By now, that question must sound like a broken record to choreographer Lito Calzado – you know, like the Herman’s Hermits song Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter – who is invariably asked, "Is she really your daughter?"
It all started two years ago when Lito’s daughter Iza appeared giggling in the Pantene TV commercial, so pretty with her bedimpled smile reminiscent of Hilda Koronel’s that people paused and wondered, "Is that so!?!." when they learned that she’s Lito’s daughter.
"I’m more like my Dad than my Mom," Iza, 22 (born Aug. 12), told Funfare the morning after the presscon for her latest (third) movie, Sabel (Regal Films’ Manila Filmfest entry), in which she forms a love triangle with topbiller Judy Ann Santos and Wendell Ramos. "I smile a lot like my Dad. When I stop smiling, I start looking like my Mom."
Mom was Maria Antonia Ussher, a Canadian who was born and grew up in Bicol and who died a few years ago. Iza and her brother Dash, a rapper 10 years her senior, were small when their parents separated after more than 20 years of togetherness. The mom found new happiness with an American and so did Lito with somebody else.
Lito and Maria Antonia, a Cosmetology graduate, met at Rustan’s where she was a consultant for Helena Rubenstein. A romance soon blossomed. "She was a very good make-up artist," said Lito. Soon, they were living together. They put up a beauty parlor which they called Sudden Beauty after they bought the rights from Toti Evangelista. One of their employees was Fanny Serrano.
"Mom was the disciplinarian," said Iza. "Dad was the spoiler, no wonder I became closer to him. I’m a Daddy’s Girl. As I said, I’m always smiling like my Dad."
That same smile which clinched the Pantene commercial actually got Iza into a lot of trouble in school where the teachers would get peeved because Iza would keep on smiling even when they were reprimanding her. "They thought na niloloko ko sila," she smiled.
Looking at her now so slim and so fit, you wouldn’t believe that when Iza was 15 and in high school at Miriam College, she weighed more than 220 lbs.
"I got the biggest pair of pants in the family and that’s when I became depressed. I went into a starvation diet, taking only water and Sky Flakes. It was bad, I knew, but I wanted to lose weight drastically. And I did. It took sometime before I settled down to my present weight. For a while, nag-yoyo ang weight ko because I started eating again."
As a kid, Iza did two movies, one for Seiko Films directed by the late Lino Brocka and the other Mahirap ang Magmahal, playing bit roles. She was studying Fine Arts at UST (undergraduate) when she did the Pantene commercial that served as her launching pad back into showbiz.
"I literally giggled my way back to showbiz," Iza smiled.
It happened when she visited Dad Lito on the set of the GMA 7 sitcom Kool Ka Lang where Lito acted as PUM. Iza made heads turn. Before she knew it, she was guesting on GMA shows and being cast in the soap Kung Mawawala Ka as the villainess to Sunshine Dizon. Now, she’s the lead star of the GMA telenovela Te Amo, opposite Argentinian actor Segundo Cernadas.
Her first movie was Star Cinema’s Milan where she played the missing wife of Piolo Pascual. Iza’s screen time was very brief but her presence was felt throughout the movie. She did her role so well that she might earn a Best Supporting Actress nomination in next year’s award derbies. Before Sabel, directed by Joel Lamangan, Iza appeared in the Jolina Magdangal starrer Annie B.
"I let her be," said Lito who is not a stage father. "I brought her up to be independent-minded, to decide for herself. I always remind her, ‘Iha, you know what’s right and what’s wrong.’ I also tell her to be nice especially to small workers in the industry. I told her, ‘I’ve been in this business for 43 years; ’yung maliliit na workers ang pinakikisamahan ko.’ I’ve no problems with Iza. She’s level-headed."
Father and daughter treat each other like friends.
"We’re open to each other," smiled Iza. "I don’t keep secrets from him – and vice-versa."
When confronted with intrigues (like the one linking her to Bernard Palanca), Iza runs to Dad Lito.
"So far," she said, "no intrigues have cropped up that I couldn’t handle. ‘Yung kay Bernard, it wasn’t true. I met him at a bar. Soon, natsismis na kami na, na nag-break daw si Bernard at Rica (Peralejo) because of me." (Rica and Bernard didn’t break up. They’re still happily together. – RFL)
Iza is staying with her Kuya Dash at the townhouse in New Manila where their parents used to live while Lito lives by his lonesome somewhere else. With her savings, Iza is having the townhouse renovated so they could all be together again, like one little happy family.
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)