How Gelli puts nervous niece Inah at ease

Gelli de Belen

Gelli de Belen knows that acting with a family member can be a nerve-wracking experience. That is why she always tries to put her niece Inah de Belen at ease in their scenes for GMA 7’s afternoon soap, “Ika-5 Utos.”

“We have done two sequences so far, and I could see that she’s still feeling her way. There’s awkwardness. I understand if she feels nervous,” she told reporters at a press conference for the drama series.

“I remind her to concentrate and do her work,” added Gelli, who’s doing her first acting project with the Kapuso network since 2011.

On her part, Inah said she couldn’t easily shake off the fact that Gelli is her aunt. “I grew up with her, so I just tell myself, ‘Kaya ko ’to,’” Ina related, adding that, in hindsight, she’s probably better off working with Gelli than her parents, John Estrada and Janice de Belen.

“I did a scene with my mother for an episode of ‘Dear Uge.’ The sequence was simple and lighthearted, but I still got nervous,” she recalled.

Janice had one request, Gelli recounted. “She told me to see to it that her daughter would be OK, at ’di siya mag-iinarte!” she quipped.

While the campy soap “Ika-6 na Utos” tackled adultery, “Ika-5 Utos’” conflict is spurred by a hazing death.

Aside from “Ika-5 Utos,” Gelli had also recently finished shooting a film, the comedy “Ang Sikreto ng Piso,” with her husband, Ariel Rivera.

“I missed the comfort of working with someone you know so well. The intimate scenes were not a problem, of course,” she said.