Barbara Milano after Tikim ; A bigger bite this time

Like her idol, Rosanna Roces, Barbara Milano is all fire and fury. She’s bold – literally and figuratively. And she has no qualms about it. In fact, Barbara flaunts it like some proud badge to be displayed with aplomb.

Ask her why she’s doing it – appearing in all those daring roles without fear nor the slightest tinge of guilt – and she will tell you a stock answer: she wants to be recognized, and to help her family, of which she is the proud breadwinner.

It’s an answer you’ve heard before — from aspiring sexy bodies (remember Klaudia Koronel?) who bare everything for the whole world to see. In other words, it’s another variation of the same theme.

But with Barbara, the old refrain still manages to tug at your heartstrings, like some melody that refuses to fade away.

The star of Tri-Vision Films’ Kaulayaw says in Tagalog, "I may appear tough outside, but look inside me and I’m soft. When I go home (to Bgy. Talavera in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija), I ask my relatives to cook a big casserole of soup and have lots of banana cue around. Last Christmas, it was fun playing Sta. Claus to relatives. I myself chose the dress I bought for my 12-year-old niece at Landmark."

Like Rosanna, Barbara’s life is an open book loaded with lessons learned and committed to memory.

From her past romance with Raffy Tulfo, she learned that "it’s not easy to fall in love with a married man... You should always be the one to understand." From another colorful chapter in her life — a relationship with a politician who lavished her with gifts, Barbara learned all about the rich-poor gap and how it gnaws at her heart even now that the romance is over.

"The rich are getting richer; the poor poorer," she says with a wisdom one does not expect from somebody as worldly-looking as she is.

Turns out her former politician-boyfriend opened her eyes to this harsh reality through his various activities. He also left her with a love for current events, which Barbara nurtures to this day by subscribing to the Philippine STAR and reading it daily at home.

Barbara’s heart bleeds for the little girl selling sampaguita leis in the street and the watch-your-car boy eking out a living under the heat of the noonday sun. "Wait till I turn millionaire," she vows, "I’ll put them all in an orphanage."

Her vision goes even beyond: Barbara wants to become town mayor so she can fix the rough roads and lack of electricity in their barangay, where she is building a big house for her family.

But first, she must look after herself. Barbara would give her right arm to be paired with the likes of Fernando Poe Jr. and Rudy Fernandez. Pay her a princely sum and she will outdo Assunta de Rossi. Give her a TV talk show like Rosanna’s, and Barbara promises to keep viewers glued to their sets with her well-stocked arsenal of words and phrases.

"That’s Barbara," says Vir Gonzales, her manager. "She’s so determined to make it, not even rejection slips from producers who found her ‘simple and dark’ could change her mind."

Challenged instead of discouraged by these comments, Barbara took a personality development course. She also went to a slimming salon to tone her body. The result is a totally reinvented Barbara: a far cry from the simple-looking, even dark probinsiyana she was before.

The new Barbara so impressed Seiko Films’ Robbie Tan, he gave her a break in Tikim, which played up her flawless skin and fresh-as-a-daisy looks. The men, of course, started to sit up and notice.

Now Barbara can dream as high as she can. Kaulayaw, set for release in Metro theaters starting Jan. 30, is just the beginning.