Why Ai-Ai, Sarah Fail as Dramatic Actresses?

SOURCE: Inquirer Article Written by: Nestor Torre

FOR weeks now, the new telenovela, "Bituing Walang Ningning," has been trying to transform teen singer Sarah Geronimo and comedienne AiAi delas Alas into believable and empathetic dramatic actresses. To date, however, the show has been unsuccessful in its earnest endeavor, so it might be instructive to figure out why.

Basically, good dramatic performance should be felt, insightful, perceptively emotional, and naturally expressive. AiAi doesn't do too badly in some of these areas, because she knows how to pare away distracting fripperies, and get to the core of her character, and the scene at hand.

Her problem, however, is that her dramatic persona is simply not as interesting and textured as her comedic side. So, we wonder why she's bothered to change her performance "attack."

Sure, the thespic challenge is there, and it's good to do something new, but if the resulting performance isn't particularly memorable, it doesn't seem to be worth the major change of pace, does it?

The bottom line is: AiAi is uniquely effective as a comedienne, so her dramatic performance should at least be similarly arresting. On "Bituing Walang Ningning," however, her thespic paring down has resulted in a merely correct portrayal—and that simply isn't good enough.

To be sure, the melodramatic nature of TV soaps contributes to the problem, since it prevents most performers from coming up with truly deep and intense characterizations.

So, if AiAi wants to impress viewers with her ability to do dramatic scenes, she shouldn't do so in a soap, but in a dramatic film, where greater depth and texture are more achievable.

As for Sarah Geronimo, her problem is that she's too unformed to come up with an insightful portrayal this early in her thespic career. Not all the highlighting and underscoring in the world can imbue their performance with genuine insight and excitement.

Sarah is a dutiful performer, but there's much more to good acting than following instructions. In fact, the best actors are those who know the characters they're playing so well that they can go out on a limb, taking risks that pay off because they understand their roles so completely.

This, Sarah doesn't have, so she tends to play it ingratiating and cute, and to push her emotions, thus resulting in an artificial and predictable portrayal.

This is a pity, since her character is the telenovela's linchpin. As a result, we can appreciate the series' plot and character development in abstraction, but not as a flesh-and-blood experience that can truly move us. Now, that's a major deficiency, and Sarah must dig deeper to make up for it.

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