Boots dares to bare

ROA. Tackling roles that stretch her thespic horizons.

2013 is turning out to be a year for implausible and even “impossible” surprises: First, Pope Benedict XVI announced his retirement from the papacy, the first pontiff to do so in six centuries!

Next, the Sultan of Sulu jolted everyone with his completely unexpected decision to reclaim Sabah! Item No.3? Last Saturday on “Maala-ala Mo Kaya,” the “eternally virginal” Boots Anson-Roa took off her clothes!

Granted, that last item is of much less international importance than the first two, but local show biz “experts” will agree that it’s still a “shockeroo!”

Why, the actress has such a “sainted” image that there was a time when show biz people joshed that she was so virginal that she had given birth to her and Pete Roa’s children via Immaculate Conception!

So, to see her taking off her clothes on-cam, even if it’s only hinted at and not fully shown, is indeed “breaking news!”

Less tongue-in-cheekily, we’re so glad that the “revered” Boots has been working hard at “humanizing” her screen image and tackling roles that challenge her and stretch her thespic horizons. For too many years, she has obliged the viewing public’s “sainted” view of her by playing only true-blue heroines whose souls were as pure and beautiful as her lovely countenance.

For our part, where we directed her in stage plays, we tried to cast her in roles that ran counter to the industry’s facile stereotype of her, like the gutsily strong-willed teacher in “The Miracle Worker”—and the playgirl in “The Owl and the Pussycat!”

On her own, Boots has also been looking for less than pure and pristine characters to play, not wishing to be typecast as Miss Goody Two Shoes and Pollyanna up to the end of her acting days!

For instance, in an anthology indie a couple of years ago, she played a widow who “shocked” her loved ones by falling for a much younger man!

—Still, Boots’ role last week on “MMK” was still more than a bit of a stretch—but, bully for her! She played a woman who, as a teenager, was enslaved and raped by her own brother. Thus, she grew up bitter and warped, and made life miserable for her own children, who ended up hating her.

Boots took over from Alessandra de Rossi as the miserable woman in her senior years, and had to cope with the hatred of her children, now all grown up but still blaming her for their wretched childhood.

Their hatred was so strong that it caused her to end up as a mental basket case—and one of her psychological short-circuits prompted her to take off her clothes and shock the neighbors!

It was all psychologically motivated, of course, so nobody could liken it to similar and much more graphic scenes in bomba movies.

But, it was still something exceedingly unexpected and daring for a senior actress like Boots to pull off, so people will be talking about it for quite a spell. We hope that, as they weigh in with their opinions, they will also note that it took real artistic courage and wasn’t done just for effect—so, we should support all actors who dare and bare for the right reasons, like Boots Anson-Roa did last week on “MMK”!