A challenge Karylle can’t resist

They’re mother and daughter. But they might as well be sisters.

Zsa Zsa Padilla and Karylle are so in tune with each other they are the envy of many. When Karylle sees her mother being tortured as a battered wife on screen, the 22-year-old artist bleeds inside.

"I never watched those kinds of films with her in it since then," admits Karylle.

When Zsa Zsa indulges in her shopping sprees (she has many), she gives all the clothes that don’t fit her to the elated Karylle.

"I could have given this," she points to a pair of casual jeans she’s wearing. "Except that I decided to try it on myself."

Mother and daughter, seated beside each other at the presscon of Mano Po 2, look at each other and flash a knowing smile. It’s their nonverbal sign that everything’s a-ok with them.

And it is. Zsa Zsa’s presence during the shooting of Mano Po 2, Karylle’s debut movie, calmed the daughter’s nerves and chased her first-time jitters away.

As the daughter of a Chinese (Zsa Zsa Padilla), Karylle got so carried away with her role since day one of the shooting "I ordered Chinese food right away!"

Her eyes in slits and the sheen of a silk cheongsam contouring her slim body, Karylle looked like a China doll as she stood proud and tall with the other cast members.

"I learned a lot about professionalism from them," Karylle gushes.

Mom proved to be an effective teacher, too. Their first scene together gave Karylle a close-up look of her mom ‘in action.’

It was a crying scene, with Zsa Zsa’s tears flowing freely, as if on cue.

Karylle can’t help but marvel at how easy it is for her mom to shed tears.

"She’d tell me, `look, I can cry at the snap of a finger.’ And she does," an amazed Karylle relates.

The tears are enough to make the sensitive Karylle cry herself.

While she is the product of a broken home (she stays with dentist-dad Modesto Tatlonghari), Karylle admits she can’t summon anything from her past experience to make her cry on screen.

This Ateneo graduate obviously doesn’t bear the scars, and the usual angst, children from broken homes like her, have. She even revels in the fact that she has junked many stereotypes people have built around children from broken homes.

"It doesn’t follow that you’ll end up a failure, just because you come from a broken home," she pronounces. "I want to prove people wrong in this regard. So instead of rebelling, I studied well (she was a dean’s lister in college). I also promised myself I’ll have a happy family of my own someday."

There are suitors – nonshowbiz ones. But she’s in no hurry to have a boyfriend.

Karylle is too wrapped up in her new world – the movies – to think of love at the moment.

"While in the mall, I said, aloud, `I hope someone offers me a movie.’ Imagine how surprised I was that same night when someone called and said I was being considered for a role in Mano Po 2," Karylle recalls.

Her first reaction to the call reflected disbelief.

"What? You must be kidding! Is this some kind of April Fool’s joke? I just wished for a movie and here it is! You heard me make a wish, right?" Karylle relates.

But it was no joke. And Karylle is now a firm believer in the power of the mind to make wishes come true.

Her Mano Po 2 experience was such a blast, Karylle’s next wish is for a follow-up movie, hopefully soon.

"But please," she begs, "No bold roles, please!"

Coming from someone who first got noticed in the wholesome play The Little Mermaid, that’s understandable.

"That was my first taste of acting," recalls Karylle. "And it was so much fun! We even brought the musical to the provinces!"

And while Zsa Zsa doesn’t want to be labeled a stage mother, she is reasonably proud of her eldest daughter.

"She’s a joy to work with," Zsa Zsa describes Karylle on the set.

Will the daughter follow in her mother’s footsteps in the movies, just as she did where singing is concerned?

No one’s certain, for now. What’s definite is that Karylle’s first venture into the movies left her asking for more. And, like a luscious apple she can’t have enough of, she’s raring to take another bite – bigger and chunkier this time.