Jun Robles Lana shared some behind-the-scenes details about his Metro Manila Film Festival 2025 entry, Call Me Mother, starring Vice Ganda.
In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the director revealed why a certain scene in the movie, which was a parkour sequence, was deleted, despite being filmed for an entire day.
"As a filmmaker, what you choose not to put in the final cut is often as crucial as what stays in. These photos are from a scene in Call Me Mother that we spent weeks planning and an entire day shooting. It was a massive parkour sequence: Twinkle (Vice Ganda), in a desperate dash to get her child to the hospital, runs out of the shower in nothing but a towel. Trapped in a narrow alley packed with cars caught in traffic, she realizes that her only way forward is to bypass the pavement entirely, launching into incredible parkour stunts and mid-air flips over the traffic below," he shared.
Jun recalled the logistical challenges of mounting the scene, calling it a massive undertaking. "It was a logistical beast. While we were filming inside the house, parkour rehearsals were happening simultaneously outside to ensure the choreography aligned with our storyboards, plan the camera angles, and prioritize the safety of Meme. We had a huge setup: VFX teams, stunt directors, additional safety officers, and a high-end 3-camera rig. Through it all, Meme was a total trooper, wearing a harness and running on car roofs even as the rain began to pour," he recounted.
The director shared that the visuals were so impressive that cutting the scene from the final cut was a difficult decision. However, he explained why it ultimately had to go.
"It was visually spectacular. Everyone was excited to see Twinkle doing 'impossible' parkour while perfectly balancing a towel on her head. But in the end I cut it. It wasn't easy. I wanted to honor the hard work of my cast and crew and the investment of my producers, but while the scene worked on paper and was technically impressive, it felt tonally out of place once edited into the sequence. The absurdity was just too high, it risked derailing the grounded comedy we needed to make the eventual shift into heavy drama feel seamless," he stated.
There were also other scenes deleted from the film. Jun emphasized that story remains the top priority in filmmaking above all else.
"From cutting Mara’s (Nadine Lustre) Squid Game style pageant training to removing the PBB cast’s samurai confrontation, my editor Ben Tolentino and I were relentless. Ultimately, filmmaking isn't about flexing the spectacle or showing off your technical range as a director. It's about honoring the story above all else, even if that means leaving your most ambitious work on the cutting room floor," he said.
During the media conference of the film in December, Jun discussed the process that went into making Call Me Mother with Vice.
"Parang malinaw na sa akin na ang buhay ko ay nakatali na rin kay Meme bilang isang direktor. I looked forward to the next project kaya mas matagal yung proseso, mas matagal binusisi and gusto namin na higitan yung sa And The Breadwinner Is...," he said.
The director also commended Vice's growth as an actor. "Everybody in the production, when we were doing it, everybody says that this is the best performance yet of Meme. The first few days pa lang talaga sinabi ko na kay Meme na mas confident siya ngayon," he remarked.
Vice recently bagged the Best Actor award at the 2025 Metro Manila Film Festival Gabi ng Parangal.