WATCH: Joshua Garcia And Julia Barretto Star In Metro Magazine's Fashion Film Shot In Beautiful Luneta Hotel
READ: #MetroLovesJoshLia: Joshua Garcia And Julia Barretto Spread Love In The Historic Luneta Hotel
If I could show it then you would know. Then everyone would know. That the secret, magic, special "something" between Joshua Garcia and Julia Baretto is impalpable. That Joshua's eyes follow Julia across every corner of the room, his body orienting itself to her location, as if opposing poles of a magnetic field. That he surges forward and backward in his speech and his position to accommodating her little movements and tiny laughs. That Bubba is always watching.
"Bubba?"I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Bub. Bubba. Baby." Joshua clarifies.
Their term of endearment for each other. They're unapologetically open about this fact, because, well, why shouldn't they be? One of the biggest romantic tandems onscreen and offscreen, JoshLia, the portmanteau of their nicknames has delivered hit after hit since Vince & Kath & James in 2016, a Metro Manila Film Fest holiday film that propelled them to greater fame.
By all accounts, it was an unlikely combination. Julia is showbiz royalty, born from an acting family - mother Marjorie Barretto, father Dennis Padilla, and aunt Claudine Barretto. Her beauty is often comparable to that of her other aunt, La Greta (Gretchen Barretto). And then there's Joshua, an aspiring pilot who took a chance to be "Tatay's Boy ng Batangas" in the reality show Pinoy Big Brother.
But their pairing wasn't designed by the cogs and wheels of stardom, it was designed by the public. It was the public who chose them and "shipped" their pairing together. That the public clamored for JoshLia - loudly - says so much about how instinctively the audience reacts to them. Even the peers of fashion - designers, photographers, and the like - mention they are fans of these two, despite claiming not to have watched any of their films.
We're not alone in our morbid fascination with the two, I think, and with good reason. Even in a quirky film like Tonette Jadaone's I love You to the Stars and Back, the two weave a sense of authenticity, that when paired with their poster-perfect cover-worthy good looks, brings a lightness to any story. Awkward girl on an alien-finding mission meets simple, cancer-stricken boy and two go off on a grand adventure. You don't see them in syrupy sweet embraces but, instead, in cheerful banter, in long conversations sans speedy exposition that endear you to them. Basically, what you want is to see them to win.
The two come shoulder to shoulder in the intensity of their work. Joshua, for one, dreams of achieving gravitas as an actor. He takes himself to task by careful study.
Together they challenged each other.
"What I like with working with Josh is that there's teamwork in every scene," says Julia. "We really bring out the best in each other. There's so so much support. He's just passionate for his craft, just as I am."
And somehow, when we see them, it's as if we're not seeing two characters act it out. We're seeing bits and pieces of Joshua and Julia. Taken together, the two are delightful - they make you smile and remember what it was like to be young, the everything-matters-nothing-else-matters kind of irreverence that makes them think they'll never get old.
[photos]
Text by Geolette Esguerra
Photographs courtesy of Metro magazine
Video by Fold Canela
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