The Way Out

Back in August 2019 I worked with filmmaker Jason O'Hara in Richmond, VA on his first project called "Abduction." I auditioned for the role of Catherine, a neighborly owner of a local bakery. I remember my callback with Jason was on FaceTime, and I remember that we hit it off immediately. Aside from the fact that he's a really nice and sincere person who is passionate about making films, he just had good vibes (excuse the cliche') and I feel like I'm pretty good at detecting vibes :) I got the part! I had a fun time during my day on set. Jason kept in touch with everyone throughout the post-production process and eventually the project was released in 2020.

Fast forward to 2021 . . . I heard from Jason. He remembered something I had told him when we were filming "Abduction." I said that I usually get roles like "mom," "nurse," "doctor," "neighbor," etc. While I am very grateful to book any role, it just seems like characters for a woman my age are kind of boring side characters. So he approached me with a screenplay for a supernatural/horror series he had been working on, and he had me in mind for the lead character! I was so excited and incredibly flattered! I read the script and I loved it. He said that he was still working on it and eventually we will get around to filming it. A few months later, he decided to put the script aside for the time being because he had run into some roadblocks while he was writing and rewriting it. So instead he suggested that we write something together from scratch. The result is our short film "The Way Out." The best way to describe it is it's a family drama/horror film.

Aside from this great story that we created together, I'm excited that the lead characters are older females and Filipino. I love seeing women in unconventional and interesting roles and I think it's important for all audiences to that as well.

We shot our film in March. Our cast includes me, Emmy Gonzalez, Eric Gravez and Mel Cayanan. Our crew included Moona Joyner, Lisa VanAmburg, Debbie Wright, Venus Davis and Steve Davis. We had such an amazing time! Our film is currently in post-production.