“I only put their nurturing side, taking care of other people” into the role, she says. “They’re compliant and obedient and hard-working. If you ask them to do something, even if they think that it’s not part of their job description, they’ll go beyond.

“I think I got a bit of that from her subconsciously. But there was never a conscious effort to copy anyone that I knew.”

In the film, the ship sinks and the characters find themselves marooned on an island. It is here that Abigail proves herself to be much more resourceful and competent than some of the wealthy survivors, and the social order that existed on the ship is upended.

On December 10 Triangle of Sadness won four prizes at the European Film Awards – best film, best director and screenwriter and best actor (Zlatko Buric).

“I don’t really see Abigail [on the ship and on the island] as two different people. I think she’s had that pent-up resentment for these people on that yacht from the start. She sees how they can’t even take care of themselves. Everyone’s been watching over them; they had no motivation to make their own cup of coffee,” De Leon says.

“So … it’s not like a huge change happens in Abigail. I think a huge change happened around her, so she adjusted.”

The actor may as well be talking about herself.

Growing up, her father was a mechanical and electrical engineer and her mother mostly a housewife – “but she was also a champion bowler. Rosie De Leon. If people know bowling, they’ll know her name,” De Leon says.

Her love for performing started when she was a child, after which she went to college for a degree in theatre arts. For decades, she acted on stage, largely in classics such as The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot and Three Sisters.

Most of her screen work has been what she calls “little roles that you won’t even remember”. She’s being modest; she won a 2020 supporting actress prize at the Famas (the Filipino Oscars) for her role in the 2019 crime drama Verdict – but hers is a familiar story of the struggling actor doing it for love.

“You can’t make a living out of acting, especially theatre, in the Philippines. You have to do other stuff.”

The single mother of four worked as a facilitator: “I would facilitate in building corporate programmes, organisational development, teach[ing] them presentation skills.”

When a casting director told her about the audition for Triangle of Sadness, De Leon wasn’t excited.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna get [the part]’ because I never get auditions. I really don’t. Once, I got [a part after] an audition, but only because the actors they chose backed out,” she says.

“I went anyway – I mean, I never go down without a fight; I’m up for any challenge. I went there thinking I wasn’t gonna get it, so I was very loose, very comfortable and just having fun with it. I think that’s what caught Ruben’s eye.”

Triangle of Sadness marked De Leon’s first time being part of a major international production. Playing one of the key roles for an internationally renowned cinematic auteur, and shooting on a cold beach in Greece, took some adjusting for the actress. Also, Östlund’s habit of shooting multiple – sometimes dozens of – takes for each scene required some getting used to.

“In the beginning, I felt horrible. I felt like they made a mistake in choosing me because he made us do it over and over again. But after a while, I think it really got a lot from me in a good way. Doing takes over and over and over, you tend to forget you’re acting; you’re just completely in the scene.

“And I think because of my theatre background – we rehearse over and over again – it is freeing creatively, but physically exhausting.”

While she effusively praises the cast and crew (“Everyone was looking out for everyone; it was a set with love”), it was the instant friendship offered by 32-year-old co-star Charlbi Dean, she says, that helped her get comfortable during shooting. The South African actress died suddenly of a viral infection shortly before the film’s release.

“Charlbi made me feel right at home, like we had known each other for a long time. I would [have] considered her a lifelong friend,” says De Leon. “It wasn’t just the first day; she was consistently kind and thoughtful and sweet, always asking me how I am, always putting others ahead of herself.”

“When [Abigail] says, ‘On the yacht, toilet manager. Here, captain,’ that, for me, is very powerful. That is my favourite event in the whole film.

“Everyone tells me [audiences] are cheering for those lines, for Abigail.”