How Alex Mallari Jr. made sure to include arnis in 'The Adam Project' (Sabong News)

A Pinoy is in Ryan Reynolds’ hit Netflix movie “The Adam Project.” He is Alex Mallari Jr. and he hails from Lubao, Pampanga. Well, he is based in Canada now but he sure hasn’t forgotten his roots. In fact, this is the main reason why we have arnis in “The Adam Project.” As Christos, the deadly nemesis of Ryan’s Adam Reed, Alex could have simply played an indeterminate Asian stereotype but he made sure to underscore his being Pinoy. How? By actually pushing to have the film’s stunt coordinator Jim Churchman incorporate arnis in the film as part of his character’s fighting style. He told TFC News, “I was on the phone with Jim. I was like, ‘I’m Filipino. I want to give a little head tilt to my people, so can I use these arnis sticks?’ And then he goes, ‘Well, yeah, man, we’ll try to squeeze that in there.’ It starts as the two sticks. I was like, ‘Thank you. I just needed something that shows I’m Filipino.’ So there’s that, and that was my input. And I was like, ‘You guys could do whatever else you want with me. And I will abide. I just have one request, and that was it.’ So I was happy that they allowed it.” Alex is an accidental actor. He stumbled into it not long ago, unsure of his future. The 34-year-old shared, “I went to University of Toronto for a year, and I heard an advertisement on the radio, you know, ‘if you want to be on in commercials, call this number.’ I called the number, and that was the beginning of that journey, and here I am.” It wasn’t easy. Alex admitted there is a dearth of Filipino roles in Hollywood. “There are challenges in everything. But I think, as a Filipino earlier on in my career, I mean still now, I really go for open ethnicity roles. I think I’ve had maybe two or three Filipino auditions and lucky enough I was able to book them all.” But he is determined to push on. “It’s finding the recognition that Filipinos exist in the world at all, and that we deserve to be on the big stage and on the big screen with everyone else,” he said. Prior to “The Adam Project,” Alex was seen in the Canadian TV series “Dark Matter.” He is to be seen in he upcoming CBC Gem digital series ‘”Hello (Again),” and in season 2 of the Netflix series “Ginny & Georgia,” continuing his role there as a private investigator.