Iza Calzado says why ‘Darna’ is important at a time like this
The much-anticipated superhero series Darna will star Iza Calzado, and she waited 4 years to announce it.
The Darna movie project started with Angel Locsin in 2015 with director Erik Matti. Angel backed out because of a back injury and passed on the role to Liza Soberano. Unfortunately, Liza suffered a finger injury while shooting her primetime series Bagani which led to her backing out from the project too.
In July 2019, Star Cinema’s managing director Olivia Lamasan announced that Jane De Leon will be doing the project. Fast forward to 2020 when the pandemic hit the world and ABS-CBN lost its franchise, the network decided to make the Darna project a TV series instead.
Iza was one of the actors that were tapped to be part of it four years ago. In a virtual interview for her birthday, Iza Calzado shared the news with ABS-CBN Head of TV Production Laurenti Dyogi.
“Iza will officially be part of the Darna TV series that will start shooting last quarter. I want to announce what exactly she will play but I don’t want also to spoil the announcement. But we promise Iza will play a dream role. But this one is an important role for Iza, it will be fun and an important role in the series.”
Laurenti also expressed his gratitude to Calzado for staying with ABS-CBN despite the loss of its franchise. The TV executive cited Calzado’s effort together with the team of Ang Sa ‘Yo ay Akin in shooting the TV series in the middle of the pandemic surge in the Philippines last year.
Iza shared her excitement with regard to the announcement of the project. She said,
“I’m gonna tell the truth, Direk Lauren. I had a meeting in 2017 for this project so I’ve been attached to this project since 2017. Movie pa ‘yun, ang dami nang dumaan, changing of seasons and people and nandito pa rin ako.”
In the interview, Iza shared how important and timely the show is.
“Why Darna is important now more than ever, it’s because we also need to recognize the hero inside all of us, the Darna within, the hero within.”
The actress also shared how she valued the role given to her.
“I’ve been grateful since that moment. I’ve done some training without giving out all the stuff. It feels like it’s been such a long journey to get here and the role I’m going to play is more meaningful than what I could have played before.”
