Who is Fe GingGing Hyde and why did she win best actress?

FE GINGING Hyde shaved her head for “Sheika.”

She can very well go down in history as the first Urian best actress named GingGing —joining the league of Nora, Vilma and Sharon.

Surely, Fe GingGing Hyde —who bested awards favorites like Jodi Santamaria, Laurice Guillen and Meryll Soriano for the top plum—came in totally from the cold.

But her work in Arnel Mardoquio’s “Sheika” was so powerful that the country’s finicky critics simply couldn’t ignore her, even if most mainstream industry insiders have no idea who she is.

“To win the same award won by Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos and Sharon Cuneta is overwhelming,” she said.

Fe GingGing, a Dubai-based Filipina singer, self-deprecatingly described herself as a “wife and mother—my full-time job.”

Her being a singer, actress and indie film producer (of “Sheika”) are just “hobbies,” she told Inquirer Entertainment in an e-mail interview.

(She wasn’t able to attend the awards ceremony last week because she was in Dubai, taking care of her family.)

She portrayed a liberated Muslim congresswoman in Mardoquio’s similarly Urian-nominated “Hospital Boat” last year, but “Sheika” is her first full-length film.

She seemed undaunted even if the role “was very challenging, especially for a first-timer,” she confessed.

In “Sheika” she plays Bai Fatmawatti, a mother pushed to madness and violence after the brutal murder of her sons in war-torn Mindanao.

To prepare, she took a three-day acting workshop with teacher Gabby Fernandez. She went to great lengths to perfect the part—including shaving her head.

Transformation

It was a complete physical transformation, she recalled: “I needed to lose 20 pounds in five weeks. Exercising and crash dieting weren’t enough. “I took slimming pills … my blood-sugar [level] went on a roller-coaster ride. I also stopped plucking my eyebrows and quit using body cream for weeks.”

Before cutting her hair, she dyed it black. “My daughter and husband thought I looked horrible,” she said. “I also used Perla detergent soap on my hair. It was effective because my hair became coarse and dry.”

Then Mardoquio asked Fe GingGing to shave off her hair.

Immersion

“I thought, ‘No way!’ But as a producer, I also understood why. It was unusual and would help the film.”

She immersed herself in the Davao indigent community for three months, too. “I slept on the sidewalks with streetchildren for a few nights. I went to the Bankerohan vegetable market at 3 a.m. to study my character and her surroundings.”

She also visited a mental facility. “At first, I was nervous. But on my second visit, I was talking to the patients like they were long-lost buddies,” she recalled.

She met Nanay Clarita Alia, the real woman who inspired “Sheika,” at the film’s Davao premiere last August.

“Before the shoot, I Googled her and read all the reports on her and her children,” she related. (Nanay Clarita’s two teenaged sons were killed by death squads.)

When she finally met Nanay Clarita, she got goose-bumps. “She also kept a diary and until now holds on to her sons’ shoes and slippers. I spent some time with her before I returned to Dubai. I wanted to make sure she has enough medicine to last her six months.”

She hailed Nanay Clarita as a “survivor.”

All in all, she summed up her “Sheika” journey as “unforgettable.”

Her director believes that Fe GingGing’s musicality helped her cross over to acting. “Singing should come from the heart kasi. Each song has a story and singing is like acting in a three-minute short film. Being a dancer also helped in [giving me] rhythm and timing,” she explained.

Even before winning an Urian, she already has other indie films in the works—including Mardoquio’s “Crossfire” (for which she had to gain weight).

She feels strongly about championing indies: “I’ll do it for free. We all should encourage good, quality films, whether they come from Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao. It’s not just a waste of time to support shallow and lousy films; it’s also degrading.”