Filipina actress Dolly de Leon took to the stage at this year’s Front & Female Awards Hong Kong to discuss balancing acting with being a single mother of four, never quitting, and how life has changed since her breakout role in the 2022 film Triangle of Sadness
Each year, at the Front & Female Awards, an outstanding woman takes to the stage to share her thoughts on success and happiness. In 2022, Olympic swimmer Siobhán Haughey participated in the event, fresh from victories at the Tokyo Olympics and the Asian Games. This year, award-winning actress Dolly de Leon flew in from the Philippines for the event.
De Leon has been acting for three decades, but it was her recent role playing Abigail, an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), in the satirical comedy Triangle of Sadness by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, that made her an international star. The film tells the story of a boat-load of billionaires on a luxury cruise. When the ship crashes and the survivors wash up on a deserted island, they find that Abigail is the only one with the skills to be able to survive, which turns the power dynamic on its head and highlights the lengths to which people will go to reclaim power. The movie was critically acclaimed, won the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Oscar, while de Leon was nominated for both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her performance. She also became the first Filipina actress invited to be a member by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the organisation behind the Oscars.
After thirty years in local film and theatre in her native Philippines, while often working side hustles to support her four children as a single mother, de Leon finds the freedom success has brought fulfilling, as she told Tamara Lamunière, founder of Front & Female, at the awards, as she is able to pursue her passion and feed her soul—while also paying off her debts. De Leon now sits at the top of her game, with her pick of roles and scripts and serves as an inspiration to ethnic minorities, women and aspiring actors. Here are some of the takeaways from her fireside chat at the Front & Female Awards Hong Kong 2023, which was supported by headline sponsor Standard Chartered Private Bank.
On how her life has changed since the 2022 film Triangle of Sadness
“Everything is different. Before, I would live day to day. I would figure out how to put food on the table. I was deeply in debt. I was constantly waiting for job offers to come. I would be unemployed, borrowing money left and right from my friends. I had to have my son stop going to school because I couldn't pay for his tuition. But now it's changed. First of all, I was able to pay off all my debts. [Now,] I can choose the roles that I play. I never had an option before—any offer that would come, I would just say yes and do it, because for me it was food on the table. But now my artistic soul is being fed because I can choose what characters to play. I can choose what characters inspire me, what stories inspire me. I can choose the filmmakers I work with. And I can provide for my family.
“And because of all of that, it's given me confidence. Before I was so insecure, I could not even face strangers because I'm really an introvert. I'm shy. But because of what's happened, it's given me confidence. It's given me agency in my own life. And I guess right now I can say that I'm finally happy.”
