MANILA, Philippines - For seven years, Bianca King played support, but never the star. But she wouldn’t have that experience any other way.
Now playing her second lead role via GMA 7’s afternoon series Broken Vow, she reflected that had a topbilling status been given to her early on in her career, “maybe I would not have handled it well,” Bianca, who recently celebrated her 26th birthday with kids at DSWD, told The STAR in an interview. “Now, I’m more right for it. I can handle the responsibility. I really see (acting) as a profession. (I’m) not just having fun with it. I take what I do very, very seriously.”
In Broken Vow, Bianca plays a rape victim who unwittingly weds the man who victimized her. It’s an emotionally-charged role that is bringing out Bianca’s gift for drama. In scenes wherein emotions from love to rage play out in her pretty face, you can’t help but go back to some years back when her sharp mestiza features were maximized for antagonistic roles, which to this writer’s recall started on GMA 7’s ground-breaking fantaserye Mulawin in 2004.
Good thing Bianca kept the dream of becoming the lead one day alive. “I really prayed for it, honestly. It was something I wanted for myself, always hoping that GMA would give me a chance,” she said.
But Bianca nearly gave it up after playing a supporting role anew in Captain Barbell. She was planning to leave the country after completing her digital filmmaking degree at the La Salle-College of St. Benilde (she graduated last February) to pursue further studies in the U.S. and “hopefully, work behind the scenes” after finding joy in directing short films and music videos while at school.
She said, “That was the plan. Then it happened.”
What happened was her first lead role via Sinner or Saint mid of last year, where she portrayed a woman wrongfully jailed after protecting a loved one.
Never mind if she was the second choice. “I’ve always believed that my current role is my audition for my next that’s why I never turned down a kontrabida role, except for one. I’m just really grateful because throughout the seven years (of waiting) I learned a lot.”
That’s why when newcomers hankering for their big break seek her advice, she would tell them to learn “the cracks first and before you feel that you deserve a certain role, make sure that you can carry it.
“You always have to be the most alert, the healthiest, the most patient on the set because you have the most number if not the heaviest scenes.
“Then off the set, you have to promote the show, follow what the management asks of you (and) even have to be the role (model) of your set. So ask yourself if you can really give that, at the same time, find something to do outside showbiz that will keep you grounded and well-rounded.”
She credited her schooling and upbringing for keeping her grounded. An only child of a German father and a Filipino mother, Bianca said, “(I was taught) that what you would become, just do your best with it. Do not always have that sense of self-entitlement that you deserve more than you have because that is like a recipe for failing.”
“My parents are now in Canada,” she added. “My mom is very proud. She actually helps maintain fansites. I remember she used to ask the people I work with kailan kaya bibigyan ng bida? (Laughs) When it finally happened, they were overwhelmed. Even now my mom cannot grasp how ‘popular’ her daughter has become.”
“My dad’s okay. I haven’t mentioned this (in interviews) but before Christmas, my dad had a mild aneurism. I was there. He’s gonna undergo angioplasty surgery,” shared Bianca, whose wistful tone when talking about her family you can’t miss.
Bianca had a very comfortable life growing up but her family underwent financial difficulties that her parents decided to migrate to Canada almost four years ago. Bianca was “proudly supporting” her parents before and up until the first few years they re-settled in Canada. She’s grateful for the experience as “I was really able to put into practice (the commandment) honor your father and mother.”
How did she do it? She scrimped and saved on what she earned from her support roles. “For four years, I did not go shopping. I didn’t travel,” said Bianca adding that she doesn’t indulge in typical female pleasures like buying bags and jewelry (“What I’m using now are gifts”), determined as she was to fulfill her goals “to support my family, buy a house and finish school.”
“Goal ko yung house because there was a time that my parents had to sell the house I grew up in. I told myself, I don’t want to reach that point. It happened when I was 17. So a few months before I entered showbiz, it was a big motivation for me.”
When she enrolled in college in 2006, she applied for a scholarship. “I was granted 100 percent so I only paid P200 per semester, and that was a big way for me to save money also.”
Now, Bianca owns a home and a college degree. She continues to be frugal, only spending for what’s necessary and important like her yearly visit to her parents in Canada.
“Those are the things that are sensitive topics to me. It’s something that motivates me to do well in work. And it brings tears to my eyes sometimes pag binabalikan ko yung mga panahon na yun, yung mga dahilan kung bakit kailangan ng mga magulang ko umalis. Now everything’s okay, so parang binalik lang din ni Lord yung lahat,” she ended.