Fluid Beauty

Preview Magazine, June 2005
by: Joey de Larrazabal

I have a short amount of time to talk to Bea Alonzo in between takes of her photo shoot. People are running setting up around the pool on a hotel’s windy rooftop. We sit facing each other like old high school chums. Her admission that she’s a “shy girl” is obvious from her quiet smile and the fluffy white towel she holds tightly around her shoulders, and compounded even more by her beatific good looks. As soon as I ask my first question, however, words spill from her mouth in an uninterrupted stream of pure and unbridled enthusiasm.

Her eyes shine and her excitement is contagious as she talks about things that drive her. Her zeal for acting, her respect for the people she works with, her dreams to travel to far off lands: All this is conveyed with an honest and unapologetic happiness. All her passions can be traced back to her love of people. She acts both to affect other peoples’ lives as well as to live them. “I love touching other peoples lives,” she says. She also likes to feel what other people feel, which is what she enjoys about the role she plays. “With every character I play, a different side of me comes out,” she says.

Her love for geography, cultural studies and travel also stems from this. “I love seeing other people that have their own beliefs and principles”. She just recently took a trip to the U.S. and excitedly lists Europe and Katmandu as next on her list of must-see places. I ask when and she sighs and replies that it depends on her work schedule. As she ponders the eternal struggle between work and wanderlust, she quickly pipes up, obviously never one to be discouraged, “That’s why I love reading!” In books she finds the escape she needs when a busy schedule keeps her from leaving the country. Paolo Coelho is her favorite author she earnestly confides. “Read Eleven Minutes!” she urges me when I admit I have only read The Alchemist. “Eleven Minutes and By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept are my favorites, “she says.

Fashion is evidently not as thrilling a topic as books are. “I like to shop, but I’m not necessarily into fashion.” She valiantly tries to convince me that fashion is not on her list of the most pressing matters of the earth. Good for her! With a look that says, “don’t ask me any more fashion questions, please have mercy!” she insists that her own personal style is simple and comfortable, consisting of “jeans, a comfortable top, flip-flops or rubber shoes, and a tote bag.” She gets more excited at the thought of pampering herself at the spa-something she treats herself to when work gets too stressful. “I’m a spa addict.” As a testament to this, she tells me of her own honey and milk facial treatments that she concocts at home, followed by a slathering of ice. “I stick to natural stuff as much as possible because I’m allergic to creams, “she says.

Is it all glamour and parties for the new princess of Philippine romantic comedy? She laughs sheepishly and says she usually spends her free time with her family, at the spa, or at the church. She describes a day in her life as “Work, work, work!” As she makes this declaration she is beaming with excitement, making me think that we should all be so lucky to love our jobs as much as she does. “It’s an adventure!” In the name of good acting she has ridden a whale and climbed a tall jump pole. Both she describes as two of her best experiences in showbiz, although she admits that the whale was indeed a bit frightening. “But I’ve come to realize that they’re (just) like babies,” she adds.

It is obvious she is ecstatic with the direction her life is taking. Not that she had a fairy godmother wave a magic wand, and, boom, “CELEBRITY!” No, Bea is where she is through a combination of determination and fate. She was discovered in a beauty pageant when she was only 13 and auditioned for ABS-CBN’s Star Circle when she was 14. It was no easy climb to fame though. In the beginning, she juggled both school and acting. She recounts waking up at 5:00am for 7:00am classes and having to go directly to the Star Circle workshop after school. She also had to deal with her mother’s reservations about showbiz, which she quickly overcame. “I refused to eat!” she admits, with a mischievous smile. Despite long hours and tough times, she persevered, declaring now that it was “destiny”. When asked if she always wanted to be an actress, she answers without hesitation, “Yes.”

Cast in roles befitting her freshly scrubbed, angelic appearance, Bea has played innocent ingénues dreaming of love and happily ever after. But she longs to stretch her acting muscles. When asked what her dream role would be, she names two: “A serial killer and the Virgin Mary”. I pause to digest this. A serial killer? Is this the same girl who played the bubbly Betsy in Now That I Have You? The same girl who plays the romantic Cyd in Dreamboy? One and the same apparently. She is itching for the challenge to “portray a dark character”, something totally different from the roles she is usually given. And the Virgin Mary? As a devout Catholic, this would be a role that is close to her heart. For now, she tells us to “expect a new Bea” in her new TV series Ikaw Ang Lahat Sa Akin.

The candor in her face as she talks is disarming. It’s not something you come across too often, especially in the rough and tumble world of show business. When asked what she would be doing if she weren’t acting, she replies simply, “(I would be) working in a fast food chain and studying at the same time.” Her honesty astounds me. She dreams the dreams of an idealist but lives the life of a realist.

The lighting is finally set up and the photographer is ready. They call her back to the shoot. She smiles as she enters the pool, ignoring the chilly night air. As she sinks into the cold water and turns her head to the camera, gone is the excitable 17-year-old. In her place is a mysterious siren whose thoughts are hidden behind a pair of unreadable eyes. The transformation is immediate and startling, leaving me to think that the day she plays a serial killer may not be too far away.