Coda chats with... Prince de Guzman and Awie, Philippines Cosplay Influencer Couple

Coda talks to Filipino Cosplay Celebrity Couple, Prince de Guzman and Awie about their love for Call of Duty: Mobile, clowns and Codashop.

How did you start your career as a cosplayer? Did you start as a couple or did one of you start before and influence the other to try it out?

PRINCE: I started first and it was when the It movie came out in 2017. I’m really into horror movies - they triggered my curiosity about what happens behind the camera and also my love for costumes. I’ve also always wanted to be an actor and love acting so cosplay is a really perfect avenue for me. When I did Pennywise, Warner Bros. Entertainment noticed my work and I ended up doing a vlog for them at a toy convention, TOYCON in the Philippines. That vlog reached 1 million views in 2 weeks and after that, we continued to explore the beautiful world of content creation. Then Awie came in to join me.

AWIE: When I first started I was helping out Prince, I was basically taking his photos and videos during conventions and events until one day I pretty much lucked out. I got invited by 20th Century Fox to cosplay for one of their movie premieres as Alita: Battle Angel and the rest is history.

What was the first cosplay you did as a couple?

AWIE: Shazam and Mary Marvel in 2017 during the Shazam premiere. They aren’t really a couple but it’s the first time we cosplayed together as a couple.

Since then, what has been your favorite couple to cosplay as?

AWIE: Pennywise and Girlywise! We really love it!

PRINCE: We actually got the Girlywise character from a toy but it worked so well in our content.

What’s the longest amount of time you’ve spent getting into character for cosplay? The most difficult one?

PRINCE: For me, it’s when I did my latest cosplay, Piccolo. It took me like 6 hours to do the makeup. The body suit is very constricting. I could only last a maximum of 45 minutes max in it and it was definitely the most challenging character for me to cosplay.

AWIE: Mine is ironically all of my ‘face characters’ that do not use full prosthetics. I always have a hard time doing simple makeup so it’s more challenging doing ‘good-looking’ characters like Mary Marvel and Princess Jasmine. It takes me the longest time to do these face characters.

If you had to cosplay one genre, what would it be?

PRINCE: I’m proud that my works are diverse from horror to gaming but roots are really in horror. It’s so fun to play with and it’s a really nice experience with fans. That said, I don’t want to cosplay horror for the rest of my life because I really want to be diverse in my work.

AWIE: I’m torn between horror and anime. Now I’m obsessed with anime. I want to do male characters like Zoro (One Piece) and Tengen (Demon Slayer) the ones Prince did. Looking at my face now - one side is a bit more masculine and the other side looks more feminine. I think I would look a lot more handsome than Prince if I were to cosplay a male character (laughs).

What’s the next cosplay you’ll do as a couple?

Pinhead and Beetlejuice because a new movie is coming out on Halloween!

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had as a cosplayer?

PRINCE: The most memorable is the latest Netflix collaboration. First time cosplaying outside of the country. It’s with the One Piece live-action series. Such an honour to be a part of such a big successful project like that and wear the one piece that was created. Really amazing for us to be in Japan.

AWIE: Mine is Alexandra Trese, a Filipino comic character. During the release of the show on Netflix, it really blew up. Because of that character, we also went to Japan for a very secret project that will be released next year in April. Our cosplay has taken us to a lot of places!

What are some of the other unexpected things that have happened since you started cosplaying?

PRINCE: There’s really a lot of unexpected things that have happened. The biggest one would be being able to make a career out of what we love to do. But outside of that, I think a pretty amazing thing is that kids are coming up to us when we cosplay horror - they aren’t scared even of Pennywise. Kids are so in love with horror characters - that’s pretty amazing.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced being in the public eye?

AWIE: For me, it's the timelines of making costumes and facing criticism.

PRINCE: With costumes now there are a lot more cosplayers and a lot fewer costume makers. Keeping up with trends, and releasing what’s trending can become quite toxic as content creators. And of course, there's the criticism, all artists face criticism online. It’s tricky because people put us on this pedestal as celebrities just because we have a certain amount of followers and exposure but really we’re just enjoying our work. This comes with people saying whatever they want online without respecting how you feel, your work and the amount of dedication that has gone into it. They expect us to be super accurate or super beautiful with all of our work, all the time.

How do you deal with negativity and criticism?

PRINCE: Just the other day I read a couple of negative comments in my posts and I opened up to Awie about it. What we try to do is put our energy into thousands of people who appreciate our work and are inspired by it rather than focus on the few negative comments.

AWIE: It’s easier said than done. For me, I’ve learned to adapt and try my best to be unaffected by online criticism. I also try not to read comment sections because there’s a risk that just one bad comment could end up ruining my entire day.

What’s your favourite game character to play?

AWIE: All of my Call of Duty: Mobile characters. I play Call of Duty: Mobile every day. I’m obsessed!

