Camille: The look of love

Yes, Virginia. Even little Princess Sarah has to grow up. And Camille Prats, who played that cute movie role 10 years back, knows this. After all, she’s already 20 and a Marketing junior at Thames International Business School. She’s also in love.

The guy is a childhood friend who has been close with her family since Camille was 10, and he, 16. Back then, Camille the bobbysoxer already had an eye on him, although he himself didn’t know it.

They lost touch, until one day, Camille attended his sister’s debut and she got the surprise of her life.

"He approached me and asked me how old I was. He followed this up with, ‘You’re already a lady!’" recalls Camille.

Surprise gave way to happiness, with Camille ending up feeling like "my heart stopped that very moment."

She can’t tell exactly when she started calling him Sugar and he called her Sweetie. But Camille is adamant about one thing: the guy deserves his privacy. So she refuses to give even his initials. Describing him as a businessman who is "as conservative as I am" is enough.

His closeness to Camille’s brother John Prats is another given. In fact, Camille reports, her boyfriend used to go to their house and chat with her Kuya.

Her former boyfriend Francis Ricafort, says Camille knows all about the new guy in her life, the way she sensed they (she and Francis) were drifting apart one day. So strong was her gut instinct she just decided to let him go.

How right she was. Camille was hardly taken aback when she discovered Francis was going out with another girl. That’s when Camille realized she and Francis were not meant to be.

Camille has no reason to cry over spilled milk. Aside from a new love, she has a brand-new image calculated to give her a more exciting identity.

She has kissed her good-girl roles goodbye to play Joyce, she of the coy, demure facade with the heart of a vixen on GMA’s recently-launched afternoon series Kung Mamahalin Mo Lang Ako. To say that the role is a far cry from her cutesy, teenybopper characters in the past is an understatement. Camille, as liberated Joyce, lights a cigarette as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. What televiewers won’t see when they watch her smirk or make faces at her arch-enemy on the small screen is the ordeal Camille went through when she took her first puff.

"It was big deal. I even got dizzy doing it," she admits.

Neither will televiewers observe how nervous this nonsmoker was before her director, Gina Alajar ordered the cameras to start rolling.

"I had to take a three-day workshop before we started taping. Mine is a very meaty role, and I owe direk Gina a lot in bringing out the best in me," relates Camille.

Her adult role doesn’t mean Camille will throw caution to the wind and discard all limitations in acting. She won’t, for instance, do kissing scenes. Let the others don sexy clothes or cast come-hither looks. Camille would rather stick to hers and her boyfriend’s conservative ways.

Aside from a new love, talks have it that Camille will transfer to GMA once her contract with ABS-CBN Talent Center expires.

"It’s very hard for me to break away from ABS-CBN because of the people I’ve worked with, like Mr. M (Johnny Manahan)," concedes Camille.

But everyone has to move on. The GMA soap marks a landmark in her career – a sign that she is ready for adult roles and a fresh take in her image.

So its goodbye Princess Sarah, hello Joyce. Camille knows her fans will embrace her new, more grownup stance the way they have seen her through many controversies. And no one is happier for this than Camille Prats herself.