Belinda Panelo is so sunshiny she has brightened up many a viewer’s day as MTV Channel VJ for the past one-and-a-half years. When she met the press recently, she wanted to tell them those eyes can also smolder, tease and intrigue moviegoers. After all, she knows in her bones acting is her passion as early as age seven.
It’s a knee-jerk thing, an instinct burning silently within her way back when. She knows the stage was her world, her little corner of the sky.
Belinda was only a second grader in Manila, where she studied until she turned 12 and the unstable political situation forced her family to move to Seattle (where her parents and siblings still live).
High school came and went without fanfare, save for appearances in stage plays. Then, having decided that the political climate is safe for her return, Belinda decided to relive her childhood years and return to Manila in 1996 for a vacation.
She never looked back since. Things started heating up for the mestiza who grew up knowing American ways but cherished Filipino values.
Belinda found herself thrust in the center of public attention. She got into modeling, print and TV ads, TV guestings.
When Paolo Fabregas told her in the Coke commercial, "Hanggang bridesmaid ka lang!," people sat up and notice.
That line become the magic phrase that flung wide a brand-new world of pleasant, never-ending surprises for Belinda.
Months later, she auditioned and got accepted as one of MTV’s nine VJs. Pantene took one look at that pretty face and chestnut-colored tresses and got her as image model (look ma, no frizzy hairdo, no unruly locks on her face!).
Little did Belinda know she was in for another big surprise. Tthe Manila staging of the highly-acclaimed Vagina Monologues, V-Day Celebration, was set for February, and she got a part.
Since then, there was no turning back for her. Belinda told her career handlers, Backroom, Inc. she wanted to look for a good acting vehicle that would challenge the actress in her. The meatier the role and story, the better. The more offbeat, the more enjoyable ("Straight roles are boring.").
Turns out Belinda has a hidden unconventional side dying to express itself. And an acting stint, she figures, will do the trick.
But it should not be just any acting stint.
Belinda has turned down roles that smack of nonsense: obsessed character or loony types she’ll never get caught dead in. It may be offbeat, but give it some depth, and Belinda will come rushing to the set.
"I’m not after an award. Nor do I want to be a star. A challenging acting role is good enough for me," she says, eyes sparkling.
Boyfriend of five years Joseph Lizardo is the last person to curtail her dreams. The former tennis player has always been behind her. And Belinda feels blessed, more inspired to reach for the sky.
VJing and acting may have their similarities – exposure to the public eye and the need to project a certain image, among them. But they are also poles apart in some ways.
As VJ, Belinda is conscious of every word she utters, careful lest they offend sensitive nerves. As a VJ, and one of the most popular ones at that, Belinda is identified with the MTV Channel, and she should make sure the image she projects is squeaky-clean.
But in acting, one can take on any role, good or bad. It doesn’t matter. If at all, it is the bad guys roles that turn out to be more interesting.
That’s what Belinda finds extra appealing, even irresistible.
She admits endorsing a product, in her case, a shampoo brand, could prevent her from appearing with unruly, disheveled hair in a movie. For this, she has to ask permission from Pantene.
But other than that, Belinda the actress is open to any challenge worth her while. She has the flexibility of someone used to the contrasting ways of the East and the West. The balance, says Belinda, is something she is grateful for.
"I have the family-orientedness of the East; the open-mindedness of the West," she says.
Thanks to that, Belinda can adapt to Philippine ways when she’s here and to the American lifestyle when she’s in the US (her birthplace) with her family.
She’s had her adjustment woes, to be sure.
"When I was a second grader in the Philippines, I had this you-are-one-of-us-but-not-quite feeling. When I was an adolescent in the US, it was the same thing," recalls Belinda.
But she’s not complaining. Those growing-up blues made her more flexible, more adaptable. Just the kind who can take showbiz’s hard knocks and roll with the punches, if and when they come.