‘I’m just so proud to be Filipino’

Most fans know H.E.R. as a Grammy- and Oscar-winning performer with an unmistakably cool stage presence. But behind her dark sunglasses, sleek guitar and runway-ready couture, the Vallejo R&B singer is a “just a big goofball.”

At least that’s what she told Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford, who co-wrote and co-directed DreamWorks’ first-ever Filipino-themed animated feature “Forgotten Island,” after seeing a video that pierced that rock-star image. That clip from H.E.R.’s Vogue Philippines interview, in which the half-Filipina, half-Black artist sampled snacks from her mother’s homeland, convinced the filmmakers they had found their star.

“She was eating balut on camera and was so excited,” Mercado recalled, referring to the fertilized duck egg considered a Filipino delicacy. “There was such joy … Joel and I knew then, ‘That’s Jo right there.'”

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“Forgotten Island” (PG) is in theaters nationwide.

Jo is the high-energy, impulsive half of the two best friends at the heart of “Forgotten Island,” the first major studio animated feature centered on Filipino culture, which arrives just in time for Filipino American History Month. H.E.R. voices the teenager opposite fellow Bay Area native Liza Soberano’s Raissa, whose friendship is tested after the pair are pulled into a mythical island where they encounter monsters – friend and foe – inspired by Filipino folklore.

“I’m a lot like Jo,” H.E.R., whose real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, told the Chronicle. “I can be like Raissa, depending on who I’m with. I can be the more organized person. But for the most part, I’ll usually go with the flow … a little bit chaotic. I can be very high energy and get distracted very easily.”

Crawford sees other similarities.

“She’s the life of the party, but Jo is always looking out for other people. She wants to make sure others are happy and taken care of, and that quality is real in Gabi’s life,” he said.

Those qualities may come naturally to H.E.R., but bringing Jo to life required her to stretch as a performer in a new medium. While H.E.R. has acted onscreen before in film (2019’s “The Color Purple”) and TV (“Black-ish”), “Forgotten Island” marks her first major voice-over role. That meant letting loose in a different way in the recording booth.

“Making funny noises and screaming is so freeing,” she said. “It was a big process of discovery and, honestly, just being unafraid to embarrass myself.”

But H.E.R. was drawn to more than that freedom an animated film offers. She was also moved by the way the film centers on the connection between Jo and Raissa.

“We haven’t seen a friendship like this on screen, especially a Filipino friendship,” said H.E.R. “(After seeing it), I needed to call my best friend and cherish my loved ones.”

That connection – “the silliness, our weird sense of humor, laughing together, even crying together,” Crawford said – was rooted in the filmmakers’ own nearly two-decade friendship, which started when they worked on DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda 2” (2011).

“When you have a friendship that spans almost two decades with Januel and I,” he explained, “you feel like you find someone who brings out the best in you. That was something we wanted to capture – the power of a friend to help you find your identity.”

The filmmakers were thinking about identity on a larger scale, too. Given how rarely Filipino people and culture are centered in mainstream American entertainment, Mercado said the Philippines, in a sense, are the “Forgotten Island.”

“That provided a deeper meaning to our title: Cultures or communities that feel like they’ve been forgotten because of the lack of representation,” he said.

There is no shortage of Filipino and Filipino American talent in American entertainment. Bruno Mars, Olivia Rodrigo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Tia Carrere, Dave Bautista and San Francisco’s own Darren Criss are just a few who have broken through. “Forgotten Island” adds to that visibility with H.E.R. and an all-star cast that includes Golden Globe nominee Dolly De Leon, Broadway icon Lea Salonga, “The Good Place” and “Star Wars: The Acolyte” actor Manny Jacinto and comedian Jo Koy.

“I’m just so proud to be Filipino and to be able to show that in my work, in storytelling. That’s a dream come true,” H.E.R. said. “I think people are really going to feel seen and finally get to know who we are because they don’t really know about Filipinos. There hasn’t really been a moment to show our culture in this way.”

That pride has particular resonance in the Bay Area, where generations of Filipino Americans have helped shape communities from Milpitas, Union City, Hayward and Newark to San Jose and San Francisco. Daly City, often called the “Pinoy Capital of America,” has Filipino ancestry among nearly a third of its population and has long been regarded as the country’s largest Filipino enclave outside the Philippines.

The theater was packed with Filipino American families, some of whom had traveled from as far as the Central Valley. The crowd also included Filipino and Filipino American creatives, among them San Francisco-born DJ Noodles and East Bay rapper Ruby Ibarra.

“This is for everybody in the room that wished we had this growing up,” Ibarra told the crowd before the screening.

Ibarra, whose song “Salbahe Ako” (“I’m Savage”), recorded with fellow Filipino American hip-hop artist Carl Angelo, is featured on the official “Forgotten Island” soundtrack, had brought her 2-year-old to see her first movie in a theater. Watching her daughter, Lea, take in a Filipino-centered animated film underscored just how much has changed since she was a child.

“I’m just so glad that she lives in a timeline where this is possible,” she said, “that she’s going to be able to watch an animated film where there’s Filipino language, Filipino music, Filipino voice actors that are part of the cast.”

Crawford, who is white and married to a Filipina, even drew on his own experience of Filipino family life.

“Growing up, I had good friends who were Filipino. I was like their adopted son; I was always at their house for family parties,” he said. “When I met my wife as a young adult, I was instantly at home at their family parties.”

That lived-in familiarity can be felt in some of the film’s smaller cultural details, including a karaoke family party scene.

“There are so many things that are so us showcased in this film,” said H.E.R., particularly referring to a moment where a tita (aunt) points to something with her lips. “When I saw it with my (friend), who is also Filipino, we were elbowing each other the whole time, laughing.”

She hopes others get to experience that, too.

“There are so many things that make us uniquely Filipino,” H.E.R. said. “To be highlighting that is such a big deal.”

Chronicle Arts and Entertainment Editor Mariecar Mendoza contributed to this story.

Michael Ordoña is a freelance writer.

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This article originally published at H.E.R. brings deep roots to ‘Forgotten Island’: ‘I’m just so proud to be Filipino’.