How Xia Vigor showed support for onscreen dad Janno Gibbs

MANILA, Philippines — Former child star Xia Vigor plays the feisty teen daughter of Janno Gibbs in Viva Films’ action-comedy, Itutumba Ka ng Tatay Ko, which is also the actor’s directorial debut.

“My role here is Tintin. This is something new for me because I’m a bit boyish here and with my bullies (in the film), I really fight back. My character is palaban… and very protective of my father,” the Fil-Brit teen actress told The STAR in an interview.

“As for my experience working on this film, I was very happy making another film with Viva. Because the last film I did was Wedding Dress and I was only 12 years old. So, I’ve been away for several years. The last movie of mine that was shown in cinemas was Miracle in Cell No. 7,” she said.

“Sometimes, people don’t recognize me anymore because they are used to seeing me when I was very little. It’s exciting to see people in theaters again watching this movie and finally seeing my movie on the big screen once more.”

In Itutumba Ka Ng Tatay Ko, Janno is not just a co-star Xia shares the most scenes with, he’s also her director.

“It was easy working with him. This is interesting because it’s my first time to work with a co-actor who was also the director pa and I find it easy to work with someone like that because magkasama talaga kami sa scene,” she said.

“He was able to guide me in a lot sa mga eksena, acting and adlibs and all of that. He really played a big role in also my acting because I’m also not used to doing comedy, usually drama talaga so, I was glad that he got to help me with that.

“For a first-time director, super professional na agad and dahil po, na mention din niya sa akin dati, kahit sa ibang mga movie niya, talagang mahilig na po siya makialam sa mga director, with the shots, in script revisions that’s why po siguro parang experienced na siya agad. So I’m happy to have worked with him and I hope in future projects, I’ll be able to work with him again.”

In the film, Xia also got to share scenes with the late father of Janno, veteran star Ronaldo Valdez, who tragically died last Dec. 17, 2023.

Asked about how she reacted to the news and showed support for her grieving onscreen dad, she said, “I didn’t