For Sharon, the 'search' is over

Sharon Cuneta started her showbiz career at the age of 12 recording the song Tawag ng Pag-ibig. Her first album, DJ’s Pet was an instant hit with the fans and this started her career as a best-selling recording artist. It was at that time that Tony Gloria, an ad executive, saw her and remarked to recording mogul Vic del Rosario that Sharon has the makings of a movie teen idol. But even before they can form their own film company, Sining Silangan already paired Sharon with matinee idol Gabby Concepcion in Dear Heart, which became a blockbuster.

After that, Vic del Rosario put up Viva Films with the help of Sharon’s dad, the late Mayor Pablo Cuneta, and they made Sharon’s next movie, P.S. I Love You, with Tony as line producer. Tony would handle the succeeding projects of Sharon for Viva after that.

Meantime, as a singer, Sharon also made more hit albums like For Broken Hearts Only, Sharon Sings Valera, Sharon Movie Themes, Si Sharon at si Canseco, Kapantay ay Langit that spawned blockbuster hit tunes like Mr. DJ, High School Life, Kahit Maputi Na Ang Buhok Ko, Tubig at Langis, Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas, Pangarap na Bituin and Bituing Walang Ningning. She also became a certified megastar who scored a grand slam as Best Actress for Madrasta and has one of the most successful and durable careers in tinseltown.

By this time, Tony Gloria has left Viva. He is now president of Unitel Productions, the leading production house of TV commercials in the country and Optima Digital, a top post-production company. Unitel’s first full length film was American Adobo, a co-production with ABS-CBN that had a theatrical run in the US last year. For their next project, Tony chose Crying Ladies, based on the Palanca Award-winning script of Mark Meily, one of his in-house directors of TV commercials. He asked Mark himself to direct it. When they were casting the lead role of Stella Mate, Tony thought of Sharon and called her up.

"They know I like the movies of Chinese actress, Gong Li, so their come-on for me is that they have a role for me that is something Gong Li will like to play," says Sharon. "So I told them to send me the script right away. After reading it, I liked not only the part meant for me but the movie as a whole. It’s something I’ve never done before. There is even a scene where I am shown walking down the street full of people in a fairy costume."

Sharon plays an offbeat role as an ex-convict (jailed for estafa) who learns upon being released from prison that her husband, Ricky Davao, has found a new wife and is taking away their son, Julio Pacheco, from her to live in the province. Won’t her fans be alienated by her playing the role of a hustler and a loser?

"I’ve long been searching for an interesting role totally different from the usual films I do where I always have a love interest," she explains. "I find my role in Crying Ladies a welcome challenge, a breath of fresh air for me. Besides it’s being produced by Tony Gloria, who I really consider as a dear good friend since I’ve been working with him since I was a teenager. I also want to help Mark in his directorial debut. Naidirek na niya ako in two of my commercials for Coke and Selecta and he certainly knows what he’s doing. We shot the film with the guide of storyboards, just like when he shoots commercials. I’m pleased with his work and he really has great potential as a filmmaker. We shot the film in 25 shooting days. The treatment is comedy but it tugs at your heart because my story and that of the two other characters in the film, played by Hilda Koronel and Angel Aquino, are slices of life that can really happen to people we know. We play paid mourners in the wake of Eric Quizon’s Chinese father. I really enjoyed working with Ate Hilda and Angel in this movie. I first got to work with Ate Hilda in Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita. I was so nervous because our director is her mentor, the late Lino Brocka. I heard she’s mataray but she turned out to be very nice. Magtaray man siya, nasa lugar naman. She played the role of a woman who stole my husband, Christopher de Leon. I got to work with Angel naman in Minsan Lamang Magmamahal, where I played the woman who had an affair with her husband, Richard Gomez. So Crying Ladies is some sort of a reunion for us. I know this is a film I can be proud of even 20 years from now. I just hope people will watch it at the filmfest, lalo’t ganyang we’re facing very tough competition from the other entries. Our edge is that this is something really different from anything they have seen before."

As a mother, Sharon is also very proud of her two pretty daughters.

"I can’t believe it that KC is now living by herself in Paris. She used to be just this little girl, so when she had her debut last April at the NBC Tent, I felt a new chapter in my life has started dahil dalaga na ang anak ko. There are times when I can’t help but worry because this is the first time she’s living so far away from me. When my husband Kiko studied in Boston for one year, we stayed with him in the States and it was a great time for bonding for all of us. Now, she’s on her own and she tells me she’s enjoying her independence and anonymity there. I miss her na nga so I’m happy she’s coming home a few days before Christmas and stay with us until after my birthday on Jan. 6. There’s an offer for her to shoot a new commercial while she’s here but she decided to turn it down because she wants to spend all her time with us. I am also proud of my youngest daughter, Frankie, now two years old and very bright and precocious for her age. I’m so glad she’s around to keep us company while her Ate KC is away. She sleeps with Kiko and I in our room so she’s really close to us. She is so talkative and it’s easy to see that she can be a good politician because even at her age, she already has good PR and is not afraid of people."

Some months ago, there were rumors that her marriage to Sen. Kiko Pangilinan is on the rocks because he has another woman. "I don’t know why some people delight in spreading such rumors," she sighs. "Just like other marriages, we do have our small differences, but we always manage to patch things up before they get worse. I can feel my husband loves me. Do you think I’d tolerate it if he really has another woman? I’ll gift-wrap him and send him to that other woman kung totoo ngang meron. Kaso nga, wala."

Sharon is very supportive as far as Kiko’s career as a senator is concerned.

"My husband has good intentions, but more than that, he is educationally well equipped, that’s why I had no second thoughts in supporting him when he campaigned all over the country. He has two degrees from UP. He’s a comparative literature major and also a lawyer. He has also acquired a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in Boston. He is highly principled and incorruptible, so I know he will be a good legislator, not the usual traditional politician who does not really have the welfare of the people in mind."

Why does she think their marriage is more successful than her first one?

"Because when Kiko and I met, we’re already both mature and responsible persons who know the real meaning of loving and commitment. Noon kasi, I was only 18 when I married Gabby and he himself didn’t know what he was getting into. Kiko is easy to love because he is intelligent, very caring and very loving."

Is it true she is finally planning to enter politics and run in Pasay City, where her late father used to be a longtime mayor? "They’ve been saying I’d run for the past so many years now. But as I’ve said before, politics is not my cup of tea. Honestly, I feel that if you really want to serve the public, there’s no need for you to run for public office. There are so many ways you can share your blessings, even if you’re not a politician. That is, kung gusto mo talagang tumulong. Politics is my husband’s turf, not mine."

She has been particularly busy this year. Whereas she used to do only about one movie a year, she now has three to her credit: Walang Kapantay with Richard Gomez for Viva Films, Kung Ako Na Lang Sana with Aga Muhlach for Star Cinema, and now, Crying Ladies for Unitel, which is also her very first film to be entered in the Metro-Manila Filmfest.

"It’s really my intention to do three films this year and rest in 2004 so I can focus on having another child," she says. "I’m not getting any younger since I’m turning 38 on Jan. 6. If I’d try to have another child later, it might be more difficult for me. I am praying the Lord will give us a boy this time. But if He’d choose to give us another girl, that’s just fine with Kiko and I."