rudeness that caused veteran actress Vivian Velez to resign from the soap opera Tubig at Langis, Cristine Reyes has released, through her management Viva Artists Agency, a statement about the issue.
It may be recalled that Reyes’ sister, Ara Mina had already weighed in on the issue.
We’re reposting Reyes’ statement below (undedited):
***Note: The nickname, “AA,” is used to refer to Reyes by her co-workers who are quoted in the statement.
When we first started taping for Tubig at Langis, everyone was working well together. But about two weeks ago, I had an issue with the tent assigned to me. It was infested with so many mosquitos that made it very uncomfortable to stay in. I was also quite afraid of any of us getting dengue. The Associate Producer (AP) instructed the production staff to put katol but it proved ineffective. I endured that taping day with the production’s promise to transfer me to a better dressing room in FUTURE tapings. I thought that it was not so much to ask because I’m the first to arrive and the last to be packed up most of the time due to the volume of sequences I had to do every taping day.
The next taping after that, I was transferred to a better dressing room it was the master’s bedroom of the location we were at. From then on, that area became my regular dressing room or standby area. Last Thursday (March 3), the Executive Producer (EP) asked me if Ms. Vivian can share the dressing room with me because her assigned area was not ready to be occupied yet. I of course agreed. I was fine sharing a room with any of my co-stars for as long as we have mutual respect. I would not have agreed with production if I had any ill feelings towards Ms. Vivian.
My staff and I came from shooting for a movie that day so we were all tired. We tried to get some rest and sleep in the bedroom but Ms Vivian made it difficult for us. She was busy fixing her things and in the process made a lot of noise. She was also arguing with her Production Assistant then quite loudly that made sleeping impossible at that point. At some point I stood up to use the rest room and was annoyed to see the toilet bowl unflushed, so when I went out I immediately called my make-up artist’s attention thinking it was he who last used the bathroom.
I went out to get some air and went to where the common area for artists and production was. The EP asked me why I was there. I said that it was difficult to sleep with Ms. Vivian inside the room. The EP told me not to worry because Ms Vivian’s dressing room will soon be ready.
Later I spoke to the EP and requested a dialogue with Ms Vivian so I can make it clear with her that I had nothing to do with the request for her to transfer rooms. To be very clear about it, I never requested anyone at any point for Ms Vivian to be transferred rooms. In fact, I gladly welcomed production’s request for her to share a room with me while her room was still unavailable.
And despite the inconvenience I encountered while she was around, I had no intentions whatsoever of booting her out. The EP told me that it was impossible at that time to have a dialogue with Ms Vivian because her emotions were still so high. I did not want to push it too and, out of frustration and stress, I cried to my co-star Zanjoe Marudo.
Thursday taping finally packed up so we all went home with this issue unresolved. Saturday taping followed, and upon arriving on the set, I was still stressed out that the incident has yet to reach any kind of resolution.
My co-stars on the set were joking around with me about the incident with jokes like, and I quote, “AA, sasabay daw si Ms Vivian sa car mo paglipat natin ng location, ayos lang ba?” etc. etc. Our EP heard the jokes and instructed my co-stars to stop fooling around about the issue because the atmosphere is tense enough already.
The EP turned to me and said, and I quote, “Konting tiis na lang AA. Sa Monday kakausapin na siya ng management para sa pagkawala niya sa show.” Still I would’ve appreciated a resolution better because I had nothing to do with the issue of Ms Vivian’s source of anger. It was the production staff that was trying to transfer her and not me. I in fact made the initiative to be the one to transfer dressing rooms that day to stop the issue then.
I was so stressed that when it was finally time for me to do a scene where Ms Vivian will be present I was trying to motivate myself by just singing Avril Lavigne’s “Goodbye” song before doing the scene. It was of course subliminal because of my knowledge of her departure from the show. It was short of saying to myself precisely what the EP informed me earlier.
More than anything, it was my way of dealing with the situation to get the job done. The scene was shot and thank god it was not with Ms. Vivian directly but with Zanjoe. Ms. Vivian was also there but her point of view was also with Zanjoe.
Ms. Vivian started to shout at me and, I quote, “Ako ba ang pinariringgan mo!? Sino ka ba?! Superstar ka ba?!” I got rattled at this point and I just answered her in a mild manner, “Kumakanta lang naman ako, masama ba kumanta?” And it was at this point that Zanjoe pulled me away from the scene because he was alarmed with the way both Ms Vivian and her make-up artist were charging toward me.
I am sorry that some gaps in the communication between the production staff, Ms Vivian, and myself escalated some issues. I reiterate that I wanted them resolved soonest for everyone’s peace of mind.
I am also sorry that emotions got so heightened that some of my actions were misconstrued for rudeness when they were, more than anything else, my own way of coping with the stressful working conditions on the set in this particular instance.
But I sincerely apologize if it hurt Ms. Vivian or anybody else. I do have high regard for and respect with thanks senior artists who have paved the way for stars like me in the industry.
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