Long wait is over

CEBU, Philippines - She was quite content to roll with the showbiz punches while slowly working her way to a filmmaking degree.

Actress and film major Bianca King was in the midst of doing Captain Barbell where she played Lary, the sexy lieutenant who trains a good bunch of superhumans called the “Liga ng Kalayaan.”

All of a sudden, the network bosses decided to pluck her out of that role and give her the lead part of GMA 7’s newest original afternoon drama Sinner or Saint when her good friend Iza Calzado declined the offer due to scheduling conflicts. At long last, the multi-faceted mestiza gets top billing after paying her dues as constant support cast for the last seven years.

Bianca portrays Noemi, a timid and un-schooled young woman thrown behind bars to cover up a crime committed by her childhood friend turned lover Raul (played by Dennis Trillo). Later on in the story, Raul will betray her by hooking up with a rich woman (Alessandra de Rossi) while she languishes in jail for a sin she didn’t commit, and pregnant with their child at that.

At first, we couldn’t associate Bianca’s Fil-Canadian features and her usual English-speaking ways with that of a physically-abused and uneducated character. But when we caught episodes of the soap’s first two weeks, a de-glamorized Bianca with ratty hair and her natural freckles undisguised by make-up for a full-on slum girl effect, wonderfully pulls it off. Indeed, she has transitioned well from her default face and acting as victimizer, to this time around become the believable victimized instead.

The German-born star, who names Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway as some of the acting personalities she looks up to, is also taking up a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Filmmaking course at De La Salle University- College of St. Benilde. This aspiring film and commercial director already has three mainstream music videos to her credit, and one of these has won an award.

She was behind Hale’s Bahay Kubo starring Angel Locsin which won Best Video in the USTv Awards, Frencheska Farr’s Today I’ll See The Sun starring Richard Guiterrez, and most recently Somedaydream’s Hey Daydreamer which featured Jasmine Curtis-Smith.

In an earlier FREEMAN interview when she was in town to promote the still ongoing Captain Barbell series and before her unexpected big break, the articulate 26-year-old talked of her filmmaking dreams, directing heroes and why she strives to balance school with her celebrity life.

Is it a challenge to direct your celebrity friends? Not really. Heart Evangelista was also in the ‘Bahay Kubo’ music video and she was really okey. Even in the short films that I do, I get my actor-friends to act in it. They actually make it easier because they’re already professionals. No one has ever given me a hard time with regards to schedules. I’m very gratefeul that my friends in the industry help me. Even Richard Guiterrez, he was the special guest for Frencheska’s video and I needed him for two days. He really allotted time for it. So it makes directing easier for me, since they already know what to do as opposed to directing amateurs who you still need to teach.

What motivates you to pursue your education even when you’re already in showbiz? I want to be different. I believe that balancing your life with school and work makes you a well-rounded person. It made me more professional. Because I’m a film major, it made me respect and appreciate my work more. It’s also a calling because gusto ko magkuwento. I’m a natural story-teller so I want to make films and commercials. Gusto kong lumikha ng mga pwedeng panoorin ng mga Pilipino at meron silang makukuhang bago. Our movies are very formulaic and cliché, so I want to offer something new.

What sort of films would you like to helm in the future? I’m not so specific with the genre, but it’s more on marrying the schools of thought of independent filmmaking and mainstream. Mainstream, because it’s going to be shown in a lot of cinemas and it will be promoted well. But the style and attack will be very much indie, not like the usual romantic comedies or tacky horror films that we have. To put it simply, it’s really coming up with something that’s Hollywood-like in quality or approach but with a very localized theme. I still want to stay true to Filipino culture, because what other filmmakers are trying to do and show locally are also very high-concept. By my being in school and in showbiz, it also serves as a research to discover what kind of genre the masses will patronize but at the same time, will also be appealing for the higher class.

Name your top five favorite films. I really can’t answer that since I love a lot of films, it would be hard to choose. I try to watch all new releases. I can tell you my favorite directors and my preferred genres though. I like watching horror, mystery, sci-fi and alien films. I like dark themes and murder mysteries. Darren Oronofsky is one of my favorite directors so I’m glad that he got a lot of attention for doing ‘Black Swan.’ But he has so many other great films that not a lot of people have seen because these aren’t very popular. There’s also David Lynch, David Fincher, Michelle Gondry — they’re not very mainstream, but their movies are very good.

If a really good directing job and an equally good movie role lands in your lap at the same time, which would you choose? If it was a lead role, I would choose the acting job because I can be a director at any time in my life. But now, I’m at a prime age to star in a lead role.

As a film student, were there instances you wanted to correct your director? All the time. But I respect whoever my director is. It’s just sometimes, I’ve gotten directors who don’t direct actors. They just say where to put the lights and camera but hindi nila kinakausap yung mga artista.

How do you unwind? I like to exercise. I do yoga, Muay Thai and I also take private ballet lessons. I used to really dance ballet before, but upon learning that Natalie Portman learned all of that in a year, I was inspired to go back after how many years of not dancing. Over-all, it’s for discipline since there’s a science behind it. It also helps with the dancing I do in ‘Party Pilipinas’ and with the fight choreography in my shows because my posture, strength and stamina are better.