In playing his “sobrang pilyo” character in the upcoming Netflix movie, Dead Kids, Khalil Ramos had to, in his words, “tap into my high school self.”
The 23-year-old actor-singer recalled that in his teens, he was a problem student.
“Like I didn’t go to school because I didn’t want to study. I wanted to prank people,” he said at the premiere night of Dead Kids last Sunday, November 17, at the Gateway mall in Cubao.
“Muntik na akong hindi magmartsa,” he added, confessing what could’ve been the ultimate offense in his juvenile life.
Good thing he was able to graduate along with his batchmates and eventually turned over a new leaf.
Since then, he’s become, he triumphantly declared, a “changed person.”
Dead Kids is helmed by young director Mikhail Red, who was also the filmmaker of acclaimed films Birdshot and Eerie.
The teen heist movie Dead Kids made its Philippine premiere as the closing film of the 2019 Cinema One Originals film festival.
In the movie, Khalil is cast as Paolo Gabriel. He and three others kidnap their bratty and bully classmate in exchange for P30 million pesos.
The story is loosely based on true events that happened involving students from a Manila university in 2018.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life,” he said. “Yon ang isang challenge dun because you’ll never think Filipino kids will do such thing.
“So we had to make sure na hindi siya masyadong out of this world ang dating. So what I did, for my character naman since he’s super pilyo, may comedic timing.
“It had to be on point… So isa ’yon sa mga difficult na ginawa ko. Dapat sakto ang timing.”
Khalil credits his director, who’s also called by his nickname, Mik, in giving justice to his character.
“Tulungan with Mik talaga,” he pointed out. “How he blocks his scenes, how the tempo is built around… A lot of it came from the excellence of Direk.”
Khalil admitted to wanting to work with Direk Mik since watching the highly praised movies Birdshot, Neomanila, and Eerie.
He added likewise admiring the director’s younger brother Nikolas Red, who wrote the script of Dead Kids.
“They posted on Instagram, and nag-comment ako,” Khalil said on how he learned of the brothers’ movie project, which then led to a spot in the audition process with the producers.
The Kapamilya star revealed that aside from the Paolo Gabriel role he also auditioned for another character named Mark Sta. Maria.
The character Mark is a poor but bright and behaved student, which eventually went to GMA-7 actor Kelvin Miranda.
“Sila Direk Mik ang pumili,” explained Khalil regarding the role assignments. “Sila ’yong nagsabi, ‘You’re auditioning for Sta. Maria.’ Because they found my features innocent, tahimik-looking.
“It came from them, pero siguro medyo meek, parang ’yon na ang medyo image ko. So I auditioned first for Sta. Maria.
“But sabi ni Mik, ‘You know what, you try Paolo.’ Sobrang different ng ginawa ko kasi from super serious dark, depressed scenes naging sobrang pilyo, as in gago. Intense ang pagkagago niya.”
The fact that Dead Kids has been picked up by Netflix for global streaming excites Khalil no end. This project is considered to be Netflix’s first original Filipino film.
“It’s very surreal,” he beamed. “Ngayon lang talaga nagsi-sink in. It’s very surreal when you’re being briefed by Netflix representatives.
“I watch Netflix a lot, but I don’t imagine myself being part of this. While filming, we were talking about it. But nag-materialize na lang siya after the shoot.”
Starting December 1, Dead Kids will be available to 158 million subscribers in 190 countries worldwide.
Dead Kids director Mikhail Red (leftmost) with cast members (L-R) Kelvin Miranda, Markus Paterson, Gabby Padilla, Khalil Ramos, Sue Ramirez, Vance Larena, and Jan Silverio.