This is exactly what happened when director Joey Javier Reyes – he of many an award-winning films and scripts, got her for Regal Films’ Masikip, Mainit... Paraisong Parisukat. The sexy star’s jitters were normal. Her latest starrer with former flame Jay Manalo, after all, is based on the film adaptation of the late Orlando Nadres’ one-act play, Paraisong Parisukat.
Joyce plays the role Alma Moreno portrayed at the height of her popularity in the ’70s – that of a simple sales clerk whose world revolves around a small, stuffy, square-shaped upstairs store room for what else – shoes.
"Paraisong Parisukat was a big hit. And I know people will compare me with Alma," says Joyce.
The character called for Joyce to play the exact opposite of the assertive, outspoken person that she is. Joyce’s role is that of a timid, conservative girl much like this nondescript person they would see on the set. Joey told his lead actress to pattern her acting after her.
"It was a far cry from who I am in real life. I had nowhere to come from. So I was afraid I won’t do justice to the role. I had to control the way I move my head, my eyes, my hand – my whole body," says Joyce.
Can you blame her for turning down the pivotal role at first?
But direk Joey wouldn’t take no for an answer. After Ara Mina, the original choice for the role turned down the offer, direk Joey insisted on Joyce, and no one else. "He told me I had depth," Joyce reveals how direk Joey finally convinced her to do the role.
On the set, when she turned to him in-between takes for feedback, her director boosted Joyce’s morale some more by saying, "Don’t worry, you’re doing just fine." "I felt like it was Scorpio Nights 2 (the hit movie that made Joyce a household name) all over again," she admits.
No regrets, though. After wrapping up work on the movie, Joyce feels direk Joey was right all along. Her role in Masikip, Mainit is something she shouldn’t miss.
"It’s an acting piece," she beams. And this time, it’s not her body that does most of the talking. "It’s my eyes," she says with unabashed pride.
It also taught her a valuable lesson: to believe in herself as an actress. Oh, how she would have regretted not grabbing this windfall of a role!
Shorn of all the glamor one expects from her, Joyce typifies the lowly Quiapo clerk: head bowed in utter humility; eyes downcast in subservience.
One is reminded of the man with the hoe minus the manual labor. Even the setting of the movie: a cramped store room in Quiapo, reeks of everything masa and mundane. One could actually smell the stench and sweat of this polluted, highly-populated place at the heart of Manila.
Up next for her is a landmark film, Lapu-Lapu, based, of course, on the life of our first national hero. Joyce, as the hero of Mactan’s wife, is again bursting with excitement for this movie.
"It has been approved by the National Historical Commission. It might even be required viewing for students," gushes Joyce. This means yet a wider, more diverse audience for her.
Joyce’s US-based mom is beside herself with joy when she learned about Lapu Lapu. "She’s so proud of me," Joyce recalls how elated her mom sounded over the phone.
Will we finally see the day when Joyce sheds her sexy image to emerge as an actress noted for serious, prestige roles? She certainly hopes so.
"My goal is for people to associate my name with quality movies," Joyce states categorically.
At the rate she’s turning down roles "that are mere repetitions of what I’ve done," and welcoming those "with good stories; new, interesting characters," Joyce may yet see her big dream come true.