- Olivia Lamasan said Jane de Leon perfectly fits their vision of a coming-of-age story for the movie
- It can be recalled that Liza Soberano was originally cast to do the movie remake about the iconic Filipino superhero, but she backed out due to an injured finger
Compared to Loisa Andalio, Maris Racal, Sanya Lopez, Julia Barretto who openly shared how thrilled they would be to be the next Darna leading to clamor from online fans, who would have thought that a silent auditionee would be chosen after Liza Soberano?
Jane de Leon, a 20-year-old exclusive talent of Star Magic, just bagged the titular role of Darna to be directed by Jerrold Tarog, besting over 300 celebrities who auditioned, including Jane’s other fellow Star Magic talents.
In an exclusive interview by MJ Felipe for ABS-CBN News, ABS-CBN Films managing director Olivia Lamasan revealed that Jane de Leon had been chosen unanimously to play the iconic superhero.
“‘Yung Darna story natin ngayon (Our Darna story now) is a genesis story, a coming of age [story]. Ang requirement talaga (The requirement really) is somebody na (who is) young and with an air of innocence, but at the same time strength of character,” Olivia said.
“Pinresent na si Jane sa amin a couple of years ago, and among all the 13 noon na Mr. M (Johnny Manahan) presented from Star Magic, natatandaan ng isang talent handler na, ‘Inang. napansin mo na siya noon, itong batang ito puwedeng sumali ng beauty pageants. And then I saw her again in Halik. Sabi ko, ‘Itong batang ‘to, meron. There’s something about her,'” Lamasan added.
“Natuwa nga ako na isa siya sa mga nag-audition. Sabi ko ay there’s something about her. Pati si Direk Lauren (Dyogi) said there’s something about her. Bilang filmmakers, may nakikita kami.”
Darna director Jerrold Tarog explained that they chose Jane because she is an “instinctive” actress.
Jane was last seen in the hit primetime drama Halik as Maggie Bartolome, sister of Jericho Rosales’ character, Lino. She also starred in the 2017 fantasy series La Luna Sangre as a moonchaser, as well as in movies such as horror flick The Debutantes and the coming-of-age movie Walwal. She was also part of the girl group Girltrends of ‘It’s Showtime.’
