Danna Garcel makes it

Don’t blame this lovely girl if she is in seventh heaven. She has every reason to be. Breezing through her baptism of fire in her first movie, Sex Scandal, an unassuming but hard-hitting exposé on the VCD sex trade, Danna Garcel beams with understandable pride. The movie is doing well at the tills, a piece of good news for the flagging movie industry.

"No guts, no glory," Danna replied when asked why she agreed to go bold in Sex Scandal.

Disrobing in the movie is by far the biggest and the most agonizing decision she has ever made. It took a lot of courage, introspection and encouragement before she finally decided to accept a very daring role. For two years, Danna dilly-dallied until she met Francis "Jun" Posadas, the director who spotted Aleck Bovick‘s potential. Now that Sex Scandal is making headway, Danna’s misgivings have completely vanished.

Danna is not claiming all the credit for the good showing of Sex Scandal. Humble and realistic, she attributes most of the success of Sex Scandal to Francis "Jun" Posadas, an underrated director.

Acknowledging the valuable contribution of her co-actors, Sex Scandal, she stressed, was a labor of love as everybody involved in the production was supportive, pleasant to work with and considerate. Nobody gave anybody any trouble.

Sex Scandal is one movie any actor will be proud to be part of. Tackling a sensitive national issue, the movie exposes the evils of the VCD sex trade. Without ridiculing, much less denigrating anybody or any place, Sex Scandal aims to show the demeaning abuses committed by the VCD sex traders.

The film hopes to help stop the sex trade business. Now, that’s social relevance!

Danna knows she has to prove herself some more. She realizes a pretty face and whistle-bait figure, both of which she has, are not enough to keep her going in showbiz, particularly if one wants to join the mainstream. She knows only those with acting talents will survive and is determined to be among the survivors.

Danna is shooting University Belt, a film by Donn Remo, where she is the lead actress. She plays a working student whom poverty pushes to sell her body in order to finish her studies. In University Belt, Danna intimated that she would be more daring. But she has no quarrel with that since Donn assured her that the sizzling love scenes–at least five of them–are all relevant to the story.

It looks like Danna will be very busy from now on. Considering that the target playdate of University Belt is first week of January next year, she has to wrap up her schedules with Donn Remo before December as post production normally takes a month.

Even as she is doing University Belt, Angora Films has already lined up another project for her. Lawyer Gaudioso Manalo, big boss of Angora Films, is convinced Danna will be a major star — sooner rather than later.

This is why the gutsy producer has again enlisted the services of Francis "Jun" Posadas for Unang Patak, Angora Films’ Valentine presentation.

Between shooting movies, Danna will hardly enjoy a break, but she is not complaining. She is even grateful. She admits being lucky to have met a movie producer like Atty. Manalo who is not afraid to gamble on newcomers like her.

The only way to show her gratitude to her big-hearted producer, Danna further quipped, is by not letting him down. Treasuring the opportunities coming her way, Danna is committed to continuously polish her craft to show that she deserves her producer’s trust and confidence.