Up-close with Bianca King

It may have taken a while, but Kapuso star Bianca King is now fast becoming one of showbiz’s more valuable treasures. Viewers still remember her as a reliable kontrabida in a number of primetime teledramas, particularly as the feisty Aviona in the 2004 pioneering fantasy series Mulawin. But the actress is raising the stakes and forging a new path in showbiz: Bianca is now a full-fledged leading lady. With Maghihintay Pa Rin, her fourth lead role since her breakthrough performance in the 2011 afternoon series Sinner or Saint, expect a bigger and brighter Bianca King.

 â€œI love my work so much more now. I love the role that I’m doing. I feel like it was made for me,” Bianca said of her role in her latest show. Here, she plays Geneva de Villa, an heiress who falls in love with a struggling seaman, played by Rafael Rosell.

As expected of someone who worked her way to the top, Bianca treasures everything that’s coming her way right now — from the plum movie and television roles to the quiet moments she spends alone at her house or with her family abroad.

For now, Bianca’s top treasure is her 80-year-old maternal grandmother. The actress is a self-confessed lola’s girl, although now it’s her grandma who is becoming a “granddaughter’s lola.” Her lola was recently diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer, so Bianca wants to spend as much time with her as possible.

 â€œI feel like I am an updated 2013 version of her. I have to give her the honor of being my favorite person on this Earth,” she said.

With her parents based in Canada, she had to stay with her lola while she was starting out in showbiz. “She’s my top priority. I feel like everything that I’m going to be earning in the next three years is going to be allotted for whatever she needs,” Bianca said.

As for the thing she treasures the most, it’s definitely her house in a subdivision in Taguig City. It’s the one thing she worked hard and sacrificed for in order to purchase and complete. The house is Bianca’s “artwork.”

“It’s my blood, sweat and tears and I’ve built it from the ground up. I was very frugal with my money for five years because I was preparing for this one thing that I wanted so bad, and it was to go home to a house that I could call my own,” Bianca said.

Home is also her most treasured place — in particular, the city of San Francisco in the state of California. Bianca, with her relatives, always visits Heights Street, the city’s “hippie district” with its “quaint little coffee shops, little jewelry stores, boutiques.”

Her most treasured moment? Every time she’s in the airport with her parents. “Like, when I get my bags, step out and see my parents waiting. It’s like you don’t want that moment to end.”

A close second as her most treasured moment was “every time I felt passion for the kontrabida roles I was doing.” She clearly knows how to honor how she started in the business. But more than that, she explained that she saw all her kontrabida roles as an audition for her next big break.

Her most treasured role in GMA was her first lead role in 2011’s Sinner or Saint. As a woman accused of a crime committed by her lover (played by Dennis Trillo), Bianca played against type — a pretty mestiza who played an illiterate, out-of-luck orphan.

Doing Maghihintay Pa Rin was itself a treasure for Bianca as it marks the first time she shot a show outside the country. Together with the show’s cast and crew, she taped in Singapore for over a week.

“I was crying, screaming and doing kissing scenes in Singapore! It’s fun… super fun. We really had to be cowboy there because we didn’t have the usual comforts that we had here,” she said.

“Maraming kinikilig. That’s the best response because pareho kaming single ni Rafael; it feels real to the fans,” she said of her team-up with Rafael. “But even if we’re not attached in real life, we’re the type of actors who will give 110 percent in every scene.”

This isn’t the end for Bianca, however. In the future, she hopes to play edgy, “rough around the edges” characters that are far from how people perceive her in real life.

She added: “Marami akong gustong gawin, sobra. People can expect me to evolve already into something that no one else is.” 

From her career to her personal life, there’s no stopping Bianca King.