Change of image is par for stellar career course

ANGELICA Panganiban now tackles a wider range of roles—drama, comedy, sexy and “crazily” satirical spoofs of celebs.

Quite a number of our homegrown stars are leery about changing their signature screen image, because they fear that their fans first fell in love with their original screen persona, and don’t like being given something else. That’s why they timidly hold on to their first persona, thus severely limiting their growth and options as actors.

But, the evidence shows that fans are no longer cluelessly “diehard” as they used to be. On the local TV-film scene, the current example is teen fave Daniel Padilla, who recently veered away from his frisky persona, has put on quite a lot of heft and muscles, and is now coming across as more grownup than totoy.

Some fans may have been caught off-guard by the unexpected change, but we believe that it’s all to the good. More pertinently, it will give viewers something bracingly new to watch in Daniel’s new teleserye, “Pangako sa ’Yo.” His new look gives his portrayal a new tweak, a far cry from his past TV starrers.

On the distaff side, Angelica Panganiban has come a long way from her child-star origins, and is now daringly tackling a wider range of roles—drama, comedy, sexy, “crazily” satirical spoofs of famous and infamous people—etc.!

The decision to periodically change screen image has done wonders for Angelica’s career, with her delighted, dazzled and addled fans exulting that, these days, they get really excited when they hear that she has a new starrer—because they don’t quite know what she’s going to come up with!

If only other stars would enjoy such freedom!

Extreme surprises

To be sure, some of Angelica’s “surprises” have been too extreme and bizarre to be encouraged. But, it’s infinitely better to occasionally make an ill-advised change than just staying in her comfort zone, as many other performers have timidly been doing.

DANIEL Padilla, with his new look, comes across as more grownup than “totoy.”

On the international TV-film scene, the “chameleon” of note is Zac Efron. Like Angelica, he started his career as a juvenile, tween, then teen player—but look where he is now: He’s buffed up, isn’t leery about playing physically “revealing” roles, does comedy and drama with similar facility, and dares to tackle a “risky” range of roles!

Even on reality TV, he recently impressed viewers with his survival skills, going just about everywhere both vertically and horizontally—while not dying in the process!

This season, Zac has already racked up an impressive number of new characterizations. Just waiting in the wings are his new films. In one of them, he plays a deejay—and in the other, his costar just happens to be Robert De Niro, who plays his estranged grandfather, with whom he goes on an “extreme” road trip.

Needless to say, Efron holds his own in his many scenes with De Niro, so viewers are treated to the delightful experience of seeing two generations of ace actors “bouncing off” each other and coming up with even better portrayals, as a result!