IWA MOTO: It's more fun playing bad girl

CEBU, Philippines - Iwa Moto spent her 21st birthday last August 29th in Cebu in a promotional tour for Darna with co-stars Marian Rivera, Mark Anthony Fernandez and Nadine Samonte. They held an outreach event at Barangay Opao in Mandaue City, had a brief merienda with entertainment writers at the Cafe Uno of the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu, then proceeded to a jam-packed mall show at the entertainment center of SM City Cebu.

To delight their fans in the mall show, the three female stars came out in costume: Iwa as the villanous Babaeng Ahas Valentina, Marian as the superheroine Darna, and Nadine with an evil-looking dummy prop attached behind her as Babaeng Impakta.

The sexy Starstruck 3 alumnus didn’t mind working on her birthday because, she proclaimed, “mahal ko masyado ang Darna!”

Iwa is one of those celebrities who projects naturally, who doesn’t mind bursting out in boisterous laughter, and simply acts her playful and noisy self even with cameras and the press around. While her provocative men’s magazine covers project her as all woman, she is actually childlike in person. She waltzed in the press con venue, exclaiming, “Happy birthday to me!”

In the middle of answering one of the questions posed for her, she momentarily got lost when a waiter passed by with trays of food. “Ano na nga yon? May pagkain kasi na dumaan. Kayo kasi kuya, bigla na lang kayong pumapasok, akin na nga yan,” she says, wasting no time in chowing down the pancit laid out in front of her.

She then requested loudly: “Kuya, pwede po humingi ng kalamansi?”

We also found out that Iwa is fluent in Bisaya when we conversed with her in the dialect. “O, kasabot ko kay nakapuyo man ko sa Davao for how many years,” she says. She was born in Las Piñas City in Metro Manila, but grew up and studied in the Davao provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley where her mother was based and where her stepfather’s job assignment was.

If the Filipino-Japanese was known to be one of those Starstruck “pasaways” (known for an attitude problem and a ranting and crying scene during the Starstruck 3 competition, a six-week suspension by GMA management together with Jackie Rice for smoking cigarettes, live-in issues, and alleged spats with Rochelle Pangilinan and Katrina Halili), we saw no hint of that now as Iwa seems bent on making the most of the breaks that her mother network has been giving her.

Similar to Starstruck 1 discovery Katrina Halili, she was assigned villain role after villain role, grooming her to be one of the network’s sexy kontrabidas. Her first bad girl character was as Moshi Moshi Manika in “Super Twins”, then as Rita in the Sine Novela “Kung Mahawi Man Ang Ulap”, the black amazona in “Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan”, Katrina Halili’s oppressor Milette in the eighth Sine Novela “Magdusa Ka”, Heart Evangelista’s bad cousin in “Luna Mystika” and a scheming assistant in “Adik Sa’Yo”.

And then came the much-coveted Valentina role, with slithering snakes for her hair, the main aggressor in Mars Ravelo’s “Darna”. She is lucky to be handpicked as fellow GMA artist Chynna Ortaleza (who has already proven herself to be effective in her portrayals) was openly lusting for the role. Iwa was first assigned to be Babaeng Linta but it was eventually given to Maggie Wilson.

She has long accepted the fact that her facial features are more suited for villainess roles than the angelic and innocent look that most protagonists possess. “At mas masarap din naman mang-api kaysa magpaapi, sa totoo lang!” she points out.

The youngest actress to play Valentina so far, she is determined to deliver her own take of the famous komiks character, with the help of their director Dominic Zapata and with the constant encouragement of fellow cast member who was the first ever to play Valentina, Ms. Celia Rodriguez.

She shares: “Surely, gagawa ako ng sarili kong Valentina. Sa set, sabi ni Direk Dom, bawal akong tawaging Iwa. Valentina ang tawag nila sa akin, para daw talagang in character ako. Hindi ako pwedeng mag-act ng normal sa set, dapat isipin ko palagi na ako si Valentina.”

“Si Tita Celia, ang kulit noon, ang bait noon sobra sa set. Ang lagi niyang sinasabi, ‘Iwa, kaya mo yan. They won’t pick you if they don’t think you have the capabilities para i-portray ng maayos ang role mo.’ Ang tumatak talaga sa akin, nung sinabi niya na walang Darna kung walang Valentina dahil kayong dalawa ang magkaaway,” she adds.

Here, she explains why we should both hate and love her as Valentina: “Hindi naman talaga siya masama. Meron lang mga circumstances sa buhay niya that led her to be bad, may pinanggagalingan yun. Dito, pinakita talaga namin yung back story niya, na yung tatay niya cobra, inaabuso siya, wala siyang naramdamang love ever since bata, tapos may mga ahas pa siya sa ulo. Unlike ni Narda na maraming nagmamahal sa kanya, tapos si Eduardo siya pa ang gusto.”