G takes it slow & easy

When Giselle “G” Tongi decided to pack her bags and move to the US, it was seen as a risky move. She had a career here, and to give it up and go to a new place where she would have to start all over again was believed to be not a very wise decision.

Then after being away for 12 years, she decided to move back to the Philippines. By this time, G was married, with two young children. It was the same predicament all over again. She had already successfully established herself in the US, had a good career, had completed a college degree and her children and husband had become used to the life there.

Since coming back, G has resumed her acting career, bagging roles in primetime shows like Aryana, as well as endorsements. She also produced and edited an independent TV project that will be shown soon and got back into theater when she agreed to join the cast of Piaf, a musical based on the life of the legendary French singer. G played Marlene Dietrich, the actress who was rumored to be one of Piaf’s lovers. In the musical, G sang the iconic song La Vie en Rose. She even dyed her hair blonde, another “daring” move that surprised a lot of people, including her own family.

G likes the slow and easy pace of her career, where she has the luxury of taking on one project at a time. The offer to do Piaf came along at just the right time, after Aryana ended. “Everything happened, it was perfect timing,” says G.

G says, however, that returning to the Philippines does not necessarily mean that she will resume the same pace her career had when she was younger. “I think that as I’ve gotten older, I’m not as impatient, maybe because I have a life, and because having kids makes a lot of difference,” she explains. “When I was single, all I had was my career, di ba? That’s it. And I was ambitious to the point of being sort of desperate. But as you get older, it takes the edge off a little bit when you’ve got a family and you’ve got a life.”

She is still excited by work, but no longer feels as strong a need to fight over projects or opportunities. It’s gotten to the point, she says, that if she wants a role bad enough, she will create it for herself, or she will produce it. The independent TV project she produced, the Basco Balikbayan project (which is about a family of Filipinos who lived and worked in America and came home as balikbayan to see the country) is almost done. “I’m so close to being done with (Basco), I edited nine out of the 12 episodes,” says G. “I have three more to go, but the last three are just the recap of the entire show. The show should be on air soon.”

Working on things like these gives her a high different from what she experiences as a performer. “The difference of you writing it, you directing it, you being there in the editing bay and you seeing the final product, is such a different and fulfilling experience as opposed to seeing yourself on TV. When I look at myself on TV, it’s kind of a weird feeling; I don’t like watching myself because I notice imperfections. But when you watch something that you created, there’s a certain kind of ‘giving birth’ process, you stand a little bit higher.”

G doesn’t know where this latest daring move — to come home and resume working here — will take her. She doesn’t even have plans as far as her career is concerned.

“What happens, happens,” says G. “I’ve gotten to a place where I know I will continue to be given opportunities. If a role comes and if I think that I’ll benefit from it, if I can put a different spin on it, then I’ll do it. If you’re young, you strike while the iron is hot, but when you’re older, there’s more sophistication (in the way you choose roles and projects). An actor’s career is very fleeting, and no one is indispensable. I mean nobody.”

And yet at the same time, G also knows she will always have a place in the industry — and it is safe and secure, no matter where or how far she may go.