Dolly de Leon recalls financial struggles: ‘Eugene Domingo paid for my son’s tuition for 3 years’
Dolly de Leon and Eugene Domingo. Image: screengrab from YouTube/GMA Network, Instagram/@eugenedomingo_official
Dolly de Leon recounted having gone through “really hard times” financially and revealed that fellow actress and friend Eugene Domingo was one of those who helped her at the time.
During an interview on “Fast Talk with Boy Abunda” on Wednesday, April 26, De Leon opened up about her friendship with Domingo and how the latter has always been there for her in good and bad times.
“Si Uge (Eugene) magkakilala na kami n’yan bata pa lang kami, teenagers pa kami. Magkasama kami sa UP theater arts so barkada na kami n’yan,” she spoke of Domingo.
(Uge and I have known each other since we were teenagers. We were together in UP theater arts and we have been friends since then.)
“At the time when I was going through really hard times—kasi may time talaga na walang-wala na talaga akong pambayad ng kuryente, napatigil ‘yung anak ko sa pag-aaral dahil wala akong pambayad ng tuition—a lot of friends came to support me and Uge is one of them,” she continued.
(At the time when I was going through really hard times—there were really times when I had no means to pay for my electricity bills, when my child had to stop attending school because I could not pay the tuition—a lot of friends came to support me and Uge is one of them.)
De Leon disclosed that Domingo supported the schooling of one of the former’s four children for three years, underscoring how Domingo has remained a friend to her amid the fame.
“[Domingo] paid for my son’s tuition for three years. She never left,” De Leon stated. “Even if she reached that superstardom level already, she was always a friend. She was always Uge, as we know her.”
“Totoong kaibigan ang tingin ko talaga sa kanya and ang laking tulong niya sa akin nitong buong thing na nangyayari sa akin kasi, kumbaga, dinaanan na niya ito, so alam na niya kung paano ang gagawin,” she added, referring to the numerous recognitions she received for her “Triangle of Sadness” performance.
(I really consider her as a real friend and she has been a big help to me in everything that’s happening to me now. She had been through this so she knows what to do.)
De Leon admitted during the interview that before her Hollywood success, she was in a “bad, dark place” wherein she realized the importance of treating everyone with kindness. She also recalled the countless failed auditions she had in the past as she reminded those who aspire to be actors that “rejection is part of [the] job.”
“I’ve become a happier person. I was really down in the dumps before any of this happened,” she told Abunda. “I was really in a bad, dark place before but what I also learned about this whole thing is that we always have to be kind to everyone that we encounter, and that’s basically it.”
“That gap between what happened before and who I am now, there is a transition that happened and through that transition, the biggest thing I learned is buti na lang (it was a good thing) I was kind to everyone I had known before,” she said. “Because the big difference is people who have been not so kind suddenly are so kind now.”
When asked how much of who she is today came out of luck, De Leon noted that her success is the fruit of her labor and “luck has nothing to do with it.”
“I would say that hard work is 90%, timing is probably 10%,” she said. “I worked really hard to become the actor that I am today.”
De Leon is set to star in several upcoming projects including the dark comedy film “A Very Good Girl,” which will also feature Kathryn Bernardo. /ra
