When stars play famous people
ECHO Rosales (left) doing a more believable job portraying the much-loved Jesse Robredo than Piolo Pascual personifying Ninoy Aquino
Amazingly apt and believable portrayals like Meryl Streep’s spot-on screen personifications of Margaret Thatcher and Julia Child should convince other actors that, when they play famous people, they should try really hard to at least look the part.
On the local TV-film screens, however, the cult of personality and celebrity is so established that this is practiced more in the breach than in the observance.
For example, when the dramatic story of Ninoy and Cory Aquino was told on TV years ago, the actors chosen to portray them, Piolo Pascual and Bea Alonzo, looked quite different from them. Worse, they didn’t work hard enough to vivify their physical traits, aside from wearing “signature” eyeglasses and such, and psychological believability was even less of the all-important consideration it should have been.
For instance, in real life, Ninoy was a kinetic force of nature, while Piolo was mostly content to just be his usual, placid and “sincere” self.
More recently, it was Jericho Rosales’ turn to portray a famous person, Jesse Robredo, on TV. He didn’t look at all like Robredo, but to his credit, Jericho tried harder to capture the much-admired official’s persona and key driving impulses, especially his total commitment as public servant and family man.
Unbelievable
Just last week, it was Enrique Gil’s turn to personify a well-known celebrity, in the person of the young Juan Ponce Enrile. Right off the bat, the actor was too fair-complexioned to be implicitly credible as the taciturn and intense man he was vaguely attempting to personify.
Since depicting famous people appears to be a trendy assignment these days, it’s key for our actors and directors to realize the utmost importance of more astutely suiting the actor to the role, not the other way around.
Physical and psychological believability are essential to the difficult task at hand, so stars should play famous figures only when they have what it takes to “disappear” into the part they’re essaying.
Set the bar high
Meryl Streep has set the bar high in this regard, as her supremely believable and felt portraits of Thatcher and Child so convincingly embody. Aside from capturing her assigned character’s unique look, Streep spends a lot of time and thought on vivifying what makes that famous personality tick.
Another view of the difficulty of the assignment may be had when we study the process that master impersonator Willie Nepomuceno goes into to come up with his spot-on portrayals of Joseph Estrada, Dolphy, Alfredo Lim, et al.
He starts with the physical details, tweaking his countenance and hairstyles to suit the characters he’s playing, then adds the unique and idiosyncratic ways they talk and walk, and then caps everything off with a comedic peek into their heart of hearts! Our younger stars should be prepared to do nothing less.
Even as we speak, another potentially great personification awaits moviegoers, by way of Michael Douglas’ much-awaited portrayal of—Liberace! Initially, he and his subject appear to be worlds apart—but, let’s hope that the macho actor can resoundingly prove that through thespic magic, he and the famous “flaming fairy” can be one!
