There was something in Liza Soberano that made her a "fantastic" choice for the role of Alexandra Trese more than the popularity she bore, creators of the anime occult said Thursday in response to critics.
Like the badass Lakan caught between what she wanted for herself and the overwhelming expectations of the city she was tasked to protect, the mainstream actress knows how to fight for what she believes in despite what other people might say, writer and co-producer Tanya Yuson told Summit Media journalists.
"First and foremost, Liza has the grit to embody the character of Alexandra Trese. When you look at her, she solidly believes in what she believes in despite what other people might say, and that's a quality, the strength you also see in a character like Alexandra Trese," she said.
Almost Darna until she broke her finger, Soberano is best known as a primetime TV actress used to playing roles that are not typically associated with being "badass". Her role in Trese is a huge departure from that.
"If you watch her performance, you see how Aswang can underestimate her until she cuts their eye out. I love that dimension in terms of what she brought to the performance because that's just a whole other level of Alexandra," she added.
It's this "vulnerability" in her voice acting that brought another dimension to the Tagalog version of the dub, said Yuson, noting that if Liza were just popular and didn't truly "fit", they wouldn't have casted her for the role.
Even ultimate creator of the character Budjette Tan said he didn't know what to expect when Soberano was brought on board after an exhaustive shortlisting process."When Tanya first told me about it, I started to Google and watch Liza videos and I was just trying to figure out in my head how is she going to approach this character," he said.
Recalling Hollywood's casting of Mark Hamill for the role of Joker in the 1992 Batman animated series, he said, "but who would have thought that the kid that played Luke Skywalker can play the best depiction and version of Joker ever? So, we’ll never know until we see it."
For Tan, Soberano's portrayal has been "the voice that's been in [his] head whenever Alexandra Trese speaks," all the way back to 2005 when he started working on the series with illustrator Kajo Baldisimo.
"I always imagined Trese talking like Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell who was robotic sometimes. I’m not saying Liza is robotic, but that delivery works for me," shared Baldisimo.
"I liked that you're not expecting it from someone, but they have the potential. It's such a great connect, " says Yuson, adding that when Soberano appeared to her first meeting with Netflix, she was ready to "throw herself 200% in it", having read all the books and done her research.
Over the weekend, Filipinos on the internet were divided over Soberano's casting as many argued a professional voice actor could've done a better job portraying the role. Even Tiktok's resident voice actor Inka Magnaye weighed in.
While noting that Soberano's performance was good, she also made a case for the country's voice acting community.
"Ang dami nang films and tv shows in the Philippines, but when it comes to animation, we barely have projects nga like this where our many wonderful pinoy voice artists can shine, binigay pa sa film actors. Support all Filipino talent. I promise you, we are worth it," Magnaye said.
On the other side of that fence, others argue it was "strategic" for Netflix to cast the actress for her popularity.
But for Netflix executive producer Jay Oliva, her lack of experience didn't matter.
"All of them, all the voice actors, they're amazing actors too. But for that specific role, I didn't need to have that range. I didn't need them to sound different. I didn’t need them to be like a manananggal.. I just needed a really kind of nuanced performance, you know?," he said.
"So when I talked to Shay [Mitchell] and later when I talked to Liza, I kind of told my kind of take of what the performance of Alexandra was going to be. The role is that whole dichotomy of duty, of family, and kind of like you're at odds with what you want. And I think they ran with that," he added.
A veteran producer, Oliva had taken charge of the castings for all language versions of the dub. "Whatever version you watched, the actor really brought their A game and with the cast behind supporting them. That's why when I see it on social media, people talking about like, ‘oh, it should be voice actors or whatever’, you know, it's really just about great acting," he added.
"The matter of her just being famous or popular but she doesn't fit, she wouldn't have become Alexandra Trese. We wouldn't have chosen her," said Yuson.
