Jonathan Kovac talks undearwear

There comes a point in a girl’s life when the words "cute guy" cease to have any more meaning. That point usually comes when she has met too many "himbos" who wouldn’t know what wit was even if they came face to face with Oscar Wilde himself. Or when she has endured enough fashion shows where the men preen about like peacocks when that is all they have.

I was close to that point but Jonathan Kovac changed all that. When I walked into Dish, frantically apologizing for being late, he gallantly stood up, shook my hand and made me feel that it was absolutely no bother, when in truth he had to circle the mall several times just to keep from being bored silly. As the afternoon wore on, I discovered that he actually had an idea of what English literature is (it was his girlfriend’s major) and so he did have a nodding acquaintance with wit.

Jonathan is from Australia and he flew into Manila to shoot Penshoppe’s newest campaign, a launch of their underwear line. He first came to the country last month to play one of the friends of the prince in the Disney shows held at Glorietta. He met talent manager Joji Dingcong and was told that he could do work in Manila. A few weeks after, Joji called him about the Penshoppe offer and without a second thought, Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and all, he hopped into a Manila-bound plane.

Read on to get to know a little more about the city’s newest billboard face.

Philippine STAR: Was it your childhood dream to become a model?

Jonathan Kovac: Oh no, my first dream was to be a professional basketball player. But I hurt my back, playing too much basketball and that was that.

So how did you stumble upon modeling?

Yes, stumbling into it is pretty much how it was. Well, friends were always telling me that I should try it out, give it a shot. And my mom used to do some modeling when she was younger so she knew what it was about. So she sent some of my pictures out and I started doing some catalog work.

You do realize that there’s not much job security?

Well, yes, so I do hope that the acting will take over. I started acting when I was in college (at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and I do have a degree in Public Relations so I can always fall upon that.

So what do you enjoy about modeling?

Not knowing where your next dollar will be coming from. It’s bad but exciting. I mean one month ago, I had never been to the Philippines and (now) here I am. There’s a lot of time off, so you can spend a lot of time at the gym, then take three rounds of coffee. (But) For those patches when you don’t work, you have to make sure you’re doing something. Overall, though, people are kind to you because of the way you look. That’s not so bad.

Speaking of the way you look, does it embarrass you that you will be seen by millions of people and all you have on is your underwear?

I grew up swimming so I was in my Speedos all the time. I was also in a play in school called the Singing Forest and I had to be completely naked. That was hard. The play was about the Holocaust and the prisoners were tortured before they were put in the gas chamber so we had to be naked. And the theater was so cold and your hair was just standing on end. So after that experience, posing in your underwear is not so bad.

Did people tease you about it?

My friends and family came out to see it and yes, there were a lot of jokes. "I’ve seen you butt naked" came out a lot but you get used to it.

There is a prevalent stereotype that male models are not too smart. For example, if you were at a cocktail party and were introduced to a group of people who looked down upon male models, how would you convince them that you are not stupid?

That’s a very interesting question. I think when you do what I do, people are hoping that you will be dumb. So I just let my personality speak for itself.

The truth is I usually don’t even want to say that I’m a model.

Why not?

When you say that you are a model, the conversation just stops. So I’ve invented this story that I’m a fireman. Whenever I say that I’m a fireman, I get about four, five more questions.

Like what kind of questions?

It’s exciting. And I’ve made up this whole story that most of the time, we just hang around, work out, read magazines and that most fires in Australia are actually caused by the stuff that people throw into their bins (that’s trashcan to us Pinoys) and people love hearing about "bin fires."

Of course, you must get a lot of attention from gay men, considering what you do. Does that bother you? How do you deal with it?

It was my mom, more than anyone, who warned me about it. Well, I was never really homophobic, which was a good thing. It did take some getting used to. I went to an all-boys school, and was very sheltered coming out of high school and then I got into modeling.

So are you Catholic?

Yup, I was even an altar boy. Mass was pretty boring so I figured I might as well be doing something.

Hmmm... I wonder what those priests are thinking now that the innocent little boy has become an international pin-up. Would they be proud?