Manny Jacinto Stuns For Vogue Philippines
On Asian representation in media and the roles he's looking for today: “[When I was growing up] you couldn’t help but see in the media that Asian males weren’t the romantic leads,” he says. “If anything, they can be action stars. But in the case of [the Jet Li-Aaliyah starrer] Romeo Must Die, you can be the action star, but still not kiss the girl.”
“I talk to my team about this all the time. I’m like, ‘Is it a role where I don’t have to take my shirt off? Because that’d be great,’” he says. “I think there’s this fear of being typecast as the guy that always takes his shirt off in his roles. In that sense, it can be frustrating.”
His short lived role on The Acolyte taught him how he’s looking at his career moving forward, encouraging him to start having more agency in his work. “It feels like a natural pivot to produce-to be a creative producer-and that’s what I’m finding myself doing in some of these projects that I’m trying to get off the ground.”
Last year Manny visited the Philippines for the first time in 12 years to celebrate the holidays with family over there. “We were in Makati,” he says. “My dad’s side, a lot of his family’s still in Davao, some people are in Bulacan. My mom’s side is in Gapan.”
“That was a huge inspiration for me to tell more Filipino stories,” he says. “I feel like I’ve only really started.”
One of Jacinto's big dream and goal: Making a Filipino Minari, the Lee Isaac Chung film, or the Filipino version of Lulu Wang’s The Farewell.
His next project? Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan's Freakier Friday. He will be playing Lohan’s character Anna's husband. After that? “The guiding light for now is projects where I can lead the story, just anything where I’m pushing the story as opposed to just supporting it.”
“I have this almost self-consciousness to say those words out loud, which is weird to me,” he tells Vogue. “Something about saying ‘I want to be a leading man’ is daunting or scary. But if you don’t believe in it, then nobody else is going to believe in that. So I have to say that. I have to say that out loud.”
“That’s the goal,” he says, a glint in his eye. “We’ll try and get there.”
Read his full interview at the source.
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