DE LAS ALAS. Over-the-top and excessively emotional portrayals.
In “Maria,” she plays the title character’s surrogate mother, while “My Binondo Girl” has her portraying the main protagonist’s real mom. In both instances, she comes up with over-the-top and excessively emotional portrayals that tend to call too much attention to themselves and thus distract and detract from the performances of the shows’ top young leads, Erich Gonzales and Kim Chiu, respectively.
Perhaps Ai Ai doesn’t mean to upstage her hapless costars, but that’s the unintended effect and consequence, because the two series’ respective directors can’t seem to rein her thespic “enthusiasm” in. —But, isn’t that their job? Well, they sure aren’t doing it well.
The “problem” could be that, as a film comedienne, Ai Ai has racked up a number of top-grossing starrers, so her “sister” studios, Star Cinema and ABS-CBN, gratefully treat her like the hot property she is—with kid gloves.
Well, the special treatment has become counterproductive, because it has led to the comedienne being given “dramatic” roles to “prove” her “versatility” as an actress—and she has fallen short.
We like her enthusiasm on her two soaps, but she hasn’t delineated her two roles sufficiently well. They’re supposed to be two different people, but the actress doesn’t provide enough contrast to her two portrayals.
Ai Ai’s fans may not agree, but her biggest thespic liability is her “signature” speaking voice. It’s quite raspy and its volume is generally loud and overprojected. It’s so readily identifiable that it makes it difficult for her to come up with distinctly different characterizations.
Variations
You may say, that’s just the way she naturally speaks, why should she be faulted for it? Because an actor’s job is to personify different characters—and the further removed from his own persona, the better.
You may say again, but in the Philippines actors pretty much play mere variations of themselves, and the audience accepts it. Well, that’s why the thespic arts aren’t all that great (understatement) in this country.
When an actor is as busy as Ai Ai (she’s in two concurrent soaps, imagine), his limitations are more glaringly revealed, and that’s what’s happening to the actress now. Instead of “proving” her “versatility,” the ill-advised decision to “showcase” her in two nightly TV productions has indicated the opposite.
Short-term solution: The actress should “exit” from one of the teleseryes as soon as possible—or plausible—and should try to make her remaining character as distinct and different from her own persona as possible. Long-range challenge: For her to realize that good acting is really hard to pull off!