(See previous post on this series — Finding Jeremy Renner: It’s not stalking if the MMDA gives you a map.)
I usually prefer doing my stalking in nice places with A/C — press conferences in hotel function rooms, bookstores, etc. However, when this isn’t possible and it’s been three weeks yet you could not find the time to hang around the hotel till your, uh, target shows up (what with stupid stuff like work getting in the way), you get creative. And by creative, I mean take a 2-hour bus ride to a fish port in the outskirts of the Metro.
It wasn’t supposed to come to that. The initial schedule of the filming of The Bourne Legacy released by the MMDA stated that the January 25 shoot would be in Intramuros, which is in Manila — a city right beside mine. Fortunately, someone sent me a tweet saying the shoot was going to be in Navotas. Unfortunately, she said the shoot was going to be in Navotas.
I googled a bit, and it turns out Navotas City is technically still part of Metro Manila. Just barely. Which means it still qualifies as an out-of-town trip. Like a serial killer, I don’t like going out of my comfort zone, so an out-of-town place = Someplace I Would Only Go To To See A Cute Boy. Preferably with a friend. Somehow I managed to convinced M. that he really wanted to go with me to a fish port to ogle Jeremy Renner. We decided we were going to leave at eight nine ten in the morning. I was optimistic, despite the news reports that people weren’t allowed in the filming area. I’d climb a wall, if I had to, even if my outfit was new and dry-clean only. What were they gonna do, shoot me? (Later, we saw that the SWAT was there, so yeah, they probably would’ve shot me.)
Somehow we managed to not get lost, despite the fact that neither M. nor I have ever been to Navotas before. It was a good thing a friend gave me extremely detailed instructions on how to get there (take a bus on edsa, take a tryke to the fish port). The fish port smelled gloriously of … well, fish. Which was good, because if it smelled of baking bread, I’d have been really worried.
We went around till we found a place cordoned off with those yellow DO NOT CROSS tape, and joined the folks who were milling around looking. Some guy was taking photos, so I figured it was safe to take pictures out in the open. I had taken a few shots when M. called my attention to OMG Jeremy Renner walking by. Five feet away from me. My camera was on full zoom because I’d been taking photos of the crew walking around the filming area, and by the time I had zoomed it out enough to take a decent shot, Jeremy was already past the yellow tape and walking away from us. So all I got were shots of his back.
Thinker, writer, skeptic, spy.