PRINCE: We played Call of Duty: Mobile throughout the pandemic. That's what kept us busy then. But I’d have to say my favourite game character to cosplay is Arataki Itto from Genshin Impact. He was my first game character to cosplay and I really relate to that character so much.

Who is your favourite Call of Duty: Mobile character to cosplay?

AWIE: My first one was a clown - Death Angel Alice and there’s a lot of details. During that time we did a photoshoot with a team. There were four of us in this tiny room doing content together and we did a lot of game challenges and fun videos. It was great.

PRINCE: It all started with a clown. It always starts with a clown. In this case, it’s Gunzo the clown - he’s my favourite Call of Duty: Mobile character. Call of Duty: Mobile actually reached out to us to cosplay those characters and we were so excited because we genuinely love the game and the characters Gunzo and Death Angel Alice.

What is it that you love so much about Call of Duty: Mobile?

AWIE: It's a very quick battle royale and I can play with my friends easily. It’s super fun.

PRINCE: And it’s like a release for her! Sometimes I’m quite surprised because I can hear her screaming in the other room but it turns out she’s just playing Call of Duty: Mobile. I love it because it's a really quick multiplayer game and I love shooting games. Also, the Call of Duty: Mobile skins are so great - we really love them. You’ll be surprised to see how much we’re on Codashop! When you’re playing with friends and you hear that top-up sound everyone will look at you like (stares intently).

You mentioned Genshin Impact earlier. Any plans to cosplay the new characters Lyney and Lynette?

PRINCE: I think for Awie it's the first time she’s been eyeing the Genshin characters so much but I don’t think I can do the other twin. Then again, now that we’ve laughed about it, maybe we should do it together. But I really love the character design of Wriothesley and the classic but dark Genshin Impact characters, Kaeya and Rosaria.

Awie, you recently Cosplayed as a Honkai Star Rail character?

AWIE: Yes, I cosplayed as Stelle, the female protagonist. I had a hard time cosplaying as Stelle because she’s a ‘face character’ and there’s not much makeup you can do to look like her. A natural-looking wig is also really tricky to get right but I think it came out great in the end.

PRINCE: I think our Codashop project with Honkai Star Rail came out pretty great. That said, Honkai Star Rail characters are quite challenging for me too. For example, Caelus and I are of a very different build so that in itself makes it hard to cosplay his character. I do hope to cosplay Jing Yuan someday though!

Are you planning to do any Farlight characters?

AWIE: I really want to do Maggie but a lot of cosplayers are doing it already.

PRINCE: That's what turns us off - when a lot of people do it, we don’t want to.

What's the scene like in the Philippines?

PRINCE: We’ve seen the cosplay community in the Philippines explode over the past few years. Now it's acceptable to be into cosplay but before this, if you liked anime or cosplay, you were considered weird or an outcast. When I was at school, we were the weird ones. We were the people at ‘the other table’ but that isn’t the case today. I’ve seen how Genshin Impact influenced cosplay. People really love the game and want to cosplay the characters. What makes it even easier is the fact that the costumes are readily available online. Back in the day, we’d need to look for costume makers for each cosplay character. Now your cosplay costume is just a click away.

What sets the Filipino cosplay scene apart when compared to other countries in Southeast Asia or even Japan?

PRINCE: We are wild! The Filipino cosplayers are much wilder and more fanatic. There is also a very strong sense of community amongst Filipino cosplayers. Every convention gets bigger than the last but you always see a lot of group cosplayers. In other countries, we’ve noticed they are much more focused on just one cosplayer. In Japan, we were surprised to see that people were into cosplay but they weren’t doing it as much as we do it. They don't really cosplay as much as we do in the Philippines. They are also into a very different genre - often much racier than what cosplayers in the Philippines are into. We’re a little bit more conservative but the community itself is wild and very tight-knit.

What are some of the most memorable fan encounters you’ve had?

AWIE: For me, the most special thing is when I’m given a handwritten letter. I keep everything I receive - every single letter! I’m only doing cosplay for fun and never thought I could inspire others to try it out.

PRINCE: I have something for you, Awie. Our skin doctor shared that one of his patients was so inspired by Awie that she built the confidence to try out cosplay for herself.

AWIE: She mentioned that before this, she was very insecure and she thought there were very few characters for her to try out. I didn't expect to have that sort of an impact on other people so that was definitely very touching and memorable.

PRINCE: From our POV, we cosplay for fun and sometimes for work, we post it online without realising we are making an impact and inspiring others to pursue their art. I always take screenshots of comments and posts saying they pursued their craft because of us. When they give letters and do artwork of us, I think that’s the most flattering because they really put time and effort into making us part of their craft.

AWIE: I would actually say that you (Prince) inspired me because of your hard work. It's like working for a Kardashian. You’re very hardworking. You don’t waste time. Now we’re growing together, we're investing in more gadgets and tech so we can improve our output and cosplays that we put online.

PRINCE: Wow, I didn’t expect that. Thank you!