Cherry Pie is happy ‘just to be around’

She first joined show business in 1990 when she was 21, introduced by Viva Films as one of the three title rolers in Colegiala, along with Maita Sanchez and Ilonah Jean. She now plays mother roles to actors and actresses only a few years younger than her, like Jericho Rosales in Tanging Yaman and Claudine Barretto in Saan Ka Man Naroroon. But she doesn’t mind at all.

"I am just happy that I am still very much around while my other contemporaries have already left the scene," says Cherry Pie Picache, acknowledged as one of our ablest character actresses.

Cherry Pie is now in the States where she spent the Christmas holidays. "I am accompanying my mother to Seattle to visit my older sister who’s married to an American and to Dallas, Texas, to visit another sister who’s married to a Filipino," she told us before she left. "I’ll be gone for about a month."

But she’ll make it a point to be back before the showing of her new movie, American Adobo, a co-production of ABS-CBN with an American film company, Unitel, which will be released simultaneously in Manila and in the US on Jan. 16. Those who have seen the movie says Cherry Pie runs away with it in her role as a spinster in New York City who cooks the fabulous adobo dish in the title.

"I’m flattered by their observation but what we show in the film is actually ensemble acting," she says. "We play Filipino expats in the US who used to be classmates in UP. Each time we have a reunion, I cook my adobo for dinner, which is everyone’s favorite, and this guarantees their attendance. Each of us has his or her own story. Christopher de Leon is a writer married to Susan Valdez. His dream is to go back to the Philippines but his wife is against it. Dina Bonnevie is a woman of the world who doesn’t mind hopping from one bed to another in her search for Mr. Right. Paolo Montalban is her cousin, a womanizer. Ricky Davao is a closet queen. We also have Sandy Andolong in the cast as Susan Valdez’s cousin.

American Adobo is directed by Laurice Guillen and filmed on location in New York City last year. "You’d see shots of the World Trade Center still in several scenes showing the Manhattan skyline. It’s nice to be reunited with Direk Laurice, who also megged Tanging Yaman. We worked with an all-American crew and we have to abide by all their working conditions as dictated by the rules of their Screen Actors Guild. We stayed there for more than a month, with 21 shooting days. We only work 12 hours a day and if you exceeded that, you have to pay everyone overtime. At first, we were not comfortable working with them. They’re used to American actors and you feel like they challenge, ‘come on, show us what you’ve got.’ But as the shooting went on, I think we were able to prove that Filipino actors are as good as Americans."

American Adobo was first conceived by scriptwriter Ting Nebrida and producer Tony Gloria five years ago. "The pre-production took a long time. I had to audition for my role. It was Ms. Charo Santos who recommended me and I had to send tapes of my previous performances to the casting directors in the US. Then, I was interviewed and fortunately, I made it. I play an old maid and ordinary clerk in the story. I’m forever lonely and waiting for someone to come along. E, mukha akong manang dito. I’m also the mother figure in our group.

"But the character I play has a very happy ending in the story."

She enjoyed working with Dina, Boyet and the rest of the cast in New York. "We were all given our own apartments in a building in Greenwich Village. But we stayed on different floors. We work on weekdays and weekends, we do our laundry and watch Broadway plays. I got to see musicals like The Music Man, The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. We really bonded well and became good friends. I play my biggest role in American Adobo since Colegiala. In most of my recent movies, I appear only in six to nine sequences, but here, I play a full-length role and I’m there from beginning to end. This is quite an accomplishment for me. I never really dreamt naman of being a big star. I just want to be recognized as a good actress. I think, through the years, napatunayan ko na rin naman ’yan in the Asian TV Festival in Singapore where I got honors as lead actress for the Aklat episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya and as a supporting actress in Melinda of GMA Telesine."

Which of the past movies she did are her favorites? "I like Narito ang Puso Ko, where my acting was first noticed. I played a Japayuki who witness the death of Lorna Tolentino’s son. I also like my role in Anak as Vilma Santos’s domestic helper friend and in Mila, where I played a prostitute in Ermita who’s willing to sell her teenage daughter to an American pedophile."

On TV, Cherry Pie continues to make her presence felt in the Judy Ann Santos soap opera, Sa Puso Ko Iingatan Ka, where she plays Matthew Mendoza’s aggressive mistress.

About her lovelife, Cherry Pie says she feels ready to settle down since she is 32. "But I’m still waiting for the right partner to come along," she adds.