MUKHANG inabangan ni Direk Mike de Leon ang sagot ni Atom Araullo sa rant niya laban dito kaya sinagot niya agad ito pagkaraan ng dalawang oras.
(Editor’s note: Inilabas namin kahapon ang post ni Atom.)
Ito ang kasagutan ni Direk Mike sa kanyang Citizen Jake Facebook account:
“Thank you for your reply, Atom. Many of the things you said are true -- that I am a deeply troubled person, I accept that.
“But let me just add that you forgot to add a few important details. I will mention just one. In a couple of instances, you chose to ignore my direction and completely ignored what was rehearsed.
“ Many people were witness to this. The following day, I told you that never in my career as a director has any actor disrespected me as much as you did. I told you then if you wanted to direct yourself, then by all means do it, you can overact all you want. I will just shoot whatever you wish to do.
“Then you went into a meandering explanation without really saying anything, not even apologizing. Then I said, ‘Bakit ganyan ka, bakit ba ang yabang mo? Bakit ba ang tingin mo sa sarili mo you’re better than everyone else. As an actor, you’re ok pero marami ka pang kakaining bigas’.”
“And you said: ‘Yes, I know that but no one has ever told me that before.’ So I concluded by saying ‘Well, it’s about time somebody did.’ I also told you in one my ‘tirades’ that I find that you have no empathy, how can you be a journalist if you lack this basic ability to understand people’s problems (not mine).
“Isn’t journalism about the story, not the journalist? But in your case, nobody is more important to Atom Araullo than Atom Araullo. And you say you cringe at being called a celebrity, a star. How hypocritical. Don’t bother to cringe anymore because you revel in it. You make commercials now and you exploited the Marawi bakwit by making that offensive commercial featuring yourself, monologuing like Citizen Jake, all under the sponsorship of McDo.
“I may have my demons to deal with but you have yours too, my pompous friend. So accept that you are a celebrity and don’t use the noble profession of journalism to hide your inadequacies as a human being. You know how your performance was enhanced and ‘fixed’ in the editing. That I had to use 2 cameras all the time in anticipation of this. That it’s how the film was put together that made you look good.
“You won’t want me to upload your most horribly acted scenes, and the one that had my team rolling in laughter everytime they saw it. I tried to keep that scene by modifying the editing flow but I was overruled by my team who told me in no uncertain terms that that that scene had to go. So folks, there are always two sides to any story. And this is mine. --Mike de Leon
“Oh. I forgot to add this. Having admitted that I’m a deeply troubled person, I will make no excuses for it -- not even the usual ‘artists are temperamental and accountable to no one but their art.’ But atom pretends to embrace the universe, when all the time, he is only embracing himself. This is called narcissism. - Mike de Leon
As of press time ay hindi pa sumagot si Atom sa bagong rant sa kanya ni Direk Mike.
-REGGEE BONOAN