Who could forget the evil Maria Amor de Jesus (played by 20-year-old Dianne dela Fuente) that people loved to hate in the highly-rated primetime soap Pangako sa ’yo that aired sometime in 2000-2002 on ABS-CBN? Not the horde of die-hard fans who savored the telenovela over dinner and, between mouthfuls, probably cursed Maria Amor to death (she was murdered in the end by her own mother, played by Jean Garcia).
“Even now, people still remember the character I played in that drama series,” Dianne says with a twinkle in her eyes. “Once, I was in Baguio and I was told people didn’t like me because I was maldita.”
Dianne is just so good at being bad. Critics agree she’s such a good actress. At 15, she was already doing Ang TV and then appeared in a lot of ABS-CBN shows as one of the network’s talents. And then came the big break: She auditioned for Pangako Sa ’Yo.
She recounts, “We were given a monologue, which we had to deliver in four different emotions: sad or crying, angry, happy, and excited. The transition was hard especially from sad, with all that buildup of emotions, to happy. I had to let go. I got the part, maybe they saw the potential in my acting. I didn’t know I was going to do a big teleserye with big stars (like Eula Valdez, Jean Garcia, Jericho Rosales, Kristine Hermosa). I never felt like a newbie on the set because everyone was so welcoming. At ang galing nilang mag-internalize, how to put emotions into their lines.”
She gushes, “I really study the script well. I love to try different roles. And I worked with such good directors, Gerry Sineneng and Trina Dayrit — ang galing nilang mag-motivate ng artista.”
Dianne is a good singer, too. Actually, singing came first before acting. Hear this: At seven years old, she was belting out Barbra Streisand’s Some Good Things Never Last.
“I started singing at five, I would sing for guests who’d come to our house,” she relates. “I would get angry if they wouldn’t let me sing. I couldn’t stop singing and they’d say, ‘Dianne, tama na, tama na!’”
Determined to get out there on that stage and strut her stuff, Dianne was unstoppable. “Both my parents were not into theater, but they were great music lovers,” she traces her musical roots. “As early as grade school, I was exposed to musical movies like Sound of Music, Annie, and My Fair Lady. Back then, I didn’t know I could act. But I really loved singing. I was 9 or 10 years old when Tita Angge (Lee) discovered me. Her talent then was Sylvia Sanchez who was with me in a theater production. Tita Angge gave me my screen name dela Fuente. My real name is Manlosa.”
To the stage Dianne must have been born as she took lead roles in such productions as The Little Mermaid, Alikabok, and Habi-Tabi at and Banal na Aklat.
A Star Records artist, she’s done a lot of recordings, too, including a Coke commercial jingle Tuwing Sasapit ang Pasko. She was named Most Promising Young Entertainer in 2002.
She’s also tried her hand at news anchoring for Balitaan on CLTV 36 Pampanga and VJ hosting for Kasaysayan TV on Knowledge Channel.
And then she did her first (and she says her last) movie Ngayong Nandito Ka, where she played no not the contrabida (not again!) but the friend of the bida. She got married in 2003 to outstanding young man Ian Tiongson, now VP of the Cabalen Group of Companies spearheaded by his enterprising mom Maritel Nievera. “We met at a DECS (Department of Education Culture and Sports) event, we were both awardees of the Most Outstanding Youths of the Philippines — I, for show business and he, for entrepreneurship. And then he watched The Little Mermaid where I played the lead character.”
She bowed out of the limelight when she got pregnant with her first child and for many years after that, she chose to live a obscure life as wife and mother to two kids, Nicolas, now 9 and Kailyn, 6.
And now, after a nine-year hiatus, Maria Amor, er, Dianne is back on stage with a vengeance. She’s doing two plays, one Filipino and the other, English. There’s Stairs Production’s Magulang Magulang, a musicale directed and written by Paul Ballano. Here, Dianne plays a tomboy, Jiggs. “I became a tomboy to get back at my father who’s gay and I learned in the end that I was adopted,” Dianne gives us a sneak preview.
An educational mobile theater under DECS, Magulang Magulang goes on tour around the country from July to October 2012. For tickets, call 09165081629, 09392453035, 907-4104. “It’s about the realities of life, the realities of parenting and being a child, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this play,” Dianne stresses.
Then there’s Treehouse Theater’s Robin Hood, that goes on stage Aug. 20-24 and Sept. 17-20 at AFP Theater. The musicale promises great music, dancing, fighting, and exquisite acting. Dianne plays Maid Marian to Joel Molina’s Robin Hood. The play also boasts veteran TV/stage actor Peter Serrano, Star Magic talent Jaco Bennin, and Pinoy Idol grand winner Gretchen Espina. Directed by Phil Noble and Raffy Tejada with music by Jeff Hernandez, choreography by Batche Tan and Zyda Baaya, costumes by Andrei David, and set design by Boni Juan. For tickets, call 09156121137.
“After all these years, my passion for acting and singing has always been there inside of me,” confesses Dianne. “I just put it aside for my children.”
Only in her early 20s then, Dianne faced the heaviest drama of her life. “At just four months old, my youngest child had open heart surgery,” she painfully shares. “She was born normal, but 12 days later, it was found that she had a cardiac murmur, she was a blue baby. But aside from the hole in her heart, she had an extra muscle so doctors had to patch up the hole and trim the extra muscle. I remember when I was bringing her to the operating room, it was very traumatic for me. I saw her with three tubes stuck to her body and I had to ask for blood for her blood transfusion. But my daughter was a fighter — we could have waited until she was one year old for her operation, but doctors said she was ready for it at four months. And she stayed at the ICU for only a week, which was another miracle because the doctors said the recuperation usually took a month.”
Motherhood is probably the toughest role Dianne has had to play. “You can never be truly prepared for it. You just have to tackle what’s in front of you now. I believe everything happens for a reason. There was a reason why I had to stop acting.”
For six years, Dianne lived a pretty quiet life with her family in Pampanga. “I was happy with my family, happy with my kids, but a part of me was missing,” she admits. “I’ve been reading this book Happiness Makeover (how to train your mind to experience more joy every day) by MJ Ryan and it says that for every decision you make, there’s a tradeoff. So, if I decide to go back to acting, I will not have that much time anymore for my kids. But if I stay home, di ko magagawa ang gusto ko.”
She was torn. She asked herself: “Was I really ready to go back to theater or acting?” Her very supportive husband told her to give it a try, to test the waters.
And then another drama unfolded in Dianne’s life. “My son, who plays the marimba, had an audition. I saw his love for music. And when I watched him play, natuwa ako, I realized he could have gotten his love for music from me. As a member of the school choir, they were invited to play in New York City. We did a duet at Meralco Theater, I Believe I Can Fly. I was crying on stage. And my son’s grandma Maritel Nievera was crying, too.”
Dianne shares these precious tips with those who want to go into acting: “It’s really important that even before you go into theater, you know what you’re getting into. You have to do research. But aside from knowing it theoretically, you should know how to apply it. Sometimes, it’s not just about the craft. It’s about how you are as a person, how you deal with people. It’s important to do workshops, add knowledge to your craft. Even before I decided to go back to the stage, I took workshops with Beverly Vergel who used to be with ABS-CBN but now runs her own acting school in Makati. I went there for a refresher course, to get back into the groove.”
Now ready to soar, Dianne dreams of going back to TV, having her own solo album, and helping her husband with the family business (they’re developing a new resto concept, a Pinoy diner called Juan vs. Joe’s that offers affordable comfort food for the young market).
Truly, in the many dramas she’s had to tackle in her young life, Dianne played her parts splendidly well. Take a long bow, Dianne!