"It has gotten to the point where I ask myself why I’m so happy," admits Rica. Her career is going great guns, with a pivotal role in the film version of National Artist Nick Joaquin’s Tatarin, no less. In what she describes as a "great honor," Rica plays Amada, the maid possessed by the spirit of Tatarin, whose celebration coincides with the feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24.
As Amada, Rica goes into a trance that moves her into performing a wild dance in front of the ancient balete tree she worships. The dance is as wild as can be, not the kind Rica usually performs in noontime variety shows or any of her TV guestings.
It is a dance that throws caution to the winds – bringing utter embarrassment to Amada’s husband Entoy, played by the award-winning Raymond Bagatsing. It cost Rica all of seven pounds to go into all that wanton flailing and thrashing about that the dance required of her.
"The daily sweating and the moving about made me go down from 111 to 104 pounds," recalls a visibly-slimmer Rica, tanned from a five-day holiday in Phuket, Thailand with boyfriend Bernard Palanca and a cousin.
But it was worth it. To be included in a prestige project with the likes of Dina Bonnevie (as Lupe), Edu Manzano (as Paeng) and Raymond, and to be directed by Tikoy Aguiluz alone, says Rica, is enough to give her goose bumps.
The language alone was a tough nut to crack.
"The Tagalog was so deep I had to ask somebody to explain them to me," relates Rica. "It is the kind," she goes on, "that would require me to consult a Tagalog dictionary."
The challenge to her as an actress was also something else. Since most of it was confined to dancing and body movements, Rica had to let her eyes do the talking.
Rica will be happy if she as much as gets an acting nomination for her role, but she is not expecting an award.
"I just did my best," she smiles.
The newly-minted La Tondeña girl (2002) is also expected to catch every red-blooded man’s fancy with her seductive poses in next year’s series of calendars.
Raymond Isaac captured Rica’s sensuous charms in various poses of (un)dress, the latest to do so for the premier liquor company that looks at beauty and talent as musts for its calendar girls.
Rica was the natural choice after La Tondeña conducted a market survey among target consumers.
"Not only can she act. Rica can dance and sing as well. She really projects well," says Ramon S. Reyes, La Tondeña Distillers Inc. Marketing Manager.
The calendars feature a five-page spread with La Tondeña brands highlighted on each. Vino Kulafu, the market leader for Chinese wine, shows Rica doing an Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, complete with a gallon jug. San Miguel Bravo Rum, packaged as the drink for the "young and the brave," sees Rica in a sizzling pose in a hot sauna.
Rica promotes the smooth, sweet and sexy GSM Blue with a carefree pose on the beach, the soft breeze on her face. The calendar for the flagship brand Ginebra San Miguel, on the other hand, shows a bikini-clad Rica, an air of leadership and confidence about her.
Actually, the comfortable Rica need not work herself to the bone. She owns real estate properties in Eastwood and at Panay Avenue.
"But I want to be financially stable enough to be able to call the shots in my life," she protests. By calling the shots, she means not being at the mercy of tight movie skeds with rush-rush playdates, or taping for a TV show until her eyes start to drop from lack of sleep.
"I want to be able to choose the roles I want. And at my own pace," she ticks off her dreams. With an eye for Fine Arts as a college course, Rica also wants to continue her studies.
"Distance learning has its drawbacks," this former colegiala admits. Rica sorely misses the excitement of classroom work and the camaraderie a college barkada, offers.
She is grateful for the work – lucrative, nonstop – that comes her way.
"Whatever work you give me, I do my best. And I love to learn," Rica describes her winning attitude.
It’s the kind of attitude that makes a hot item out of her, despite a rivalry so fierce it has pitted Rica against the likes of Assunta de Rossi and other daring stars.
To all these, Rica can only say the more the merrier; let the best woman win.
Self-confidence – thy name is Rica.