Mark Gil takes even short roles very seriously

MANILA, Philippines – Though alam natin ang nangyari sa character niyang si Kapitan Horacio Pelaez sa "Zorro," which lasted for a short but pivotal time in the prime time hit, si Mark Gil ay nanigurado that this role, as well as his presence, has made a mark with the audience, the people he worked with, and in particular, his co-actors. Siya ang komandante na ang priority ay ang pagsunod sa batas, maging mali man o tama ito sa tingin ng iba. And given this conviction, si Kapitan Horacio Pelaez ay namatay sa kamay ng mga inaping Indio, setting the stage for Ramon’s revenge (as played by TJ Trinidad) and giving life to Antonio’s alter ego, (Richard Gutierrez) Zorro. "My role here is not [to last that] long, [but] I [made] sure na kina-career ko. I do my best, I give my best in whatever role or scenes are as much as I can do. They expected us to speak in Spanish, so even if I'm not actually speaking Spanish, we have a Spanish instructor. I make it a point to inject Spanish into my dialogue. Even if I don't have dialogue, I still put dialogue. So I'm enjoying myself. I'm working with family, Joel [Torre], Leo [Martinez] and Jaclyn Jose are here," he told iGMA.tv in an exclusive interview on the set of "Zorro." Mark proudly notes that such roles ay nag-iiwan ng malaking impact sa audience at pati na din sa mga producers ng show. "Maganda ‘yun, which is like a gift. I do a series, a soap where my character is supposed to not stay long. Namatay din siya, but then I get a feedback na I guess you're gonna be in the season two, because they wanna keep you. ‘Yun ang konsuwelo," he says. As we remember, Mark played the father of Lily (Camille Prats) in the just concluded and highly rated Dramarama sa Hapon soap, "Gaano Kadalas ang Minsan," kung saan ang kanyang appearance sa mga huling episode ng show na ito ang naging basehan ng conclusion ng istorya. Kanyang binanggit din that it was the first that that he worked with Richard. "I've known [Richard] since he was little," he says. "Eto [nga], jokingly I told him, 'We have not worked together. We need to work together.' [And now] I'm in a Richard Gutierrez project. It's a good thing. It's nice to be in a big show, GMA pa. Here, I'm happy with my role. Well, my roles are always good naman… they're always important. But iba pa rin ‘yung, I'm doing [a Richard Gutierrez] project. It's also good to be in a Dingdong Dantes' project as well." Mark definitely means business when it comes to his craft. "Me and Joel would talk together with Leo Martinez," he says. "Minsan kasi nagbibiruan kami eh. You know sa soap, when we work, we work seryoso, and then we came up to this thought na, 'If we play around, we are not showing a good example to the young ones.’ Ang maganda, we don't really have to impose our work basta nakikita nila na seryoso tayo, automatically dapat sila rin maging seryoso because we don't like to waste time playing around." He further explains: "Pagdating sa set wala nang playing around. Hindi na kami magkakakilala, character-character na…We take our work seriously. Very very seriously."- Erick Mataverde, iGMA.TV