Elora Espano opens up about her phobias

MANILA, Philippines — Elora Espano used to be deathly afraid of deep water. That’s because she almost drowned one dark, scary day. Thus, the mere sight of the deep sent shivers down her spine.

But the years have way of correcting deep-seated phobias. Elora suddenly conquered her fear when she shot "Baconaua", a film set in a  sleepy fishing village on a tiny island in the Southern Tagalog region. 

“Why, I even went scuba diving!” she said at the Zoom presscon for TV5’s upcoming suspense thriller "Carpool", where she plays the suspected culprit behind the turn of events that hound a carpool’s four passengers, played by Sarah Carlos, Alex Diaz, Kate Lapuz and Kenneth Medrano. 

The near-drowning incident is not the only horrifying experience in Elora’s book. She recalled a hold-up incident that scared her out of her wits when she was a graduating student.

Elora was on board a jeep which came from UP (University of the Philippines) and was bound for Philcoa (Quezon City). Three men boarded the jeep at the NFA (National Food Administration) area along North Avenue and spread themselves among the unsuspecting passengers.

Out of the blue, one of them announced a hold-up. It has gotten dark, and Elora hugged her laptop close. When it was her turn to face the hold-uppers who divested the other passengers of their belongings, Elora clung to her precious gadget with all her might.

“Please don’t,” she pleaded. “This contains my thesis.”

But the holder-uppers just brandished their gleaming daggers at her. Elora had no choice. She parted with her laptop – and her thesis.

She looked back at that horrifying incident and wished she had the means to contact popular broadcaster Raffy Tulfo back then to ask his help in locating the crooks.

But she was a student then, and her world was more limited. So she just chalked it up to experience.

These scary incidents will come in handy, now that Elora plays a mysterious character who complicates matters in "Carpool", a story of four young people who share a carpool ride that opens wide the door to tragedy and horrifying hauntings that chase them wherever they go.

Except for Elora scaring people on screen is something new to the cast, whose individual projects involved lighter genres like romance-dramas. But there’s always a first time. And all are crossing their fingers "Carpool" (which debuts on Thursday, Nov. 26,9:30 p.m. on TV5) will have a season two.

“So no spoilers okay?” Elora winked.