How Tommy Tomás of ‘Mr. Mayor’ Became Filipino
/
Mike Cabellon (Photo by Storm Santos)
First, the setup. I find memorization more impressive than swallowing fire. I insisted that the guest who can recite poetry is always the life of the party. Mike disagreed, convincingly. “First of all, you’ve gotta’ get yourself to some cooler parties. I think if someone stood up and started reciting Yeats at a party I was at, that person would promptly be heckled until they left.”
The son of parents from Quezon City and Batangas proceeded to explain, “I wish I had some big secret to memorization, but it always just came naturally to me. I think it’s the superpower I have as an actor. Everything else, I have to work very hard at. But I do think part of it is what I do in improv. Just listen to your scene partner. If you’re really, truly listening to them, you’ll know exactly what to say next.”
He struck the right balance of suspicion of my facetiousness for worshipping a talent that’s basic to any preteen with a SAG card and, just in case, flattery that a Philistine descendant of the Philippines would be mesmerized by each word he utters without aid of a teleprompter.
At the risk of discrediting my humility, yes, I am inordinately impressed, but there’s still room between my ears to imbibe the show’s delightful premise of Ted Danson in the role of Neil Bremer, a rich ad man who’s unqualified for the Los Angeles Mayor’s office. The twit is kept afloat by a competent supporting cast that includes Holly Hunter as Deputy Mayor Arpi Meskimen and Mike Cabellon as Chief Strategist Tommy Tomás.
See them in “Mr. Mayor” at 8:30 p.m., every Tuesday on NBC. The second season can also be streamed on Hulu and Peacock.
Improv Beginnings
The improvisational skills Mike displayed previously in the Netflix comedy “Orange Is the New Black” were honed at Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Theatre in Hollywood.
“I studied both sketch and improv at UCB, and the pipeline from that stuff to TV is relatively straightforward. The secret to improv is actively listening to your screen partner, which is more or less what makes a good actor, too.”
He reiterates that improv and sketch comedy prepared him for television. “It’s just good training for being funny in the context of a scene, as opposed to something like stand-up, where you’re being funny directly at the audience.”
To Be or Not to Be Filipino
It's a testament to Mr. Cabellon’s screen presence that the “Mr. Mayor” role of Tommy Tomás was reimagined by non-Filipino writers to fit his ethnicity. “Once I was cast, our writing staff did a great job of tailoring the character to match more of my own background. He became Filipino because I’m Filipino, and the writers started peppering a bit more of that into the script over time,” he says as the show begins its second season.
In further comparing the character to the actor, he relates, “I think Tommy and I started off relatively similar. We stand the same way, talk the same way. It’s not a huge transformation for me to inhabit this character.” However, “I do think Tommy is very mean, and I’d like to think I’m a lot nicer than he is, but I think we’re both very ambitious and we’re both proud of the fact that we worked our way up from basically nothing.”
Truthfully, Mike is nice despite insinuating that people who can recite poetry and their enablers are boring.
He acknowledges the practical reasons why Filipino roles are scarce. “I don’t think there are too many parts out there that are written as Filipino from the start unless it’s coming from a Filipino writer,” comments Mike. “But I also don’t necessarily think white writers should be writing super culturally specific characters unless they’re consulting with writers who can speak to that experience. So, I think one solution is to just get more Filipinos behind the scenes, writing and directing and producing projects.”
In the best of circumstances, writers will envision a character who is Filipino at conception. “It’s important to have roles that are specifically written for Filipinos,” he declares. And yet the character who could be played by any nationality but is made Filipino is an extraordinary compromise in these imperfect times.
“There’s another version of representation with a character who is being a full and complete human, and they also happen to be Filipino.” While he hasn’t given up on the ideal of roles that could only be Filipino, he believes, “We need both forms of representation. They’re both equally important in very different ways.”
