IT was only in the early 1920s that Filipinos started getting representation in Western films; it’s widely believed that actress Elena Jurado, a Cebuana who starred in films like What Price Glory? (1926) and Twenty Legs Under the Sea (1927), is one of the first Filipina actresses to ever be a part of a Hollywood movie.

Jurado wasn’t paid for a lot of the work that she did back then. Even after she filed a case against her production company, the Motion Picture Utility Corporation, Jurado remained unpaid. We can only wonder how many other Filipinos like her went unpaid and unappreciated in the makings of many U.S. films.

Thankfully, as times have changed, more Filipinos are being recognized on the international stage. There is Lea Salonga playing the singing voices for Mulan in Mulan (1998) and Jasmine in Aladdin (1992), and Dolly de Leon making a name for herself after her performance in Triangle of Sadness (2022), even winning a Guldbaggage Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2023 because of it.

One of the Filipinos taking center stage abroad is Chai Fonacier. She became the talk of the town after it was revealed that the 36-year-old actress will star in the international independent film Nocebo (2022) alongside Eva Green and Mark Strong. 

“I still wonder how I ended up all the way here,” Fonacier said in an exclusive interview with Republic Asia with regard to her journey as an actress.

For spectators watching her growth in the industry, it is no wonder that the trajectory of Fonacier’s career is steadily going upwards. Because even before Nocebo came along, Fonacier’s proven that her acting prowess was something to contend with.

Here are a few characters she’s played that we think best showcase her diversity as an actress.

1. Lisa in Miss Bulalacao (2015)

This film is centered around a young boy named Dodong, a drag queen that partakes in a gay pageant despite the homophobic people his life is surrounded with. Enraged by his decision to join in the pageant, his father chases Dodong into the woods, where Dodong finds a strange entity. Months later, he realizes that somehow, he’s pregnant.

Fonacier, in this film, serves as the caring stepmother of Dodong. She is one of the only people in his life that truly shows love and acceptance for who he is, even when no one believes him as he tries to tell people about his pregnancy.

Fonacier said this was her first major role in a feature film and was also the feature film debut of her close friend, director Ara Chawdhury.

She plays the role beautifully, showing her allyship to the LGBTQ+ community and proving that all people should be accepted no matter who they are or whatever their situation may be.

2. Jude in Patay na si Hesus (2016)

Perhaps the most out-of-there role in this list is that of Jude, a transgender man, in Patay na si Hesus.

After the death of their father Hesus, a dysfunctional family has to travel from Cebu to Dumaguete to attend the wake of a man who’d left them so many years ago. Along the way, Jude and his family face several problems: the stepsister of Hesus, a nun so crazy that people run the other way when they see her turning the corner, and a missing brother, to name a few. 

Despite their differences, they brave through them all in the name of trying to get through their hellish road trip so they can see their estranged father one last time.

“I was initially cast for another role: a sister named Vera,” shared Fonacier.

“But that character was scrapped, so I ended up playing Jude.”

To prepare for this role, Fonacier said that as a mostly straight and cis-gendered woman, it was important for her to discuss the role with members of the LGBTQ+ community to ensure that she was giving it justice and to see if she was being respectful with her portrayal.

In one interview, to make sure she would be playing the role properly, she said: “I jumped out of bed and started researching. During the shoot, I observed people–our male cast and crew, a cisgender lesbian crew member whose physicality I thought would fit Jude, and talked to my LGBTQ+ friends about their experiences.”

3. Betchai in Respeto (2017)

This film looks at the life of a young man named Hendrix, who dreams of becoming a successful rapper in the Philippines. Despite his dreams, he finds himself struggling whenever he joins rap battles. Struggling to find money to join another rap battle after he makes a fool of himself at his first one, Hendrix decides to rob a bookstore with friends Betchai and Payaso.

When he and his friends get caught, the owner of the bookstore, a kind but grumpy man named Doc, says that he won’t press charges as long as they help him around with his shop. What follows is a story centered around the unlikely budding friendship of Doc and Hendrix, who form a bond as they realize that rap and poetry are one in the same.

Fonacier in this film plays the role of Betchai, a tomboy and one of Hendrix’s most trusted friends. She recounts that they had to do a lot of running while shooting, which she was glad to do anyway, given the beauty of the film.

Despite not being the main character, she truly takes to the stage as we see in her what it means to be a woman in the Philippines, especially one that many may not consider being ‘conventionally attractive.’ The reality? Sh*t is scary, and sh*t is hard. 

4. Aica in Asuang (2018)

Giving off major What We Do in the Shadows (2019) vibes, Asuang follows the life of Asuang, otherwise known as the God of Sins. While he was known in the past to be a terrifying, tyrannical source of power, he slowly found himself becoming irrelevant as the world started to be filled with sin. Eventually, he gives up on his reign of terror and instead tries to become a social media influencer to regain the power and fame that he once had. 

One day, he’s approached to stop Armageddon, with the Mayon Volcano set to explode and ready to wipe out the earth. Asuang takes this as a chance to become his next claim to fame and he immediately takes up the challenge to be seen as the hero that he so desperately wants to be, all to be filmed by director Aica and her film crew.

Fonacier stars as Aica in this mockumentary, the patient director of the crew that tries her best to keep up with Asuang’s manic behavior. 

She recounts how much fun she had working with the ensemble.

“Mount Mayon revealed her full glory on the day we took wide shots with her in the background, and that was pretty awesome,” she said.

Fonacier is a natural in this role, given that she’s already had a track record for having a great sense of humor and a penchant for comedic timing. She knows when to keep things serious and when to get a laugh, and her performance–alongside that of Alwyn Uytongco’s Asuang–is hilarious to watch.

5. Yumi in Born Beautiful (2019)

Serving as a sequel to the film Die Beautiful (2016,) which talked about the death of a transgender woman named Trisha, Born Beautiful now focuses on the life of one of Trisha’s closest friends, Barbs. 

Still grieving the death of her best friend, Barbs tries to move on with her life by becoming a beautician at the funeral home in which Trisha died. After yet another one of his friends dies, Barbs starts to believe that his being gay is the reason for all the bad luck he’s experienced in his life. 

In an attempt to turn things around, he comes out as straight and looks for love with women instead of men in the hopes that that’ll be the solution to all his problems. What happens, however, is the complete opposite.

Fonacier in this film stars as the crazy but lovable Yumi, a self-proclaimed pokpok that Barbs tries to have relations with. In one interview, Fonacier says that what she loved about playing this character was how her being Cebuana was never once made fun of.

“Yung background niya, galing talaga siya ng Cebu, pero never siyang pinagtawanan dahil sa accent niya, dahil sa origins niya,” she noted.

What more is the message this film holds; important themes of acceptance and feminism can be seen throughout.

“It says so much [about what] we need to discuss these days,” she said. “Nagustuhan ko na may sense of empowerment yung mga karakter sa story kahit nasa laylayan na sila ng lipunan.”

Campy with a capital C, this film knows just how to mix serious and silly together to equal something as heartfelt as it is enjoyable.