Richard Yap is careful with his scent
Male fans — and female fans who want their men to have a bit of Richard in them — can now get more of him with RY by Avon Philippines.
A day is never enough for actor Richard Yap. Even months after the wildly popular teleserye Be Careful With My Heart has ended, the show that put him in the nation’s living rooms and catapulted him to unexpected fame, 24 hours are not enough.
“Fame and the schedule that goes along with it are something I never expected or was prepared for,” says the quietly handsome and shy actor. “I’m not the type of guy who goes out every night, and in fact I never wanted my pictures taken when I was younger. It’s really out of my comfort zone.”
But it’s something he’s had to deal with since joining show business in 2011, first in My Binondo Girl as the father of Kim Chiu, and from 2012 to 2014 in Be Careful With My Heart as Sir Chief, the kind boss to Jodi Sta. Maria’s character Maya.
Who would have known that because of this teleserye, a fan would have his name tattooed on her? She didn’t have just his first name inked on her forearm, but the whole “Richard Yap as Papa Chen.”
Or at one mall event, the worst dumog incident he has experienced, his fans were so enthusiastic that they were pulling at him and pinching him as he walked to the stage.
Where were they pinching him?
He laughs and says, “All over. There was so security and so we just finished the program and had to leave right after. It was total chaos.”
Women and gay fans? No guys?
“Well, some of them looked like guys.”
Male fans — and female fans who want their men to have a bit of Richard in them — can now can get more of him as he recently launched his own fragrance with Avon Philippines.
Called RY, it is the first fragrance for men that Avon Philippines has created and the company is very enthusiastic about having Richard as an endorser.
Avon acting general manager Emie Aguilar-Nierves says, “With Richard’s success on TV and in print, and his business ventures and happy family life, he is an inspiration for all.”
“It’s an absolute honor to be the brand ambassador for Avon Fragrance,” he says. Richard joins the family of Avon’s celebrity endorsers such as Anne Curtis, Angel Locsin, Georgina Wilson, Isabelle Daza, Solenn Heussaff, Julia Montes and Xian Lim.
“The fragrance fits my personality perfectly,” says Richard of RY eau de toilette. “It’s very fresh with a woody scent, and the bottle is classic and simple. They formulated the fragrance and when they presented it to me, I said, ‘That’s it. That’s me.’”
Even with a fragrance named after him, Richard says, “I’m not very vanidoso.” His regimen as far as taking care of his skin is “simple lang. I used to use my wife Melody’s beauty products but now I have my own. I keep my bathroom counter very clean — just my soap, eye cream and toothbrush. I make sure that I wash my face with a clear soap prescribed by my dermatologist and remove all makeup after coming from a shoot.” He also uses Avon’s eye cream to remove dark circles from lack of sleep.
Oh, and the hair! “I think it’s a guy thing,” says Richard. “All guys are vain about their hair.” He rotates his shampoos (Neutrogena, Head & Shoulders and Palmolive) and uses Bench Fix hair gel.
The past few months have been relatively calm for Richard as far as showbiz is concerned. He’s managed to get back into golf again (“my game’s on and off, so now I’m better at taekwondo than golf”).
Soon, however, he will start shooting a new teleserye. “We have the story already but the cast is not final yet, so I can’t tell you more than that we will start next month,” he says.
For someone who is shy and unassuming, stepping into a role and pretending to be someone else is unexpectedly enjoyable. And how did his two popular teleserye affect his male ego — from playing a father to a leading man? “It’s nice to play a part, but they’re just roles in two very different stories. I enjoyed the first one because it was my first TV show; the second one got me to explore a different side, a lighter version of the first. The work itself is okay, the difficult part is handling the crowds when you’re doing a live show.”
Richard admits, however, that Be Careful With My Heart made him more attentive to his wife Melody, a former PAL flight attendant, if only to make up for the special family occasions that he’s missed with her and their two children.
“She’s very supportive of whatever role I take, but the thing that’s hard for her to deal with is my work schedule, the long hours. When I started out in 2011, she used to come with me to the set because she was taking care of all my stuff; she was my stylist, she was my PA. Now she runs our business, a pet hotel in BF Parañaque called Pet Stars.”
Richard started his career as a businessman. He finished business management in DLSU and went back to Cebu for a few years where he worked for a furniture company and at the same time was involved in the family business of interior design.
In Manila, where he’s been based since 1995, he was working for a private company when an officemate who was doing commercials encouraged him to get into it as an added source of income.
“I did a lot of commercials in the 1990s but most of them were bit parts. I guess my first major ad was with PLDT.”
An unlikely heartthrob at 47, Richard remains down to earth and humble. His whole attitude seems to be, “Who would have thought?”
And maybe that’s his strongest appeal to fans.
* * *
Richard Yap’s RY fragrance is available through Avon Ladies.