Mike Cabellon (Photo by Storm Santos)
A Sartorial Maverick
Folks were emerging from their Covid couches in wrinkled T-shirts and sweatpants as the couch attire for bingeing 15 seasons of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” But nobody told Mike. “I think during the screen tests, I was the only guy who showed up wearing a full suit. I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, I’ve way overshot this.’”
Melting under wool and a collar constricting his Adam’s apple, he maintained his conviction. “As an actor, I really believe in trying to help the producers and the casting directors ‘see it’ during the audition process. Do everything you can to be that character from the moment you walk in the room.”
Mike recalls, “Since Tommy is always wearing a suit, that’s what I wore to my auditions. And it ended up being the right choice.”
Not the Monolithic Minority
In his brown eyes, winning the part wasn’t a victory over historic prejudice in Hollywood. “I wouldn’t say I’ve overcome any barriers.” He concedes, “Maybe a few, but I think being a person of color in Hollywood isn’t like a mountain, and once you climb it, you’re done. It’s more like hurdling, where you just constantly have to jump over hurdle after hurdle, and maybe sometimes the hurdles are lower, or fewer and further in between, but it never stops.”
The highest and most frequent hurdle is cultural intransigence. “The few roles that do exist usually aren’t substantive.” He lists some of the inconspicuous challenges. “There’s the way we can be treated in meetings and on set, there’s the way audiences are conditioned to view our characters.”
On the rare instances when Fil-Ams get the part, he adds, “There’s the way executives regard characters played by us, and the way that outlook affects the kinds of projects and roles they greenlight, the list just goes on and on.”
Furthermore, “it doesn’t all boil down to just one thing as it sometimes does for racism in other arenas.” In entertainment, he says, “It’s systemic and pervasive.”
One hurdle, he didn’t have to overcome was parental opposition. “I’m very grateful that my family always took the stance of, ‘Just do what makes you happy.’ It would have been very easy for them to pressure me into becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but they were always very supportive of me doing whatever I want, as long as I’m paying my own bills. So, every time I bombed in a show or had a terrible audition, I would think, ‘This is bad, but I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else.’”
Mike with his family (Photo courtesy of Mike Cabellon)
Can He Sing? It Depends on Who’s Asking
Entertainers don’t leave my interviews without the opportunity to either perpetuate or debunk the perception that a noticeable percentage, if not a majority, of them have musical talent. “I know that’s one of those stereotypes that’s generally true, but it really depends on who’s asking.”
He allows, “I can carry a tune, but I wasn’t truly blessed with the gift the way that some other people were. I do play guitar and drums as well. I guess what I’m saying is I’m the least musical person at a Filipino party, but if you’re a white casting director looking for a Filipino who can play instruments and sing, then, yeah, I’m your guy!”
In other words, the relatives of this Filipino might rate Mike mediocre, but mediocre by Filipino standards is a high bar outside the fiesta.
“It’s a testament to Mr. Cabellon’s screen presence that the “Mr. Mayor” role of Tommy Tomás was reimagined by non-Filipino writers to fit his ethnicity. ”
Kidding Aside
It's definitely a breakthrough to see Mike on television every week holding his own with other A-list actors. In an undervalued way, it’s about time. “Filipinos are the third largest Asian group in America behind Chinese Americans and Indian Americans. People are always surprised when you pull out cold hard facts like that.” Touting the demographics is important because “the more awareness people have that we’re here and that we’re just as American as everyone else, the better.”
When people realize Fil-Ams are making vital contributions to society, they’ll clamor to learn more about us. And when that happens, Mike will be there. “Telling Fil-Am stories is absolutely a focus of mine that I’m actively working on.” He realizes, “It takes a lot of time and money and a lot of favors to actually get things made in Hollywood, but with a little luck, hopefully I’ll be able to do those things soon.”
As for me, I’ll look for some cooler parties that will have me.
Anthony Maddela experienced an unlisted, underrated side effect of chemotherapy. He acquired a 1979 Asian perm without applying chemicals to his scalp. He’s almost done writing a lengthy novel.
More articles from Anthony Maddela
