Maine Mendoza
Maine Mendoza is marking her second year in show biz this month—a good time for her to hark back, analyze and look forward. What does her “report card” say thus far?
On the plus side, her success as a total unknown on TV’s “Eat Bulaga’s” kalyeserye has been nothing short of
phenomenal.
After her “Dubsmash” videos clicked with the viewing public and she was paired with Alden Richards, other TV channels tried to duplicate the “reality TV” feat for their own purposes, but failed.
So, the “AlDub” tandem is indeed unique and deserves the many good things that have been coming its way.
On the other hand, the love team’s subsequent moves and follow-up gambits have been less than significantly
effective.
They have been on popular productions, both on TV and the big screen, but the quality of their young leads’ portrayals has been less than impressive.
This rankles only because they obviously want to do better. They want to have the bread of commercial acceptance and profitability and eat the cake of thespic competence, too!
However, their efforts in that regard have been awkward and “TH” thus far, indicating that they need to heave and “hurt” a lot more before they can pass muster as actors in the real meaning of the word.
What seems to be the problem? Here’s where we need to look at Alden and Maine separately. He had a head start of some years, but failed to make it on his own as a thespic star, sometimes due to miscasting.
For instance, he was cast as the young Jose Rizal even if he was as tisoy as all heck and had dimples, to boot—and was thus less than credible in the otherwise plum role.
When Maine made her bid, she was raw and untutored in performance, but clicked with her fresh vivacity and witty “Dubsmash” spoofs.
Her problem started when she had to do dramas or rom-coms that required her to create an interesting and believable character, and her attempts were too efforted, “TH” and “over.”
Even their latest effort, the recently concluded teleserye, “Destined to Be Yours,” fell short of the mark, because it was
still a “for the fans” production that favored fantasy-romance over emotional logic.
It was too foolhardy and smug of them to think that it could add to their legitimacy and “cred” as competent actors, too.
That’s why, on their third year as a TV-film love team, they should make it a point to come up with a special project whose main objective is to develop their skills as thespic artists, not to tickle their fans to death with silly “kilig value.”
Now for the hard part: First things first!