TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines ? While sipping ice-cold beer in a seafront resort in Bohol, US actor Garret Dillahunt noticed a ?huge bat? flying through the trees.

He exclaimed, ?Wow!?

Dillahunt and fellow Hollywood actors James Parks and Chris Cooper were just as amazed when they visited the set of independent filmmaker John Sayles? ?Baryo??a turn-of-the-century village nestled between rice fields and a rainforest?somewhere in Maribojoc, 30 minutes away from the city.

Unlike Cooper, who?s a veteran of Sayles films, Parks and Dillahunt are first-timers. But like Cooper, they were both bowled over by the set built by Filipino production designer Rodell Cruz and his team.

The shoot of ?Baryo? in Bohol was facilitated by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

?The set does so much for us as actors,? Dillahunt said. ?I compare it to my experience on (the HBO Western series) ?Deadwood? where there was not a single reminder of the 20th century on the set. It?s the same on the set of ?Baryo.? Seeing the beauty of the jungle and the rice fields helps us get into character. It?s a real treat.?

Like baseball

Parks agreed: ?It will hopefully make our performance more organic and authentic. In baseball, playing with the best athletes raises your game. Seeing the amount of work put on the set pushes us to work as hard and be as meticulous as actors. It?s phenomenal.?

Parks and Dillahunt admitted that their stints on mainstream TV ?subsidize their indie work.?

Apart from ?Deadwood,? Dillahunt has also appeared on ?CSI,? ?Criminal Minds? and ?Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.? Most notably, he was also in the ensemble of the Coen Brothers? film ?No Country for Old Men? which won Best Cast in the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2008.

He described the Coens as ?shy, like me, but very easy to work with. I couldn?t tell you who did what because they seem to do everything together.?

Before flying to Bohol, Dillahunt worked on the pilot of a TV show that hasn?t aired yet. ?It?s called ?Keep Hope Alive,? aptly named because I did it so I could afford to do ?Baryo,?? he said.

Dillahunt?s most recent indie, Debra Granik?s ?Winter?s Bone,? won Best Drama Film in this year?s Sundance fest. Parks, meanwhile, appeared on ?True Blood,? ?24,? ?Bones,? ?The X Files? and the miniseries ?Rough Riders.? Interestingly, he was in the cast of four Quentin Tarantino productions, including ?Kill Bill Vol. 1? and ?Deathproof.?

Tarantino, Parks said, is ?a lot like John. He has incredible enthusiasm for cinema. He?s hard-working, passionate.?

Like Cooper, Dillahunt and Parks received voluminous research material on the Philippine-American War from Sayles. ?John?s very thorough. The bio for my character is not necessarily evident in the script, but it makes him more human, more detailed. It encourages you, as an actor, to go further,? said Dillahunt.

Parks concurred: ?It helps you inhabit your character?s mind. When I got the bio from John, I called my friends and read it over the phone. It?s such a gift.?

Endangered

Parks described Sayles as one of the few ?great living American indie filmmakers??an endangered breed.?

He explained: ?Anything artistic is ruined by money. In the US, if the studios feel that a film won?t earn $100 million at the box office, they won?t make it at all. John wants total control, as he should. He writes, directs, edits. The studios don?t like that.?

Dillahunt regards ?Baryo? as ?important... on a personal level? because it allows him to work with his heroes, Sayles and Cooper.

?John has assembled a good group ... He attracts people who want to do things that they can be proud of. In the end, that also makes me better in my craft. I guess, my motivation?s kinda selfish, really.?