STUNT director Lance Pimentel, who plays Kenzie Lee in the primetime series, “Incognito,” says he is getting used to being in front of the camera.
“Mas nasanay na ‘ko being on the set,” Lance said. “I’ve seen all of our cast, how they are and how they act. I got a lot of tips from them just being on the set.
“The technicals, the blocking, a bit of acting, mas natutunan ko na. But acting is really different, unless you try it. So I took a bit of acting workshop with Tita Malou (De Guzman). She plays Apo in ‘Incognito.’
“I really rehearsed my lines. I was a bit nervous to throw my lines than action itself. I have the cast members to help me out. They were all supportive. I go to Tito Ian for advice. I asked a lot of questions, how to do certain things.
“DJ (Daniel Padilla) and Baron (Geisler), they constantly give me advice. They’ve been all supportive.”
Although this is not his first acting job – he started in “La Luna Sangre,” with DJ and Kathryn Bernardo (2017), then did “Bagani” (2018) and “Iron Heart” (2023) – Lance did not audition anymore for “Incognito.”
“When the role was given to me, when they were looking for someone to do a lot of fights in Japan, I grabbed the opportunity,” Lance said.
They shot in the dead of winter in Northern Japan last February. “We shot in -8 degrees,” Lance shared. “It was very challenging because tayong mga Pinoy, hindi tayo sanay sa malamig at nagye-yelo. Working in the snow was really hard.
“Masakit at mahapdi. We really forced ourselves to shoot kahit masakit at mahirap. When DJ and I did our snow fight, that took eight takes. Every day, we shot our fight scenes because jampacked ang shooting schedule namin. It was always fight scenes every day.”
Lance does his own stunts, so his scenes were shot faster. Back in September 2024, the team went to Matera, Italy to also shoot some scenes.
Thankfully, Lance has not met any accident on the set of “Incognito,” since they started shooting in September last year.
“There was never any incident that we got afraid, even if we do a lot of major stunts,” Lance said. “When we were shooting in Japan, Richard kicked me in the head, but that was my fault.”
Lance, at age 5, learned wushu from his dad, “Incognito” director Lester Pimentel, who initially taught him the Chinese martial arts. When he turned eleven, he joined the wushu national team.
From there, he learned different martial arts, including Filipino martial arts. He trained the cast, including the ladies – Kaila Estrada and Maris Racal – in martial arts for three months before “Incognito” started.
“Richard (Gutierrez) and Tito Ian (Veneracion) were already martial artists since they were young,” said Lance, who is the second among five boys.
He takes pride that all the “Incognito” cast and crew have become close since they get to bond even off camera. They work closely with their Chinese-Singaporean action director, Ace Wang Yan Bin.
Lance worked with Ian from the time they did their first project, “One Good Day,” a Prime Video series. That was where Lance met his girlfriend, beauty queen Nicole Cordoves, who was part of the cast. They have been together for three years now.
Lance got close with Richard when they did “Iron Heart” (2023). “Baron (Geisler), we did a project with him before,” said Lance. “DJ and Anthony, we got close in ‘Incognito.’ We were just together last Sunday. We watched the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Fight.”
Acting or being in front of the camera wasn’t really Lance’s dream. “My dream was to always make a good action film or action series,” he admitted. “Whatever it takes to do that, I’m happy that I was given an opportunity to do it.”
