Believability, total commitment, hallmarks of a memorable portrayal

VIC SOTTO and Aiza Seguerra approach one pivotal scene in two different ways.

One of the more exceptional portrayals in the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) was turned in by Aiza Seguerra in “My Little Bossings.” It serves as a sterling example of what constitutes good, sensitive acting on the local silver screen—and, contrastingly, it shows us why other portrayals were deficient.

Aiza scored with her performance, because she understood her assigned character’s dramatic parameters and knew how to make them felt and real.

Initially, it looked like a really tall order, because Aiza was playing Vic Sotto’s estranged lesbian daughter, whom he resented because he somehow blamed her for the early death of his wife. Her big secret was that she was actually Ryzza Mae Dizon’s mother, but had shirked that responsibility, so Ryzza grew up in an orphanage (as did Aiza in her estranged childhood).

As any actor will tell you, all that is simply too much melodramatic emotional baggage for most performers to be able to lift. To her credit, Aiza was able to measure up to the tough and convoluted thespic challenge by implicitly believing in the reality of the extreme parameters to her character’s complex-compound emotional journey.

Having done that, she was able to naturally make viewers feel the pain, confusion, guilt and “postponed love” that her character felt for her father and daughter—and she was home free!

Contrast this with Vic Sotto’s own weighty emotional challenge in the same film: Like Aiza, he was able to understand his character’s major needs and conflicts, so his key “confrontation” scene with her was going relatively well—until he turned emotionally shy, awkward and feckless, and opted not to fully confront his character’s difficult choices.

Instead of going all the way emotionally, he softened up and lost

focus, relying instead on his signature serio-comedy, aw-schucks

porma to see him through.

This was most clearly betrayed by his decision to do the difficult scene with his fingers jauntily “posed” in his pants pockets, like a comedic version of FPJ’s characteristic siga pose.

Too bad. He was almost there, but he turned skittish and shy at the last minute, so it was the more honest Aiza who ended up

“owning” the key scene.

If Vic wants to push himself thespically in his next serio-comic outing on the big screen, he should decide to no longer avoid those starkly revelatory thespic moments, and let his emotions flare and “bloom.”

Another exceptional portrayal in the MMFF was turned in by KC Concepcion as the flaming femme fatale in Chito Roño’s “Boy Golden: Shoot-to-Kill.” To do full justice to the “seething” character, KC had to “forget” that she was a show biz “princess” and just focus on making her role come passionately to life.

To her credit, she was able to take that big and “scary” extra step, so she’s moved up in her career choices and is now ready for even more challenging and “dangerous” thespic assignments to come.

Yes, her performance and the film itself had its distractions and florid excesses, but her character’s pain and anger managed to clearly and believably shine through, and that’s what counts.

We hope that other actors who want to distinguish themselves by coming up with memorable performances will realize, along with KC and Aiza, that believability and total commitment to what an assigned role demands are key to a significant portrayal. And that only by forgetting themselves and their limiting screen “image” and instead concentrating fully on their assigned character can they truly come into their own as

actors in the real sense and spirit of the word.