Coleen Garcia
“The year 2016 was a year of discovery for us,” said actress Coleen Garcia, who recently got engaged to actor-TV host Billy Crawford, her boyfriend of three years.
“Toward the end of the year, Billy and I have discovered a lot about ourselves and our relationship,” said Coleen, 24, adding that she was grateful to Billy, 34, “for always being patient and understanding. He is sweet to me every single day. He always makes an effort to make me happy on a daily basis. That’s what I appreciate about him the most—his being consistent.”
The actress on Thursday posted a photo of the engagement ring on her Instagram account with the caption: “Happiest! Thank you, Lord! I’m gonna marry the love of my life.”
At the media gathering for her latest movie, “Extra Service,” Coleen revealed that she was baptized as a Born Again Christian only in November. “Billy plans to do the same,” she said of her fiancé.
Coleen said Billy would also go with her and her family on a trip to Spain for the holidays. “It would be our first family vacation after a long while,” she declared.
Coleen said she was determined to carry on with some “self-improvement” plans in 2017. “I want to be more organized with my things. I’m so busy that I hardly have time to fix them. I want to be the only one to arrange my things, so I’ll know where to get them,” Coleen shared with the Inquirer. “It was only recently, about the time I did ‘Extra Service,’ that I discovered the benefits of having a massage. I wasn’t too fond of it before. I plan to spend a day at the spa, as a gift to myself.”
The action-comedy by Chris Martinez follows the adventures of Aw (Coleen), Em (Arci Muñoz) and Gee (Jessy Mendiola), who are mild-mannered massage therapists by day, but sexy secret agents by night.
As a crime-fighting squad, they’re tasked to embark on a top-secret mission to retrieve the precious “Perlas ng Silangan” in exchange for their lives and freedom.
Being used to doing heavy drama on television and on the big screen, Coleen admitted she initially felt nervous after finding out that she would be doing an action-comedy film. “Now that I’ve done it, I realized that it’s so much fun. It’s a good experience, because it provides a good balance to what I do as an actor,” she explained.
“Apart from the action stunts, I realized that you really shouldn’t prepare for a comedy movie. What you should do is be more accepting and open to anything that can happen while on the set,” Coleen pointed out. “There were several scenes that weren’t on the script but got included. We also had to make a lot of improvisations.”
Coleen said timing in a comedy film is important. “Musical scoring for this genre is a big thing. Since you cannot hear this while you’re on the set, you have to take the cue from your director. He is the captain of the ship. You just follow him, so he could fulfill his vision.”
“Extra Service” also features Carmi Martin, Ejay Falcon, Enzo Pineda and Vin Abrenica, and will open in theaters on Jan. 11.