Actor Joross Gamboa admitted that he tweaked his Rico Gallardo character in “Flower of Evil” upon the instructions of his director Darnel Villaflor, to give it more of a Filipino flavor.

“Sa akin kasi hindi ko dapat papanoorin ‘yung original. Kaya lang gusto kong malaman kung kakayanin ng opera ko kasi bagong opera ako that time, eh, sa Achilles tendon,” Gamboa said during the online press conference for the series, last June 20.

(For me, I was not intending to watch the original. But I needed to know if I can do [the role] despite my recent operation that time for my Achilles tendon.)

Gamboa revealed that he watched the original Korean drama as he was asked to do the fight scenes first. He admitted that he got hooked while watching it.

“Ginawa ko na lang as blueprint. Susundan mo lang ‘yung flow kasi ‘yun din ang pattern na tatahakin namin,” he explained. “Pero meron kasing flavor na dinagdag dito sina direk. Pinoy flavor kasi ito kaya ‘yung mga character ay may konting twist,” he said.

(I just used it as a blueprint. You will just follow the flow because that was also the pattern that we would take. Our director added a certain flavor, a Filipino flavor, that is why the characters have some slight twists.)

The actor also revealed that his writer character was tweaked and now possesses an air of arrogance.

“Sa original, hindi mayabang ‘yung character ko kay Piolo. So, dito, gusto ni direk may konting yabang para meron daw clash. Kumbaga, kapag magkaeksena na kami ni Piolo, gusto ni direk, parang naglalaban sa baraha, kung sino ‘yung may upper hand lagi,” he explained.

(In the original, my character is not arrogant to Piolo. But here, our director wanted a little arrogance so that there would be clashes. That is, when Piolo and I have scenes together, the director wants it to be as if we were fighting with cards, and one would wonder who will have the upper hand always.)

“Flower of Evil” started showing on Viu last June 23 and 24, and on the Kapamilya Channel and A2Z last June 25 and 26. JB

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