Yes, there’s canonically a Filipino werewolf in the Wednesday universe. And yes, he can speak Filipino. Sort of.
Bruno Yuson, played by the dashing Filipino-American actor Noah Taylor (who sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone Philippines), has been strutting the halls of Nevermore Academy since Wednesday Season 2 dropped on Netflix on August 6. The show, currently the streaming platform’s most popular show worldwide, follows Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) as she navigates the woes of high school, solves monster murder cases, and attempts to repair her fraught relationship with her mother, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
For his part, Bruno has been spending the semester with his wolf pack and Wednesday’s best friend-slash-werewolf, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). The two develop feelings for each other in the first half of Season 2; however, one scene in the latter half of the new season sees Bruno calling home to the Philippines, saying, “Miss na kita. Miss ko na ‘yung pagpasyal natin sa beach. Miss ko na lalo ‘yung mga matamis na labi mo. Baba ko na ‘to, mahal ko.”
Taylor’s delivery is clunky, and it’s clear that the lines don’t come naturally to him. To add to the “Filipino-ness” of the scene, Enid sneaks up behind him and reveals that she, too, can speak Filipino, before promptly repeating his lines back to him in the same, uneven cadence.
‘Wednesday’ and Pinoy Baiting
The scene has divided Filipino fans of the show. While many have voiced appreciation online for the Filipino shout-out — “Uy, Philippines!” — others have also pointed out that it isn’t the best depiction of our language, calling Taylor’s delivery “conyo” and an inaccurate representation of Filipino. What’s more, the lines themselves don’t sound natural, with some fans noting that it sounds as if the show’s writers plugged the script into Google Translate without doing proper research on the language.
Although storytelling-wise, it makes sense that Bruno isn’t a fluent speaker — Nevermore is based in Vermont, and its students, or at least the ones we’ve been introduced to, are American — that’s no excuse for the show’s producers to not have done their homework. Fans have complained that if Taylor’s Filipino lines had just been checked first for grammar and flow, then Taylor’s delivery could have been forgiven. Or, if an on-set dialect coach — or, really, any Filipino speaker — had helped Taylor with his lines, then the scene would not have come across as so cringe. Yes, representation matters, but so does the type of presentation.
It’s always a delight to get a Filipino shout-out on any major show or movie; however, sometimes shout-outs can veer into the realm of Pinoy baiting. If Filipino culture is going to be highlighted, in any form, it needs to be much more than an awkward, surface-level delivery of four lines of dialogue. While we’re happy to have a Filipino werewolf on the biggest show on Netflix, the platform needs to do more with the screen time it gives him.
