NEW ESPERANZA? Kathryn Bernardo is looking forward to more projects including a movie, a new youth show and the lead role in the remake of soap opera “Esperanza.”
When ABS-CBN’s 2010 remake of “Mara Clara” airs its finale on June 3, the drama series’ 15-year-old lead actress Kathryn Bernardo is looking forward to more projects.
A movie with Star Cinema is in the works and a new youth show is also in the offing.
She’s working with the show’s “Clara,” Julia Montes, in both projects. The two are on the cusp of stardom and are featured on the covers of glossies like Star Studio and Chalk this month.
This early, there is also talk that Kathryn is being groomed for the remake of another soap opera, “Esperanza.”
“If that role would be given to me, I’d be very thankful. But as of now, there’s no word yet from the network,” said Kathryn.
If she could have her way, though, she’d rather play a contravida.
“I want to prove that there is more to me than just the sweet martyr,” she asserted.
She learned something valuable when she first met Judy Ann Santos, who originally played Mara in the long-running teleserye which aired from 1992 till 1997.
“Ate Juday told me not to imitate her. That I should attack the Mara role my own way,” Kathryn recalled.
She got to watch “Mara Clara’s” movie version on Cinema One. “I also got to work with Ate Juday on ‘Krystala,’” she related. “She used to call me Bulinggit (little one). She said she was happy that I got the part.”
She considers Judy Ann her “idol and inspiration.”
She admires how the original Mara handles her career. “I also want to be a positive role model on and off–camera,” she said.
She intends to do this by balancing school and work, she said. “I was in third year high school when I joined ‘Mara Clara.’ It was hard, but I insisted on attending regular school.”
For her senior year in June, though, she might be shifting to a home-school program.
She’s aware of the influence that celebrities have on other young people, she said. Case in point: An 11-year-old fan named Pamela Andrea del Rosario cried after Kathryn’s character was “killed” in the soap.
“I met her on Skype,” Kathryn recounted. “She was so happy to see me. Nag-tumbling siya. (She did cartwheels.) She sang and played the guitar for me.”
Recently, Kathryn had the chance to become a fan herself when she watched Justin Bieber’s concert in Manila.
She doesn’t think shows like “Mara” and the “love-team” syndrome push teeners to get entangled in “romantic liaisons” too early: “We want young fans to relate to the story … We are only showing a normal stage in a young person’s life: like being inspired by a crush.”
E-mail: bayanisandiego@hotmail.com.