Whether in the small or wide screen, Iza Calzado has always been tasked to portray lead character roles — a warrior princess, a long-lost sister, a journalist with extra sensory power, a passionate lover or a devoted wife — that she delivers with aplomb. She, too, has a movie with Hollywood’s Jesse Bradford titled The Echo, directed by Yam Laranas. Iza has also been named semi-finalist for Best Actress in International Emmy Awards recently for her performance on Joaquin Bordado.
These are good reasons why many wonder about the roles Iza gets these days. She plays one of the babaylans on GMA 7’s La Lola which is a short-lived character.
Iza has another cameo role in Sundo, where she says she only sets the premise of the Robin Padilla starrer the way Drew Barrymore did in Scream. Are they signs that Iza is just being “used” to make a project more appealing to the audience?
“No, it’s just all a matter of perspective,” she explains. “If you think you’re just being ‘used,’ that may be true and I don’t think that way naman.”
Besides, Iza says, there’s no point entertaining negative thoughts as there are a number of projects, for film and TV, in her long list of commitments to attend to after taking a short break from the limelight.
Topping her list is an upcoming movie titled One True Love under GMA Films with Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera. The complicated love story will also show how daring Iza can get as far as sexy scenes are concerned.
Again, the love triangle theme drew some intriguing thoughts about her role. Does she feel playing supporting role to Dingdong and Marian’s characters? Is her role as important in the story as theirs?
“I am rest assured GMA Films takes care of me as its contract artist. I have read the script and I found out the story won’t be complete without my character Bella,” Iza replies.
“It’s not a supporting role. From the very beginning, as a matter of fact, the moment I got back from Canada, this was offered to me. And it was never a supporting role. I never understood it as that when they were discussing it with me. When I read the script, I never saw it as a supporting role because I’m there all the time. But, of course, maraming kilig moments yung dalawa as loveteam.”
As Bella, Iza sees her character as a strong woman who tries to get whatever she wants but also knows when to accede to things she cannot control. The movie also vividly shows how everyone sometimes tends to make wrong decisions due to weaknesses. But at the end of the day one gets a clear vision of what is right and chooses to do good even if it sometimes means one has to sacrifice.
It also challenges Iza to show her character is not as bad as any “third party” is pictured to be.
“It’s tough to be a bida-kontrabida where your character should be able to relate to every audience,” Iza adds.
GMA Films president Annette Gozon, on the other hand, tells Iza’s role has an equal weight as that of Dingdong and Marian.
“The title One True Love, in a way, is a misnomer, because our tagline is, ‘True love may come not only once in a lifetime.’ We will see how important Iza’s character to Marian and Dingdong’s loveteam is. Dito natin makikita yung mga problema, the emotional weaknesses and strengths when it comes to love. When you’re in love, medyo nabubura yung pagiisip, di ba? So we will see in the three actors how they will handle the story and the roles,” Annette imparts.
With this, nobody will dare think again that Iza is just playing mere support roles these days.