It’s nice to see you back, Celeste!

Two days after Glenda devastated the country, Funfare talked to Celeste Legaspi over a lunch of spinach pizza at Taste of L.A. (Roces Avenue corner Tomas Morato Avenue, Quezon City).

Now into her early 60s and proud of it (proof: hair beautifully silvery and face free from cosmetic surgery), Celeste is back on TV as the glamorous mother of Maricel Soriano in the trending GMA soap Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real (with Dingdong Dantes caught between Maricel and Lovi Poe as his other legally-married wife). As always in any role (whether in theater or in film), Celeste is a delight to see.

Among other memorable performances (as the Princesa Perlita in the late ‘60s at the Fort Santiago now Rajah Sulayman Theater where PETA used to  stage plays under the moonlight, as Candida in Larawan, with Mitch Valdes in Katy, and as Pres./Mayor Erap Estrada’s leading lady in Mamang Sorbetero, in Ishmael Bernal’s last movie Wating, etc.), I fondly remember Celeste in her iconic beauty-parlor scene in Lino Brocka’s Sa Kabila ng Lahat where she has a chance encounter with Dina Bonnevie (as the mistress of Celeste’s husband played by Ronaldo Valdez). Quietly fuming, her hair in curlers, she stands up from her chair, grabs a basinful of shampoo-filled water and splashes it on the unsuspecting Dina before slapping her. Winner!

It was not Celeste’s first slapping scene.

“Enjoy na enjoy ako sa eksenang ‘yon,” Celeste said tongue-in-cheek. “Actually, marami na akong nasampal. There was Janice (de Belen) in Wating. Si Gina (Alajar) nasampal ko na rin in a movie. Sino pa ba?” One of these days, is Marciel going to get “it” in Mrs. Real?

“Ay,” Celeste kept her fingers crossed, “sana wala,” adding, “Maricel is a joy to work with.”

With or without a slapping scene, Celeste in Mrs. Real is at performance level, giving her all. After all, the soap has a powerhouse cast that also includes Coney Reyes, Robert Arevalo, Tommy Abuel and Jaime Fabregas, pitted with some of today’s most talented young actors (Alessandra de Rossi and Marco Alcaraz, among them).

Two years ago, she was cast in the TV5 drama Glamorosa but she begged off when she contacted pneumonia after taping for two days and was replaced by Gloria Diaz.

Asked what she found interesting about Mrs. Real, Celeste said, “My role in Glamorosa was bitchy. You know, bitchy is easy. I wanted a role that is more real and my Mrs. Real role is it, very little bitchiness so your acting should be based on reality and truth. I hate saying that because it’s too presumptuous but that’s the truth. I also love the character because she is rich, always wearing branded clothes at palaging ayos. Sabi ko nga, ‘Ano ba itong babaing ito, hindi na ba siya natutulog?’ Hahahaha!”

And also, she wanted to apply what she has been learning in the five-month-old acting school, Actor’s Studio East (located at 70-D, 18th Avenue, Quezon City), that she put up with her husband Nonoy Gallardo and their daughter Waya and husband Blake Robinson (a US-trained actor who uses Allan as screen surname), and Celeste’s good friend Girlie Rodis.

“Yes, I keep on learning,” she admitted. “I’m into advance learning. I’ve been attending classes for several months now. The school teaches serious acting. I want to see how far the ‘technique’ will bring me. I am applying in Mrs. Real what I’m learning in our school.”

In the scene that they had just shot two days before our interview, Celeste’s character was shown lamenting that even her children had grown and had children of their own, she is a mother still worried about them, saying, “Hanggang kailan ba tayo magiging magulang?” The director, Andoy Ranay, said, “Let’s remove na lang that line” and Celeste asked why. “Kasi hindi naman realistic,” answered Andoy. “In fact,” Celeste told him, “I’m always saying that line in real life.” Print!

Is she like that in real life?

“Yes,” confessed Celeste, “the issues that you have to tackle get even more serious. You know, your children need help because financially they are not well-off.  What if your apo gets sick? Whereas when they were children, ang concern mo lang was whether they were healthy. Simple issues.”

Celeste and Nonoy (whom she calls “Mr. Gallardo” who is still in advertising and continues to write songs) have three children – Miguel (a.k.a. Iggy), 41, who is a member of the new band Generation with the two sons (Mike and Joe) of Jose Mari Chan and the son of Sampaguita), soon to get married; Waya, 37, no child yet; and Lala, 36, who has given the Gallardo couple their only apo, Diego, so far. All the children have left home and put up their own.

“I’m a hands-on lola,” said Celeste.

Besides Mrs. Real and their acting school, Celeste and company are also busy preparing for a movie version of Larawan (with Rachel Alejandro and Joanna Ampil as Candida and Paula; Tom Rodriguez as Tony Javier; and Sam Concepcion as Bitoy) which starts shooting early next year and intended for international film festivals.

Larawan is the Filipino version of Portrait of the Artist as Filipino whose author Nick Joaquin’s 100th birthday will be commemorated in 2017. The making of the Larawan film (the second, Lamberto Avellana’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino in the late ‘60s, starring Daisy H. Avellana and Naty Crame Rogers) is therefore very timely.

(For inquiries about Celeste’s acting school, call landline 438-1111 or celfone 0917-5806055/0917-7940563.)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected].)