She’d rather be an actress than a star

Cinemalaya Best Actress  Ina Feleo doesn’t squirm whenever people compare her to her parents, Laurice Guillen and Johnny Delgado. In fact, she treats it as some kind of trophy she loves to carry around her.

“I got my mom’s eye for detail; my dad’s mood swings,” Ina notes.

Comparisons are bound to happen. And she has accepted these the way she has known all along acting is what she wants to do her entire life.

When she auditioned for a TV series and the director wondered aloud if she really inherited her parents’ genes, Ina didn’t sulk in one corner and mope. She took it as a challenge and moved on.  After all, following in the footsteps  of her parents is like scaling Mount Everest.

Today, that guy is singing a different tune.  He has joined director Joel Lamangan and others in singing Ina’s praises.  The Ateneo Creative Writing graduate, they agree, gave a sensitive portrayal as Tanya, the shoestore saleslady around whom the story revolves.

Lamangan called Ina’s performance “subtle.” And Ina herself thinks her eyes — like her mom’s — won the day for her.

 Still, her detractors can’t help but ask if Laurice,  Cinemalaya director general, had anything to do with Ina’s recent victory.

Non-plussed, Ina replies in her usual cool way, “She distanced herself  from it all.”

That’s why Ina herself is surprised ”that  people accepted the film.”

“I had a dark theme at first,” she explains.

Dark or not, it has prompted Johnny to comment, “Henceforth, I will be known as the father of Ina Feleo!”

He had it coming since Day One. Johnny and Laurice encouraged their daughter’s love for the arts since they were that tall. Ina joined Tanghalang Ateneo, traveled the world as Bayanihan dancer, studied ballet, appeared in stage classics like The Glass Menagerie and Romeo and Juliet.

Mother and daughter even acted together in The Glass Menagerie. Without Laurice saying a single word, Ina has taken the cue from her mom by watching Sister Stella L and Tanging Yaman. Laurice directed Tanging  Yaman while Johnny joined the cast.

He and Laurice applauded lustily when Ina won trophies and medals as a champion skater.

“Skating helped develop my competitive spirit,” Ina relates.

Her training on enjoying simple things and keeping her faith in God started early too.  Ina was six when Johnny and Laurice dropped everything and decided to focus on things of the spirit.  Ina, then a second grader, stopped schooling at Poveda. So did her sister. The family lived like nomads for two years, relying on the kindness of friends who opened their  doors for them.

“My parents only had their savings to get by,” Ina recalls.

She has seen with her two eyes how God provides. And Ina has carried this with her until now.

Not for her the blinding lights of stardom if it means sacrificing her love for acting along the way.  She’d rather be an actress than a star.

“I just want to show the truth as an actress,” Ina reveals.

She hopes to do just that in an operetta Ina will do next month. The Lucresia Kasilag work will see Ina working  closely with Fides Cuyugan-Asencio.

“That’s why I’m studying voice,” says Ina, who was told that she qualifies as a soprano.

It won’t hurt, too, if she gets another project as challenging as Endo (for end of contract).

Success is exhilarating. But Ina has her feet planted on the ground. This is what she and her sister were raised to believe. This is what she chooses to live by. At the end of the day, Ina Feleo  chooses to remain Laurice and Johnny’s baby. She turns to mom and dad when she has a script to pore over.  She hears their pieces of advice and decides on her own. Now look where it has gotten her.