Filipina actress Dolly De Leon burst onto the international scene in 2022 when she appeared in the Palme d’Or-winning, Best Picture-nominated satire Triangle of Sadness. Although her career on stage and screen has spanned several decades, the lauded turn has earned De Leon an incredible amount of work in both independent and mainstream projects.
FandomWire got the opportunity to speak with De Leon about her latest role in the indie drama Ghostlight.
Ghostlight Interview
FandomWire: Ever since your incredible turn in Triangle of Sadness, you’ve been in massive demand. I’ve already seen you in two films this year, and there’s a third on the way. Do you find it exciting to have this much work coming in? Tiring?
Dolly De Leon: Both. I can’t complain. I mean, if I’m tired, that’s part of it. It’s better to be tired working than to be tired not doing anything. I’m so excited. And I can’t be happier. This is really, for me, the highlight of my life as an actor. This is the most that I’m getting jobs because most of my life, I’ve just been waiting for work to call and waiting for the call. But now I’m working. So every time I feel tired, I just remind myself, “Okay, you’re tired. That’s a good thing. You’re tired, it means you’re productive, and you’re getting things done.” So yeah, it’s both in a good way.
FW: What stood out to you about Ghostlight that made you want to sign onto this project?
De Leon: It’s really the theatre component in it because I’m a lover of theatre — I love it so much. It’s my passion, and to be able to see us projected there on screen and to hear our story told and how the process of creating, how we touch lives, and how theater helps people was really exciting to me. Especially because in my country, the Philippines, although theatre is a big part of our culture, we still haven’t really tapped the masses. And hopefully, through films like Ghostlight, more people will see the healing power of theater.
FW: I think one of the most powerful themes of Ghostlight is artistic expression as a method of connection, both with oneself and others. How does this theme resonate with you?
De Leon: Theater has always been my way of expressing not just my creativity but whatever happiness or inner turmoil or anything that I’ve ever felt or am feeling at that particular moment. It’s a very healing process. For me, it’s very therapeutic. I find solace when I’m in the theatre. Whenever I go into a theatre, I feel like I’m at home — it doesn’t matter which theatre it is, I always automatically feel at home. It’s a place I’m familiar with. It’s a place I know the inner workings of. I’m just at my best and at my happiest when I’m in a theatre, so that’s why it’s really special to me.
FW: I think one of the really impressive things about your performance in Ghostlight is your chemistry with Keith Kupferer — not in a romantic sense, but a platonic one. How did you achieve this delicate dynamic?
De Leon: You know, I think that the question about chemistry, I think it boils down to like-minded people in terms of how they want to make the scene work and how they want to get the message across, and how they want to tell the story in the most authentic way possible. And I’d like to think that I have that in me and that he definitely has that in him.
So it was really easy working with Keith. This is what’s magical about it: Keith and I never really talked about how we were going to do things. We never planned anything; we never sat down and said, “Okay, I’m going to do this. What do you think you’re gonna do?” None of that happened. It just happened so organically, and I think it’s because we’re like-minded in terms of our goals as actors and how we see this art form, and how we respect it, and how I’m loyal to Rita, and he’s loyal to Dan, and that’s just it.
And that somehow finds a way to work together into this beautiful mesh and this beautiful dance. So I think that’s really how the chemistry works between Keith and me. He may be an American, and I’m Filipino; he works in Chicago, and I work in Manila; but it’s more or less the same culture, and we are more or less driven by the same things. And that’s what made it work.
FW: For many actors, getting to play a role like Juliet — even in a community theatre production — is a dream, and in a way, through Ghostlight, you got to do it as an adult. Is there a classic role, no matter if it’s younger or older than you, that would be your dream to play?
De Leon: I’ve always wanted to play someone with a personality disorder. I’ve never played anyone like that, and I would really be interested to see how that would turn out. I’m very fascinated with neurodivergence, so I’d really love to play someone with a personality disorder. With Shakespeare, I’ve always wanted to play Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew, even when I was young.
FW: In Ghostlight, there are two sides to the film. Obviously, there’s the central family drama, but there’s also the scenes from Romeo and Juliet that have parallels drawn to the family drama. How did you approach this narrative structure as a performer? Did you find it to be a challenge or something interesting to overcome?
De Leon: I found it both interesting and a challenge. It was a challenge because, especially if you’re supposed to play an actor who is very good at their job, that’s really very challenging because you can’t lie about that. You can’t trick yourself or your co-actors or the audience that you’re a good actor — you really have to be one. That was the challenging part.
The interesting part was being able to marry the two things that I love, which are film and theater, and being able to work with both mediums in one creative process. That part to me was really so exciting, and I found it really comforting.
I don’t know why, but it felt good to play a theatre actor — a theatre actor who’s frustrated with how her career is going and how nothing is happening to her, and that she’s doing community theater and not making any money, but working with the people that she loves, with the people that she trusts, like Lynn, her director. That part is very exciting to me.
FW: Not all, of course, but a lot of your recent work has been in the comedy genre, but Ghostlight is a more dramatic role. Did you find this intriguing? Challenging? A combination of both?
De Leon: What’s funny about me is that when I’m cast in things, and people say “This is a comedy,” or “This is a drama,” when I’m already working, and I’m already immersed in it, I don’t think of the genre. I don’t think, “Okay, I’m doing a comedy. I have to be funny.” I always take everything seriously. I let the seriousness of the scene take care of itself and be in and of itself funny the way it is.
So I never really thought of it that way. But I do like playing lighter characters and being able to have fun on set and just being able to be free and trusting the material. When I step into a project, I know it’s a comedy, and then I throw that thought away. But stepping into it and knowing it’s a comedy, I enter it more light-hearted like, “Okay, I can have fun and just relax.”
Ghostlight is now in theaters.
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