Frencheska makes the grade

MANILA, Philippines - Frencheska Farr’s career is unfolding like a fairy tale. The winner of last year’s Are You The Next Big Star? is still reeling from the initial shock of being chosen to play Amelia the nanny, a pivotal role in director Chito Roño’s movie-musical Emir.

“Things happened so fast,” she recalls. “I couldn’t believe it and neither can my family.”

She was among the last to audition, not at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), where the first batch of wannabes came, but at Roño’s office.

Frencheska got cold feet when she learned at the last minute that the project was not straight musical theater — where she’s more at ease. Emir is also a full-length movie its producers — the Film Development Council of the Philippines and the CCP — are eyeing for international release.

“I just wanted to sing,” she explains. “I wanted to back out but we were already approaching the office and my mom told me to go on.”

Face to face with her director, Frencheska read the script the staff handed to her. Roño then asked her to sing the movie’s theme, Bakit Ako Naririto. Wanting to judge her further, he asked her to render a Broadway song. Frencheska acceded with her version of Barbra Streisand’s All I Ask of You.

Roño never hinted at his decision after that. All he asked her, Frencheska says, was her age — 17. Then he let her go.

Mother and daughter went home clueless about the good news awaiting them two days after. A staff of Emir called to ask Frencheska to report on the set for a make-up test.

“I was so excited! But I thought it was still a joke because they never confirmed anything,” states Frencheska.

She almost fell off her chair when she arrived at the shoot and learned that the role was all hers. Many others tried out for Amelia, but Frencheska made it.

Before she knew it, the GMA Artist Center talent was headed for Morocco where all exterior shots were to be filmed. Frencheska almost jumped for joy when she came face-to-face with Sid Lucero, and shot scenes with him.

“The secret lies in not acting at all,” Sid advised his first-time co-star.

He’s not the only veteran actor in the cast. Kalila Aguilos, Beverly Salviejo and Bodjie Pascua are also in the movie.

Veteran or not, Frencheska relates that all of them got equal amounts of disciplinary action from their director.

“Direk Chito shouted at me because I didn’t realize he was talking while I was speaking with one of the staff members,” Frencheska admits.

Her other challenge lay in singing some lines and delivering the rest in dialogue form.

“We had 22 songs — all in Filipino. I had to learn simple Ilocano since we shot the first few scenes in Banawe, where Amelia is supposed to come from,” says Frencheska.

The biggest challenge, though, did not lie in her lines. Nor did it lie in the blow-hot-blow-cold Moroccan weather which Frencheska, the cast and crew endured for the three weeks (Jan. 9 to 26) they stayed there.

It lay in playing someone who started playing a nanny when she was age 24, all the way up the time she turned 41.

“I wore facial prosthetics to look older. I had to observe how older people walk and move. I even had to change my voice to make it sound raspy as my character ages,” she adds.

Turns out original choice KC Concepcion’s loss is Frencheska’s gain.

“I was scared when I learned they had to audition for Amelia again since KC backed out due to her busy schedule,” relates Frencheska.

She knows stepping into KC’s big shoes is one hell of a job.

But Frencheska believes she’s ready for it, and for other bigger things that will come her way. That gung-ho spirit may just be her passport to bigger, better things in years to come.