Ahtisa Manalo embraces her artista era
MANILA, Philippines — In the first quarter of the year, beauty queen Ahtisa Manalo heeded the call of the entertainment industry. She signed up with Sparkle GMA Artist Center and marked this new chapter with the goddess of the moons character, Bathalumang Haliya, in “Encantadia Chronicles: Sang’gre.”
From there, she dabbles in something familiar yet uncharted. Ahtisa is among real-life pageant winners who will star in the GMA Pictures’ “Red Crown.” The latter is di-rected by Dominic Zapata.
She plays the Queen of the Islands pageant contestant Dolly Dizon, whose personal aspirations are told in the campy thriller genre.
“Ito yung medyo may (this is a bit of a) challenge for me since my character is layered,” said Miss Universe 2025 third runner-up about her first movie after the “Encantadia Chronicles” guest appearance in a brief chat with this paper and two digital media platforms. “So, it’s my first one. And I’m very excited for all of you to see kung paano ako (how I am) as an artista (actress) kasi ako, hindi ko rin alam. I’m also excited to see (and watch the) movie.”
To play the part, Ahtisa shared that she attended few acting workshops, and as a newbie, the challenge was this. “But I think more so, for me, it was getting used to showing emotions in front of the camera. As a beauty queen, it’s a different whole scenario where you need to be polished. (In acting), parang kailangan emosyon yung lumalabas (you have to show the character’s emotions). And that’s not something I’m comfortable with. So, that has become the challenge,” said she.
Asked how similar she is to Dolly or how different she is from the character, Ahtisa answered, “Parehas kaming we don’t really care a lot about how we are perceived. And then for differences, I think actually medyo similar ko yung character. (When it comes to) differences, siguro, alam mo, I can’t even think of anything. That’s how similar the character is to me. And I think it’s on purpose that because it’s my first acting, that it’s (the character) very similar to how I am.”
As for the “hugot” or inspiration of Dolly in joining Queen of the Islands, Ahtisa said, “She’s from Quezon Province also. And she wanted to join because she wanted to in-spire kids and help kids, which is very similar to why I did pageants also in the first place. So even the ‘hugot’ is similar.”
Since she described the character as layered, including a possible hidden persona and secrets, Ahtisa was asked to rate the level of surprise Dolly might reveal and bring to the movie, with 10 as the highest. “Maybe, mga 7. It’s something that can be guessed, or there are clues all throughout the movie if you pay attention,” said she, who ex-pressed interest in doing acting projects in the future.
“The thing about this, when I do something, I wanna do it properly,” shared she. “And I think I’m not doing great justice yet to my era as an artista (actress). So, hopefully, this won’t be my last because I wanna show what I can do also in this industry.”
During the interview, she also got to share adjustments she had made from competing in pageants to acting in a film. “Being more relaxed and funny in front of the camera and being able to just switch on into a different persona,” said she. “Mahirap yun (it’s challenging) since as a beauty queen, you’re trained to do one thing (which encom-passes knowing to do pasarela or) walk and then project and then that’s it.”
“But (in playing a character), there are layers of emotions that you have to show, and that’s very new to me, having to not just smile but show emotions with my face.”
The movie, which will be screened on Oct. 28 in cinemas, is a gathering of actresses, who play beauty queens, and beauty queens, who take on the role of actresses. They support each other on the set to tell the themes embedded in the story.
Ahtisa said that she has a soft spot for fellow star and Kapuso talent Faith da Silva.
“Kasi sya yung una kong naka-eksena sa ‘Encantadia’ (she was the first one I had scenes in the TV show),” said she. “She was (telling me), ‘Okay lang yan, sige, okay, pagbago ka talaga, (‘It’s OK, especially when you’re new), may ganyan sya. Yung comforting sya (she was comforting me).”
“So, I’ve had scenes with her again (in the film),” added she. “It helps a lot when someone makes you feel comfortable in your work space, and that’s very important.”
Ahtisa said that her dream genre is action, adding, “I’m gonna have a series guesting that it’s gonna be action.”
(For details, please visit www.GMANetwork.com.)
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