Meet Celeste Legaspi, the eternal student

CELESTE Legaspi decided to go gray, but got silver highlights, for vanity.

An actor simply can’t stay away for too long.

Although the last time she did a teleserye (TV5’s “Glamorosa” in 2011), she ended up battling pneumonia, singer-actress Celeste Legaspi has enthusiastically taken on the challenge of another primetime series, GMA 7’s “Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real.”

For Celeste, there’s no better way to practice the techniques she’s currently learning as an acting student than on the set of a soap or movie, or onstage in a straight play or musical.

You read that right.

Celeste, who debuted in the movies in 1970 (Lino Brocka’s “Santiago”), still considers herself a student of the craft.

She took classes in Actors’ Studio East in Cubao, Quezon City, which is run by her son-in-law Blake Allan, an acting teacher from Los Angeles.

“I am seriously studying acting … specifically, [these techniques/methods] Meisner, Stanislavski and Chekov,” she said. She’s enrolling in advance courses soon.

World travel

Though she went on semi-retirement over two decades ago, Celeste kept herself busy. She traveled the world as part of her work with the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines.

“I visited Greece, Turkey, Laos,” she related. “We went to Uzbekistan. We followed the Silk Road.”

The open road served as a classroom as well. But her incessant quest for knowledge somehow led back to acting.

Prior to accepting the GMA 7 soap, she returned to theater, in Nick Joaquin’s “Mga Ama, Mga Anak,” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

“I wanted to apply what I had learned from Blake,” she said.

Rehearsal, support

Now that she is equipped with the necessary tools, acting has become a different experience for her. “Being onstage again was wonderful. Everything was vibrant. It really helps to know what you’re doing. I used to get very nervous. Now, everything is a breeze … for as long as you rehearse properly and your director is supportive … things will turn out fine.”

That life is a constant learning process is not a cliché, as far as she’s concerned.

Even though she has been acting for over 40 years, Celeste remains open to new lessons and realizations—a quality that neophytes in the biz should emulate.

But did her teacher give her good reviews after watching her onstage?

“Blake helped me prepare for the play,” she recounted. “He doesn’t understand Filipino, but he said he liked my work.”

Nothing beats having an in-house acting coach.

“But I pay all the way,” she exclaimed in mock protest. “We keep things professional in the family.”

Grueling grind

She is certain the lessons culled from her classes will be helpful, now that she’s back to the grueling grind on “Mrs. Real.”

On the first working day, she found herself wearing a long gown in the middle of summer. “And it was the hottest day on record. I was in formal wear from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m,” said Celeste, who seemed to prefer shorts and a T-shirt (exactly what she was wearing during this interview held in a GMA 7 dressing room).

The trick is to make it seem effortless.

“In ‘Glamorosa,’ I was always in a catfight with Gloria Diaz. It was like playtime. ‘Mrs. Real’ is more realistic … and I love my role as the mom of Maricel [Soriano].”

Fulfilling

Working with pros like Maricel and Dingdong Dantes made the long taping hours more fulfilling.

“I love the way she uses her eyes. Maricel is very open as an actress. Dingdong is good, too, and he’s always prepared. They make my job so much easier,” she related.

But the question begged to be asked: Why did she decide to shun dying her hair and go gray?

“I was traveling constantly …all over Central Asia. I had no time to go to the salon.”

So she chose to keep the mainly-salt-and-not-much-pepper” look. “But I wanted silver highlights. Malandi pa rin ako,” she owned up, gleefully.

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