BARBIE Forteza
At 18, Barbie Forteza said she’s ready to fall in love … and maybe even get her heart broken.
“I think I’m at an appropriate age. But let’s be honest, we experience happiness in [many romantic] relationships usually only in the beginning. So, if you say you’re ready to fall in love, it also means you’re ready to get hurt, because that’s where things usually end up anyway,” she told reporters in a recent pocket interview for her TV series on GMA 7, “That’s My Amboy,” which ends on April 29.
If that sounds a tad pessimistic, it’s because Barbie has been burned before. Nothing really scarring, she quickly added—or at least nothing as painful as what her screen character, Maru, has experienced. Barbie has yet to be in a “serious” relationship, she confessed, but refused to go into detail.
“Perhaps it was an accumulation of small things. I tend to reject people before they reject me. I don’t want to wait for them to do it to me,” the Kapuso talent said. “I do have crushes, but [no one] warrants my full attention. ”
Having said that, she insisted that she was “happy and inspired.” Throughout the chat, Barbie did appear extra-animated—giggling, fidgeting with her hair and shrieking, when prodded about her “Amboy” leading man, Andre Paras.
“We’re close,” she relented, after much teasing from the show biz press. “It’s not difficult to have a crush on someone like Andre, because he’s kind, a gentleman and always willing to learn more about his work,” she said of her 20-year-old screen partner, whom she also described as “very patient. ”
“As you can see, I’m very makulit, and he’s more quiet. I’ve never seen him get annoyed with me. He just plays along,” Barbie said. “I think he prefers quiet girls.”
On the other hand, Barbie seems to fare better in her career, having recently won the best actress award at the 36th Oporto International Film Festival (Fantasporto) in Portugal, for playing a careworn Badjao wife in Louie Ignacio’s independent film, “Laut.”
“At my age, it’s nice to be known as an actress, not just a teen star—and it’s flattering,” said Barbie, who likewise brushed off observations that she may have already overtaken her contemporaries in GMA 7, career-wise.
“I don’t feel like I’m better—I don’t see it that way. I’d like to think that I was lucky to have been given good opportunities,” she said.
E-mail apolicarpio@inquirer.com.ph