Never pass judgment on someone. This was what young actress Francine Diaz learned from portraying her character in her first horror movie “Tenement 66.”

In the Rae Red movie, Diaz’s character Lea convinces a young con artist Teban, played by Francis Magundayao, to rob an old man, played by veteran actor Lou Veloso.

“Para po sa akin, ang talagang pinakanatutunan ko dito base sa ginawa ng character ko, ng characters namin sa story, hindi porke nakagawa ang tao ng masamang bagay ay masamang tao na siya,” she said during the online press conference for the movie last Thursday, July 15.

(For me, the best lesson I learned here, based on what my character did [and] what the [other] characters did in the story, is that just because a person did something wrong does not mean he is already an evil person.)

Diaz said her character did what she did so she can leave the house where her father often abused and hurt her.

“So, ‘yung only way out ng character kong si Lea ay ‘yung gumawa ng masasama. Wala na siyang ibang option kundi ‘yun ang gawin niya. Pero hindi naman talaga siya masamang tao kaya ‘wag tayo agad mag-judge sa mga nakikita lang natin sa panlabas na anyo ng isang tao kasi you’ll never now kung ano ang pinagdadaanan niya at kung bakit nagawa niya ang isang bagay,” she explained.

(So, my character Lea’s only way out is to do something bad. She doesn’t have any other option but do that. But she is not really a bad person, so let’s not be quick to judge based on what we see on a person from the surface because you’ll never know what the person is going through and why that person does something.)

francine diaz — Image: Instagram/@francinediaz

Diaz said it is better to be “kind to those unkind people because they need it the most.”

Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for Diaz while shooting the film was not to laugh in their scenes, especially since she’s working with friends Francis Magundayao and Noel Comia.

“Mahirap maging seryoso. Lahat ng eksena namin ay kailangan seryoso ka. Pati character ko seryoso siyang tao,” she noted.

(It’s hard to get serious. All of our scenes required us to be serious. Even my character is a serious person.)

“Tenement 66” start streaming and showing on July 23 via iWantTFC, KTX.ph, TFC IPTV, SKY Pay-Per-View and Cignal Cable Pay-Per-View. JB

Horror is the hardest to do, says Francis Magundayao

Rae Red’s ‘Tenement 66’ to premiere in Korea fest