Get to know Lourdes Faberes, the Filipina actress who starred in 'The Sandman'
One of the most popular television shows currently streaming on Netflix is The Sandman, a fantasy drama series based on the comic book series of the same name created by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman.
The series has been gaining attention from global audiences because of its faithfulness to the source material, and it seems that the show has piqued the interest of Pinoy viewers even more with the casting of a Filipina actress in one episode.
The Sandman's story revolves around Morpheus, the King of Dreams, who ends up being captured by an occultist and having his totems of power (a pouch of sand, a helm, and a ruby) stolen from him. One of the items, the ruby, lands in the hands of John Dee.
Without spoiling too much, the fifth episode of the series, titled "24/7", has John visiting a diner, wherein he terrorizes other customers by using the ruby to prevent them from lying, which exposes their dark secrets.
London-based actress Lourdes Faberes plays Kate Fletcher, one of the diner's customers in this episode. In response to pop culture blogger Jerald Uy who praised the episode, Faberes could not help but show her Filipino pride.
"Salamat po. Sana manood and lahat Ng Pinoy. I know Neil Gaiman loves [the Philippines]. So proud of our 24/7," she wrote in the caption.
Salamat po. Sana manood and lahat Ng Pinoy. I know @neilhimself loves 🇵🇭. So proud of our 24/7. #TheSandman
— Lourdes Faberes 🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@LourdesFaberes) August 6, 2022
The Sandman creator himself Neil Gaiman described the Filipina actress as "amazing" in response to a social media post about her casting last year.
And she's amazing... https://t.co/f8MdZ0YTUO
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) September 29, 2021
Where has she appeared before?
Once a stage actress, Faberes made her acting debut as part of the ensemble of the anthology series Great Performances in 2000. She would then go on to appear in several television shows and land major roles in short films.
A fun fact about Faberes is that The Sandman is not the first show she starred in based on Neil Gaiman's work. She also starred in 2019's fantasy comedy series Good Omens, an adaptation of Gaiman's 1990 novel of the same name.
There, she appeared in three episodes as Pollution, one of the members of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a group said to bring the end of the world.
Faberes is not an all-television actress, however, as she has also starred in feature flicks such as the James Bond film No Time to Die, with a small role as a Spectre agent.
Her other credits include the History channel series Knightfall, starring Mark Hamill where she played the assasin Atlani and the 2021 British drama Boiling Point, where she played Sara Southworth.
Manila-born star
According to her IMDB bio, the 47-year-old actress was originally born in Manila, Philippines in 1975 before she moved to the United Kingdom in 1997 to enroll at the Central School of Speech and Drama, wherein she started to hone her skills as an actress by participating in numerous stage plays and theater dramas.
In an interview with The Stage, Faberes said that she moved to London because most of the friends she knew from the theatrical company Repertory Philippines were in the stage musical Miss Saigon.
"I just wanted to leave the Philippines. Most of the friends I knew from the Philippines repertory company were in Miss Saigon, so my mother thought at least I would have people in London who could look out for me. I went to only one audition," Faberes shared.
She added, "I went from a matinee in Manila to the airport, flew to London, took a nap for two hours, did the audition and then flew back to do an evening show in Manila. You’re daring when you’re young in ways that seem stupid when you look back."
Faberes said that her mother served as the main reason she wanted to become an actress, and she was made to participate in stage plays and other after-school activities.
"I was being groomed to be a lawyer but my mum had all these extracurricular activities for us, so after school we would go to tennis or embroidery or arms and ammunition–this was the Philippines. One summer she put me in the National Theatre to improve my elocution but I just fell in love and thought, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life'," Faberes shared.
"She didn’t like that. There was a freedom in being in organised chaos, in dreamed-up places, in doing things that go beyond what we’re allowed to do in normal life. There is magic in it for me, and freedom from a very conditioned and very strict life," she added.