Glenda has found her own niche

Back when she was still "driver-less," Glenda Garcia had the unusual habit of saying her lines (for a teledrama or movie) aloud in the car to get used to its cadence and feel.

Don’t laugh. This practice has sharpened her acting skills so much, she has turned in one impressive performance after another. In fact, Glenda was nominated twice as Best Actress for Valiente in the Star Awards for TV. But she refuses to rest on her laurels. After the episode is aired on TV, she’d ask somebody to tape it so she can review it herself and find out where she can do better.

Should she have resorted to a certain voice inflection instead? Was her grimace as the villainess intent on getting the money in Valiente menacing enough?

These, Glenda asks herself over and over.

It helps that she has worked with the best directors, like Joel Lamangan and Chito Roño. But the bulk of the work is still hers.

As Ruby Valenzuela, the mother of Jewel in ABS-CBN’s new youth-oriented sitcom K2BU (Saturdays, 3:30 p.m.), Glenda wakes up as early as 5 a.m., or two hours before call time, on taping day. She puts on her make-up herself, and has already prepared her wardrobe the day before (Glenda devotes one whole day choosing the clothes she’ll bring to the set).

By the time she reaches the set, Glenda is well-prepared: her lines memorized, her make-up down pat, her clothes ready for the director to check.

"Professionalism," Glenda points out, "is important if you want to stay long in this business (where she started at 19)."

A consuming passion for one’s work is another. Glenda won’t mind taping more than once a week, which is her current load for K2BU. Neither does the glamorous Glenda mind looking older than her real age, acting like a neglected housewife or a screaming banshee in the villain roles she is known for.

To hell with that Lyna Facial Cream image she had many years back.

"I admire Eula Valdez and Jean Garcia," gushes Glenda. "They may not send fans screaming in the tradition of Sharon Cuneta or Judy Ann Santos, but they’re just as visible and respected."

To Glenda, that’s equivalent to a truckload of fans arriving at her doorstep and giving her a bouquet of roses.

On the set of K2BU, the young stars call her Tita, a word that connotes respect in showbiz circles.

"My director allows me to interpret my role the way I want it," says Glenda. This freedom to do what she wants with her role on the set is another gauge of respectability. Just like the acting veteran who needs little, if no instructions at all, Glenda has the privilege of going on her own – with her director’s blessings.

After all, Glenda has earned her spurs, so to speak. The Star Awards for Tv named her Most Promising TV Personality in 1989. Since then, it has been a slew of sitcoms – To Sir With Love, Lovingly Yours, Helen, among them – for her.

Ironically, Glenda’s first regular role in a teledrama was that of a good girl in the now-defunct Anna Luna.

How she graduated from sweet roles to the more challenging villain portrayals is a tribute to Glenda’s knack of learning on the job. It was not easy, to be sure.

Glenda had to shift from Dentistry to Mass Communications (she graduated at Centro Escolar University) because her erratic showbiz schedule made it impossible for her to keep the rigid class hours a future dentist must follow.

At first, it was just for curiosity. Glenda hang around elder sister Melissa Mendez’s showbiz assignments until someone on the set spotted her (Glenda).

"Why not try showbiz?" Melissa’s friend asked the unsuspecting Glenda.

She did, first by joining Starbrighters, the late ‘80s equivalent of Ang TV, and before that, That’s Entertainment. The late Tv host Ike Lozada named the 19-year-old discovery Glenda Garcia (initials with the same letters were in vogue then).

Glenda has long been in the business to tell young stars she’s working with to "save, save, save for the rainy day." She herself has a fallback position: a flourishing food cart business called Pasta Pita, which Glenda and her three sisters operate in SM Fairview, Ever Gotesco and Grand Central.

But showbiz will always be her first love. Today, Glenda will start shooting Ang Dayuhan for Rocketts Productions owned by Ronnie Ricketts and Mariz, Glenda’s good friend from their Valiente days.

This time, Glenda plays a good wife who supports Ricardo Cepeda.

Miss Goody Two Shoes and arch-villainess. Put Glenda in any of these roles, and she will fit in like a good pair of gloves.

No wonder she’s still around, long after her batchmates in the business have gotten married, bowed out of the limelight, and are now leading nonshowbiz lives.