Antoinette Jadaone pitches directly to actors to dodge gatekeeping managers

Filmmaker exposes industry gatekeeping after scripts get rejected without actors ever seeing them.

A project can apparently get rejected before the actor even knows it was offered and filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone says this happens in the Philippines, too.

Jadaone echoed screenwriter and university instructor Tom Vaughan, who shared on X an experience where an actor’s manager informed a production that the actor had passed on a script. Months later, the director met the actor backstage and discovered that the actor had never heard of the project, much less read it.

Jadaone’s reaction: “Ugh ganyan din dito sa Pinas!”

She even shared a scenario she has encountered herself: “‘Uy tinanggihan mo raw project ko?’ But the actor never heard of it!”

That experience, she said, is why she sometimes goes directly to actors to make sure the material actually reaches them.

“Kaya minsan rekta na sa actor para sure na makakarating. Kung ‘di magustuhan, at least narinig/nabasa man lang. At kung magustuhan, pwede niyang ipaglaban.”

But netizens also offered another possible explanation, pointing out that not every “I never heard of it” necessarily means the manager blocked the script.

“Or pwede naman nagpapanggap lang ‘yong actor, pero deep inside, ayaw talaga,” one wrote.

Another commenter placed the blame on management, saying, “May mga managers talagang laging nagmamagaling.”

The discussion raises a question in the industry, when an actor supposedly passes on a project, did they actually say “no.” or did the opportunity never reach them in the first place?

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