Carlo Aquino opened up about his journey into bagging his role in the upcoming Filipino adaptation of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.
The actor admitted that he was initially hesitant to accept the role.
“Ayaw ko kasing gawin dahil takot na takot ako dun sa Its Okay to Not Be Okay dahil alam ko ‘yung fans ng series na ‘to eh sobrang wild ‘yung kagustuhan nila, tapos nanalo pa nga ‘yung actor na nag-play [sa role ko] so dagdag [pressure] naman ‘yun, eh ayaw ko na nga ng pressure,” he recalled in an interview with Bianca Gonzalez in the TFC show BRGY.
“So sabi ni CVV (Cory V. Vidanes), gawin mo na. Tapos sinabi na rin ng handlers ko, sobrang ganda niyan, parang ikaw ‘yung isa sa mga puso ng series. Sabi ko okay, siguro ito na ‘yung time na kung gagawa man ako ng sobrang hirap, ito na ‘yun and parang feeling ko ano rin ‘to, moving forward, magiging okay din dahil ginawa ko ‘yung isang bagay na sobrang kinakatatakutan ko,” he remarked.
He went on: “Nung past kasi ayaw ko ng ganun sabi ko time na to do something about this. Takot na takot ako pero gagawin ko ‘to ng takot.”
In It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, Carlo portrays Matmat, a role originally played by Oh Jung-se as Moon Sang-tae in the K-Drama series. Sang-tae, the older brother of Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) with autism, is an aspiring illustrator and fan of Ko Moon-young (Seo Yea-ji). Witnessing his mother’s murder left him with a deep fear of butterflies, which trigger traumatic memories and recurring nightmares each spring. This fear forces Gang-tae to constantly move towns with him to “escape the butterflies.”
Carlo will headline the series with Joshua Garcia and Anne Curtis.
“Natutuwa ako kasi ‘yung amount of heart and and passion na binibigay ng lahat ng buong team… Wala akong ibang magagawa kundi ibigay ‘yung best ko,” he remarked. (Toff C., abs-cbn)
