A bright future even without Sunshine

Polo Ravales has finally come on his own. Away from the shadow of former reel and real-life partner Sunshine Dizon, the 19-year-old Polo is attracting his fair share of followers, thanks to that boyish charm which brings images of a lost puppy waiting to be cuddled.

"The break-up of our love team is a turning point in my career," says Polo. He couldn’t have put it any better. Polo plays one of four title roles in Maverick Films’ official entry to this year’s filmfest, Susmaryosep! (4 Fathers), with Bobby Andrews, Bojo Molina and Gerald Madrid.

Polo hopes to get noticed as Jojo, the seminarian, whose dream of entering the priesthood is seriously threatened by an attractive girl who he meets in an outreach program.

The role, Polo says, is meant to show the human side of the religious, who, as he himself found out, straight from an uncle-seminarian’s mouth, is as normal as you and I. They pull the same naughty pranks and have the same wild dreams as any normal lay person does.

It’s a coming-of-age role so apt for 19-year-old Polo.

Gone are the days when all he need to do was look lovingly at Sunshine’s eyes to the delight of diehard fans. His publicity shot for Susmaryosep! 4 Fathers will make those who’ve seen his prim and proper poses during his love team days, gasp in surprise, even disbelief.

It shows Polo in a half smile, his sunny yellow shirt unbuttoned all the more to show part of his manly chest and tummy, to boot. The boy has grown up to become a man!

Unlike before, when fans would scream and sigh for him because of his heartthrob image, Polo today will most likely elicit the same kind of reaction for another reason: he is a hunk in the making. Not the kind with heaving chest and biceps ala-Carlos Agassi perhaps, but capable of reaching that stage nevertheless.

Polo knows that as he bids his teenaged years goodbye in 2002, more mature roles will become the order of the day.

Director Maryo J. de los Reyes was the first to foresee this career path for the young man. The perceptive director offered Polo a steamy role in the recent sex drama Red Diaries starring Assunta de Rossi. Polo turned it down then, thinking he was ill-prepared for such drastic change of image.

Susmaryosep!, is of course, miles away from Red Diaries. The naughtiness is tongue-in-cheek, and Polo did not have to show any private part of his body. So he agreed to play the hot-blooded seminarian in the movie. But Polo knows his future directors might ask him to play roles much heavier than that which Edgardo ‘Boy’ Vinarao asked him – and his co-stars to do in their upcoming movie.

So Polo is preparing for that big day by working out daily at home, where he dutifully does push-ups and lifts dumb bells. Right now though, with that mature role still forthcoming (producers have yet to make a concrete offer), Polo is content to say that yes, he is willing to push the limits this time.

The Viva artist’s personal life is also getting to be more colorful. Three months after he and long-time (read: four years) girlfriend Sunshine Dizon called it quits ("she wanted to re-arrange her life"), Polo is again head over heels in love. This time, the girl is Alessandra de Rossi, his Biglang Sibol co-star and Assunta’s younger sister.

As that well-loved Cameron Diaz starrer so vividly showed, the sparks on Polo’s side flew for a reason he himself can’t fathom.

There’s something about her I can’t explain," the enamored Polo reveals. Just how the feelings started to develop when they weren’t even minding each other’s presence when they first met, is also a mystery to Polo.

It’s enough that he loves staring at Alessandra, because "her features grow on you." Why, he observes, she is even prettier than Assunta, but obviously not as well-endowed as her elder sister.

The young swain has been courting Alessandra for two months now. So far, his efforts have not been in vain. They are, in the young uns’ words, in that MU (mutual understanding) stage of their relationship.

Pushed further though, Polo slowly pins down the reasons why he fell for the fiery Alessandra.

"She’s real. What you see is what you get. She’s unlike other girls who pretend to be over-feminine in malls. If Alex (Alessandra’s nickname) likes you, you know it, and vice-versa," says Polo.

If Alex has a strong personality, so too, does Sunshine. Does that mean, press people wondered aloud, that Polo gravitates toward girls with an extra dose of grit?

Again, Polo is tongue-tied.

All he knows is that he’s happy having Alex around, whether in malls (Glorietta is one of their latest hang-outs), or elsewhere with a small group of friends. That, for our Romeo, is all that matters.