Hollywood actor Jacob Batalon talked about being Filipino, eating balut, and local celebrities during the Manila leg of his Asian Tour to promote the Spiderman movie.
Batalon, born in Hawaii to Filipino migrant parents from Pangasinan, has risen to Hollywood stardom via his Spiderman and Infinity War movies. The Asian Fan Tour for “Spider-Man: Far From Home” brought Jacob Batalon to Manila on September 20.
During his brief stay in Manila, Jacob Batalon met Filipino fans, celebrities, the media, and executives from GMA Network who holds exclusive rights to air the Spider-Man series.
In a press presentation hosted by GMA Network, Spiderman’s best buddy Ned Leeds talked about the possibility of working with Pinoy actors.
“I really want to. If I would have more time, I’d love to collaborate with you all. I feel like it would be a fun project for us to do. But I’ll probably just have to come back here,” said Batalon during the media briefing.
“I have to say everyone here is so lovely… I noticed that famous people here are really good-looking. I am really enthralled right now,” the Hollywood star added after meeting the GMA celebrities.
Jacob also said, “Can I just say that there’s so many actors, models, and singers. This is amazing… What I’m saying is that Filipinos are so talented. Seriously.”
The 22-year-old actor, who last visited the Philippines when he was 4 years old, also talked about Filipino pride. “I love you all so much. Filipinos are really a proud people and I’m very proud and love you all for being proud of me.
This is all very overwhelming for me.”
Jacob also revealed he had already tried eating the infamous “balut”, a boiled duck egg with a developed embryo inside. “I tried that already. In Hawaii, they do the exact same thing. There’s a lot of Filipinos in Hawaii and we eat that all the time. It’s so good. Some people can’t take the fact that there are feathers in the egg sometimes. But I love that. And you drink the soup that’s inside of that.”
The real-life best buddy of Spider-Man’s Tom Holland also shared he wished to visit the beaches of the Philippines and the Hundred Islands of Pangasinan where his parents hailed.
Jacob Batalon is currently filming the Netflix romantic comedy for the holidays, “Let It Snow”.
Jacob Batalon appeared in four Marvel Cinematic Universe films:
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
On Instagram, Jacob Batalon bid the Philippines farewell with these words: “The final leg of this amazing Asia tour, and it was the motherland! Salamat (Thank you)!” he said. “Next time I’ll find the time to stay longer and do more [high five] until next time [Philippines].
SEND cheers and well wishes in the comments below to Jacob Batalon for loving the Philippines and Filipinos!
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