"Until this film (Mga Pusang Gala, an independent full-length film in digital video) was offered me – the lead female role, no less. Then all of a sudden, lumabas lahat ng insecurities ko sa katawan. Perhaps 15 years and minus four children earlier, pwede pa. I couldn’t care less," she continues to laugh.
Irma Adlawan, a respected and seasoned theater actor who has appeared in several local translations and adaptations of Shakespearean classics and realist contemporary masterpieces of world theater, confesses she got more scared when she was told that she was chosen to play the female lead. She felt the same way when she auditioned for the part, without completely knowing what the role was all about and what its demands were. In television and movies where she appears occasionally, Irma is so used to support roles, at times very minor, that the thought of appearing in film as lead star and a glamorous one at that titillates her until now.
"I’ve already accepted that. The demands of commercial television and movies are different, especially since actors are blown up much, much more into larger-than-life images. At first of course, I had to get used to it. My self-respect was bruised. But later, I’ve come to accept it." She sees to it though that the roles she does are substantial. "Kasi maganda rin ang medium ng telebisyon at pelikula. You reach so many viewers. So I also enjoy," she confesses.
In films like Jeffrey Jeturian’s Tuhog, where she played a distraught mother to Ina Raymundo, who like her was a victim of incestuous rape, as well as in Gil Portes’ Mga Munting Tinig, where she was a tocino-vending public school teacher, and Homecoming, where she was a town gossip-spinster, Irma has been portraying ordinary-looking women. "Mga pangkalye o pambahay na pawid o barung-barong," is how she puts it.
In Mga Pusang Gala, she plays a smart and chic advertising practitioner with a live-in boyfriend several years her junior. "Naku, sa big screen, siyempre awkward naman kung much magnified ang age gap namin, ano, na di naman kalakihan. Besides, the May-December love affair is not what the movie is all about. So when the director (independent filmmaker-producer Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil) suggested it, I was convinced that I needed a little help from science and technology." The laughter this time is almost deafening.
Luckily, Irma has a cousin, Dr. John Cenica, a dermatologist who does "cosmetic aid" as well. He assured her the procedure will be easy and safe. In fact he recommended botox to professionals who capitalize on their looks. Other younger actors, male as well as female, especially in the movies, have also undergone this.
"On my own, I’m happy and content with the way I look (which by the way, is still captivating). But if needed, why not? The role is good, and it’s rare for a stage actor like me to get this opportunity. So my husband said, ‘Go for it.’" Irma’s very supportive husband is Dennis Marasigan, a lawyer and a theater artist himself. He is vice president for marketing of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
This shows how professional this stage actor is, especially since she is also asked to do some very daring, intimate scenes with her lover, played by ramp-and-commercial model-turned-actor Reggie Curley, also a Body Shots title holder.
Mga Pusang Gala is an adult romance-fantasy, a parody of the battle of the sexes where this time, the genders are not only two but three. Playing Irma’s bosom gay friend is Ricky Davao, also a good friend and theater colleague in real life. Both woman and gay pine for their respective lovers, waiting for their firm commitment. How the pair finally liberates themselves from their romantic traps is the climax of this film, which is now showing in the theaters. The film is based on the Palanca Award-winning play of Jun Lana who also wrote the screenplay with Rody Vera.