Rica: It’s not that easy going bold

For Rica Paralejo, star of the forthcoming explosive Viva sex-drama Dos Ekis, roughly translated as "double X", going bold wasn’t as easy as more people thought it to be. It took Rica many sleepless nights, buckets of tears and lots of guts to shed her sweet image in favor of a very bold one.

"But to me," said Rica, "doing a bold and sexy scene is not just taking off your clothes. It’s an art."

That statement will surely make a lot of eyebrows soar but Rica doesn’t care a bit.

"E, talaga namang art para sa akin ang paghuhubad," she insisted. "Whether you believe me or not."

Rica is thankful that she has Erik Matti as director in her venture into "bold-land," starting with her first solo bold starrer "Sa Huling Paghihintay" and with her latest outing. Dos Ekis, in which she plays a bold dancer for the first time, a role reminiscent of the burlesk dancer character done in the past by such actresses as Vilma Santos (Burlesk Queen) and Alma Moreno (Bomba Star).

In Dos Ekis, in which Rica has Mark Anthony Fernandez as leading man, Rica plays Charisse, a stripper at a honky-tonk where she meets Benito (Mark), a loner also in search of himself. Together, they set out into a hostile world, getting entrangled with the activities of a syndicate without their meaning nor wanting to, and in the end realizing to their dismay that life, indeed, is kind to some but not to everybody.

Rica’s crucial scene in the movie is perhaps her burlesk-queen dance where she showed more than she did in her "soft" bold baptism in Balahibong Pusa and not even in her solo bold starrer Sa Huling Paghihintay.

In that scene, Rica peels off her clothes piece by piece, just like a real burlesk dancer until she hardly has any stitch on. It’s a scene that initially shocked not only Rica herself but also her family who has now been properly conditioned to Rica’s new status as a bold star.

"Before doing that scene," said Rica, "nag-rehearse muna ako. A real burlesk dancer taught me how to do it properly. Sorry but even if I wanted to, I wasn’t able to watch even a video-tape of Vilma’s movie (Burlesk Queen), kaya sariling interpretation ang ginawa ko. I did as direk Erik told me to. I’m comfortable with direk Erik, parang tatay ko na siya, so I do whatever it is he asks me to do because I know and I’m confident na hindi naman niya ako ipapahamak."

Asked how Mark reacted to that scene (Mark was supposed to be in the audience watching Rica dance), Rica blushed. "Why don’t you ask him?"

Dos Ekis also stars Celso Ad. Castillo as the owner of the club Rica is working in and the syndicate head, John Arcilla as the pimp, Ricardo Cepeda, Kokoy Jimenez and Christine Jaca (introduced in the movie).