Being a mom is Cherry Pie’s most challenging role

MANILA, Philippines - The anxiety is not a pretense.

When it comes to her son Nio Tria, an only child, Cherry Pie Picache always seems to have jitters, especially now that the boy is on the cusp of adolescence. Last year, when Nio turned 11, the doting mother first noticed her son’s sudden “declaration of independence.”

Unheralded, Nio began closing his room’s door for some supposed privacy, leaving his mother feeling “locked out” at times.

In April, Nio celebrated his 12th birthday and he has become “more private,” even when he’s around people. The young man’s display of subtle maturing and his confident quiet moments are sending nervous messages to Cherry Pie’s worrisome world.

But is there really any cause for worry?

Nothing in reality, if you ask the boy, who is more mature way beyond his years. Nio is into sports, a certified health buff who casually admonishes his mother whenever the latter lights a cigarette, even as they both break into a shy smile.

This early, the multi-award-winning actress is ably matched by her triumphant son in various tennis matches here and abroad. Most recently, Nio won the 12-and-under-championship bout at the Milo Technifibre National Age group tournament at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.

A week later, the Philippine Team 12-under left for Jakarta, Indonesia and the young players bagged the doubles. Nio made it to the Philippine Team since he ranked No. 2 (by the Philippine Tennis Association) in the 12-and-under category.

By the way, the winner in the Jakarta tournament organized by the Asian Tennis Federation will compete in Canada in August. Of course, Nio still goes to Ateneo for Grade 7 (junior high school), when the school year opens.

So why the fuss about Nio, the exemplary son and student? Methinks it’s not in the domestic front that Cherry Pie should be anxious about anything. Children of any age are always in a hurry to grow up, or so they seem, because the world and their generation’s culture make them so.

It was so earlier, or during the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), the king of Macedon who conquered Greece at the age of 20, Egypt at the age of 25 and the Persian Empire at the age of 28. And who can forget the child prodigy and prolific genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), who started his music career at five?

It is so now, and it shall be so in the years to come. Youth propels the world and age — ideally, that is — should make it better and wiser. So let it go, as the Oscar-winning song goes.

All the same, Cherry Pie doesn’t go weary from wearing her maternal mantle that she translates into her performances. She’s effective in portraying mother roles simply because she’s a real one in real life.

On ABS-CBN’s Ikaw Lamang, once again, the actress delineates the role of another oppressed and suffering mother, tormented by the attendant circumstances of her and her family’s station in life. Something that is far removed from her actual background behind the camera.

So how does she prepare for the utterly “opposite” character, and make it credibly come alive onscreen?

“I do some research and work closely with the director,” explains Cherry Pie. “I observe people in real situations and even undergo immersion in certain cases. Also, I draw from my actual experience as a mother to Nio and from my relationships with my own family.”

Certainly, affection, anger, joy, pain and other emotions stay the same; only the situations differ. The creative impulse, according to a private critic writer, is universal and it does not discriminate based on social creations for conventions.

The top American acting coach, Sanford Meisner, recognizes such performance technique as being “truthful” in the moment and under imaginary circumstances. This is what separates Cherry Pie and her ilk in the acting profession from those who mainly rely on the so-called “method” approach of Konstantin Stanislavsky and company.

In a way, such “imaginary” acting technique is improvisatory to a certain extent. That is why Cherry Pie does not religiously memorize her lines before going to the set, as she admitted in a live interview on TV. This is so she can adapt to their reality in her performance.

“The viewers will know if a performer is faking it. The feelings should be truthful or authentic in the moment, whatever the moment is.” It was the committed actress in Cherry Pie warning her curious and usually cursory interviewer — and very well said, indeed!

Besides, just like one of her idols, Vilma Santos, it’s difficult to ape or pigeonhole Cherry Pie’s acting because of its being truthful to the moment or to the situation at hand. Like the versatile Vilma, Cherry Pie departs from her previous characters, takes risks and avoids being the same in many of her films or TV performances.

Showbiz is such a gigantic stage on which hundreds or thousands of dramas are played every day; and Cherry Pie at 44 (May 27, 1970) and after 25 years of spiral ride in the business, can rightfully claim a big part of it.