Under-utilized actors

Art Acuña: It’s a waste to see this major talent play minor roles.

Not a few televiewers have complained about local TV dramas’ penchant for showing the same old faces and talents over and over again, ad nauseam and ad absurdum.

After watching an overexposed character actor playing a dad or doctor for the nth time, they can’t be blamed for crying foul—and uncle!

Thus, we’re happy to see this TV season that some shows are making an effort to bring in relatively fresh actors, like Art Acuña, Jim Paredes and Michael Flores.

We first got wind of Acuña’s exceptional thespic gift when we caught his gritty and feisty portrayal as his family’s “black sheep” in the indie film, “Niño.”

After that, we were glad to see him acting on TV, but the roles given him thus far have barely hinted at what he can really deliver.

The Fil-Am actor, now based here, can do full justice to lead parts, so to see him languishing in so-so roles on the small screen makes us sad—and it must make him “antsy” to show what he can really do, if only producers and directors would let him!

Currently, Acuña is playing Agot Isidro’s husband on “Bagito,” and it’s encouraging to see that he’s being given a little more to do. We hope that, as the series continues to heat up, he will get to do much more. It’s such a waste to see this major talent playing second fiddle to lesser thespic lights!

For his part, singer Jim Paredes gave acting a go on the recently concluded series “Exchange Gift,” where he was cast as KC Concepcion’s wealthy and domineering father. Talk about a relatively fresh face in local teleseryes, Paredes hit the spot. And he made the wealthy character assigned to him acutely believable, unlike other character actors who could only pretend to be well-born.

In addition, it turns out that Jim is exceptionally telegenic, so he looks just right as KC’s dad.

The only problem was that he wasn’t given a dramatic scene to essay, so he initially came across as a bit too lightweight to be taken seriously from a dramatic point of view. Well, it was revealed that his character might be grievously ill, so he was given thespic “moments” toward the end.

Here’s hoping that he will be given more challenging roles, so Jim can join the likes of Kuh Ledesma, Celeste Legaspi and Ariel Rivera, singers who have proven to be good dramatic players on the small screen.

Finally, Michael Flores has made his reentry into TV dramas by way of “Forevermore,” where he’s cast as the wealthy dad of Enrique Gil’s former girlfriend, played by Sofia Andres.

It’s another welcome comeback bid, because the now “maturing” actor has the authentic inner “heat” to make his regulation “rich nemesis” scenes come off convincingly.

Other “maturing” actors we should see more often on the TV screen include Dante Rivero, Robert Seña, Al Tantay, Gary Estrada, Robert Arevalo, Leo Rialp, Pen Medina, Julienne Mendoza, Ronaldo Valdez, Lou Veloso, Pepito Rodriguez, Lorenzo Mara, Joel Lamangan, Jamie Wilson, Jake Macapagal, Miguel Faustman, Roeder Camañag, Bodjie Pascua and Eddie Rocha.