Degree of difficulty

Quite a number of local stars and starlets come up with lazy, uncreative and uninspired performances, because they have been led to believe that their exceptionally good looks and gumption are all they need to delight viewers and enjoy fame and fortune.

Oh, how wrong they are—which is why most of them end up quickly boring show biz fans and fading away from view, completely unmissed—and totally unremembered.

Thus, prospective stars need to constantly remind themselves to not take their careers for granted, stop banking on their “beauty” —and work really hard to keep improving themselves and pushing their performing and creative limits.

This is difficult for some local starlets to do, but they have to force themselves to do so, otherwise their so-called show biz “careers” will be exceedingly short-lived.

If they’re looking for role models, they need to look no further than the senior likes of Eddie Garcia and Gloria Romero, who are still performing more than 60 years after they were first discovered!

Among our younger stars, Anne Curtis is a standout because she keeps pushing her limits, example, not just as an “ilusyonada” and “Anne-bisyosa” “singer,” but also as an aerialist—as “amazingly” unveiled during her hit concert at Araneta Coliseum!

On a less “extreme” level, Bea Alonzo is an exceptional role model for teen and young-adult performers, because she continues to push herself as an actress, taking on increasingly challenging roles.

This is what we mean by increasing “degree of difficulty” in acting—continually upping the ante in terms of performance, so the star is “forced” to keep improving and never resting on his or her laurels (which is precisely what lesser talents smugly do).

Bea was exceptionally lovely to begin with, but she’s become much more than that as a performer, a decade after she launched her show biz career. Which is why producers keep offering her big projects, which they know she can “carry,” because she’s prepared herself to do it.

Take her most recent teleserye, “Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon.” The production had many other top talents in its stellar cast, but it was a “solo” showcase for Bea, whose star rose further, because her recently concluded drama series provided her with the golden opportunity, which she made full use of, to show how she’s evolved and matured as an artist! We should all be so lucky—but, the point is, her standout success hasn’t been due to luck at all, but to developed talent, determination, plain hard work—and ever-increasing “degree of difficulty”!