2 works in progress

PADILLA. Portrays the “nasty but nice” love interest of Kathryn Bernardo.

THIS show biz season, one of the new talents being given the big build-up treatment is Daniel Padilla. Still in his teens, Daniel has been given increasingly bigger parts on TV—principally on the continuing series, “My Princess and I,” in which he plays the “nasty but nice” love interest of teen lead, Kathryn Bernardo. She has other suitors in the show, but Daniel’s character is deemed the most “fascinating” in the bunch, thanks to his mercurial moods.

The role suits Daniel to a T—or rather, a P—because he’s the nephew of Robin Padilla, who originated the “bad boy” screen persona that Daniel’s character vaguely approximates. It’s a good thing, though, that his role is not as in-your-face baaad as Robin’s signature screen character was.

For one thing, his character is no poor boy with a huge chip on his shoulder to explain why he’s so surly. In fact, he’s spoiled and used to getting his way—until Kathryn knocks some sense into his smug mug.

But, the role is still strong enough for young female viewers to find the actor deliciously “dangerous” enough to get them all in a breathless dither. When Daniel beams those “killer” eyes on them, they’re goners!

On point of acting ability, however, Daniel is a work in progress—still getting his thespic act together, beyond the cocky persona and killer stares. He may get the porma moves down pat, but they lack interiority and insight. Yes, he’s still in his callow teens, but if he’s going to be as big a star tomorrow as some show biz uzis are predicting today, he’s got to understand that acting is believing and being, not posing and pretending.

—That’s a huge gap that has to be bridged before Daniel Padilla can really come into his own as a major stellar find. Even Daniel’s Tito Robin would agree!

Not dynamic enough

For his part, Richard Gutierrez has been a TV-film leading man for close to a decade, but he’s also still a work in progress. He isn’t lacking in stellar experience, that’s for sure, but his performances have been generally deficient in terms of energy, dynamism, passion and thespic grit.

Perhaps Richard is too handsome for his own good? Some people blessed with exceptional looks don’t develop the other aspects of their thespic “equipment,” because their great looks have made success and popularity too easy for them to achieve.

To his credit, however, it looks like Richard isn’t happy about his reputation for coming up with relatively bland characterizations and performances. On his current drama series, “Makapiling Kang Muli,” for instance, he can be seen trying his best to heat up his act—which may be why the production has tapped ace actor, Ricky Davao, to direct and guide Richard to come up with a gutsier and more dynamic portrayal.

Alas, he isn’t there yet—but, at least he’s trying hard, so we urge him to push himself even more, so that he can finally come into his own as an actor in the authentic sense of the word!