There's something about his tough, scruffy exterior that projects danger, mystery, and intrigue.
On one hand, vicious tabloid blurbs chronicle his recent misadventures, playing up sordid accounts of alleged drinking binges, sexual perversions and other cases of reckless impudence.
But, paradoxically, there's something about the flawed, mucked-up genius that has tempered his acting with extraordinary depth.
Such is the irony of Baron Geisler—five-time Best Actor awardee, fledgling indie film producer, and local showbiz's "Bad Boy" heir apparent.
True to form, Baron bagged this year's Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition's Best Actor award for his role in Donor. This is his second Best Actor trophy from Cinemalaya after winning in 2008 for his portrayal of a homosexual film producer in Jay.
Beneath the aviator shades, tousled hair, and frayed jeans lurks a gentle and sensitive soul whose free-spirited ways can be easily misunderstood; his eccentric ways make him an oddity in an industry where celebrities are conveniently pigeonholed in neat categories.
Defying stereotypes, Baron is quick to admit that he wasn't cut out for swashbuckling, matinee-idol roles. This he learned even during his formative years in Ang TV, where he found himself usually sitting on the sidelines, starstruck, gawking at the likes of Antoinette Taus, Jolina Magdangal, and his other pretty ''batchmates."
"I was just a prop then, an extra," he confesses sheepishly. "Di naman ako guwapo. I was even bullied by some of the guys, but I learned how to stand up to them."
In time, Baron cut his teeth on the sage advice of his mentors, including Beverly Vergel, Gina Alajar, Rez Cortez, and the late Johnny Delgado— whom he regards with almost-patriarchal reverence. It was Johnny who taught him the Zen-like intricacies of improvisational acting.
"He called it the bugso—that spur-of-the-moment ability to improvise lines on-the-spot. It's hard. You don't even think of the line. You just detach yourself and trust your intuition," Baron shared.
"He gave me a book, the yellow one, No Acting Please, by Eric Morris," he recalled. "But I'm into the grey book now, Irreverent Acting, given to me by Rez Cortez."
Looking back now, he says those informal "lessons" paved the way for his award-winning performance in Jay, the indie film written and directed by good friend Francis Xavier Pasion, and which to this day has garnered its seventh international citation. A tongue-in-cheek commentary on Philippine media, Jay finds Baron playing a gay TV producer. It's a role he auditioned for, and took weeks of observing and internalizing just to get his "gaydar" right.
For Jay alone, Baron snagged Best Actor citations from Cinemalaya, Gawad Tanglaw, and the Golden Screen Awards. "The best part of winning was going to Venice, Italy, walking the red carpet, sitting beside Mickey Rourke, and seeing Brad Pitt and George Clooney up-close," he gushed.
Aside from upping his acting credits, the citations sort of made up for his "bad boy" image, then tarnished severely by allegations of drunken misdemeanor and sexual misconduct.
In one fo his previous interviews, Baron cited being "in-character" for his deviant behavior. Even long after the cameras stopped grinding, he related, "When I was doing Jay, I would still be limp-wristed and spoke gay lingo even after the shoot."
After this year's plaudits come the crucial question: Does Baron have the staying power to keep up his winning streak?
"Somehow, I've become intuitive about choosing roles," says the ex-Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2 housemate. "I'll know when something's right for me."
Baron also appears in the Star Cinema film Cinco, and is also in the cast of the ABS-CBN shows Elias Paniki and Noah.
Earlier this year, Baron streamlined his showbiz career by signing up with Arnold Vegafria's ALV Talent Circuit, the same company that handles the careers of Billy Crawford, Jay-R, Kyla, Iya Villania, John and Camille Prats, and many others.