Donny Pangilinan learns to ride jeepney for first time for ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’

MANILA, Philippines — How can an actor like Donny Pangilinan who did not experience poverty can portray a poor boy in a series?

To prepare Donny for his role as Bingo, a popular online seller juggling different jobs to make ends meet in ABS-CBN and Netflix’s new series “Can’t Buy Me Love,” the series’ directors immersed the Brent International School alumnus in different real-life street situations around Manila.

One of the show’s directors, Mae Cruz-Alviar, recalled how Donny learned to ride the popular Filipino public transport jeepney for the first time.

“’Yung sa jeep na eksena, dapat nagmamadali kayo… so take, action! Si Donny, hinayaan lahat, pumila s’ya! Sabi ko, hindi ‘to pila,” Cruz-Alviar shared at the series’ press conference in a Quezon City hotel yesterday.

The director said she asked Donny to be less of a gentleman and not to let everyone ride first.

“Kasi masyado kang polite in real life, kapag ganyan in real life, dog-eat-dog world, nagmamadali ka…”

When Cruz-Alviar noticed that the actor seemed to be still observing other people how to ride the vehicle, she confronted him: “First time mo bang sumakay ng jeep?”

“Opo,” Cruz-Alviar recalled Donny as answering shyly, sending the actor and his love team partner Belle Mariano laughing during the presscon.

“First time n’ya so nanibago talaga s’ya du’n,” the director said.

She noted that it was Belle’s first time, too, to play a rich kid through the series as she used to handle poor or middle-class roles before.

To prepare her for the role, she and co-star Darren Espanto, who plays as her best friend, had to learn Chinese.

“Until now, kinikilala ko pa si Caroline, but I did seven days of Hokkien classes and talagang inimmerse ko ‘yung sarili ko sa mga culture ng Chinese kasi ‘yung character nga ni Caroline dito she comes from a wealthy Chinese family so kami ni direk (Mae), parang date, nag-usap kami the whole day about Caroline lang,” Belle shared her preparations for her character in the series.

“Kapag matatapos ‘yung day namin ni Belle, the more that we immerse ourselves in our environment kasi sobrang magkaiba ‘yung worlds naming dalawa,” added Donny.

“Kami rin ni direk, we scheduled an entire day,