Directing an Oscar winner was something that Marie Jamora did not even think was possible when she first dreamt of becoming a filmmaker in Hollywood.
But in directing Kathy Bates in the latest episode of “Matlock,” the Filipina director unlocked another achievement and she’s ready for more.
Jamora has directed episodes of other American hit shows like “Fire Country” and “The Cleaning Lady.”
“I absolutely loved directing on it,” she said. “When I found out that she (Bates) was the lead of the show, I was so excited because it’s my first time to work with an Academy Award winner.”
“I was, of course, nervous, but also really excited. It was everything I had hoped for because she was everything.”
Jamora’s journey to “Matlock” began with her first Hollywood job on Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar,” a groundbreaking series known for giving women of color their first opportunities in television directing.
Jamora recalled that her work in American television taught her to handle high-stakes environments.
“You have to make your day,” she noted. “The parameters are: you are given this script, you’re given X amount of preparation [and] edit days. You have to hit all those marks.”
The Filipina director recalled that making “Queen Sugar” was quite a challenge as it was done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You can’t shoot any of those scenes that you were prepared to shoot today because your actor has COVID,” Jamora said. “Now you have to shoot these other scenes, and then you just have to roll with it and go: ‘Alright, let’s go.’”
Jamora’s resilience, she said, is rooted in her directing background in the Philippines.
“I was just prepared for everything. In the Philippines, I can direct in a bagyo (during a storm),” she said. “I can direct: ‘Oh, you have one day to shoot this whole thing.’ And I think the Philippines also taught me how to be malleable, how to work with limitations.”
But breaking into Hollywood wasn’t easy. Jamora faced the reality that foreign credits often don’t carry weight in the industry, despite her first feature film “Ang Nawawala” premiering at Slamdance Film Festival in 2012.
“It takes around six to seven years to get to where you want to be in Hollywood. It really takes time,” she said. “Obviously, you have overnight successes, but that is very few and far between.”
“The norm is everybody works really hard, and everyone comes from all over the world, and they’re the best from all over the world/ So your competition is so fierce, so what will set you apart is endurance and being unstoppable.”
Now based in North Carolina, Jamora continues to advocate for Filipino filmmakers in the U.S. through Cinema Sala, a community she co-founded to support emerging Filipino talent.
Despite the current industry slowdown, she remains focused on her next major goal: directing her next feature film, which she hopes to shoot in the Philippines next year.
Jamora’s “Matlock” episode is now out on CBS and Paramount+. (Y. Chavez, abs-cbn)
