Fil-Am entertainer talks about newfound Fame

Author: Alexander T. Magno
Column: Entertainment

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MANILA, Philippines - The part of acting student Joy Moy in the remake of Fame, set to premiere on Sept. 25, seems to have been written specifically for Fil-Am Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, 18-year-old granddaughter of Kundiman Queen Sylvia La Torre.

As Joy - an "exuberant aspiring actress," as she puts it - she gets to act, sing, and dance, which, like her famous grandma, she's been doing since she was a kid.

"I can't choose between acting, singing, or dancing. It's too hard. But the great thing about Fame is that I get to do all three," she says in a behind-the-scenes interview during a break in a location shoot of the movie - filmed from October 2008 to February 2009 in Los Angeles and New York.

And her character, one of 10 key ones in the film, is studying at the New York High School for the Performing Arts.

Anna Maria had a similar experience, having studied at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts until ninth grade (after which she had to go into home schooling because she already had a hectic schedule as entertainer and model).

She was ecstatic when she did get the part, which she thought she had lost because three months passed after the audition before she got a call-back for a screen test.

In the same interview, she recalls her feeling the day before the screen test: "I was so nervous, I was getting like really scared. But then the next day I walked into the audition like I had the part, because I wanted so much to be in this movie."

Going far

And to think that she's not exactly a rookie in Hollywood.

She got her first big break when she was just 12, when she auditioned and got the part of Ashley Dewitt in the Disney TV series Hannah Montana, which stars Miley Cyrus.

Last year, she was cast in Camp Rock, along with Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers.

She realized long before Fame, which she does have now, that it would take more than talent, honed by hours of lessons and rehearsals, to make it in Hollywood.

"First of all, you have to dream big and really follow your heart," she says in an interview with Kababayan LA producer and talk show host Janelle So, who devoted an entire show to her.

The show airs over KSCI-TV, a Los Angeles station targeting Asian Americans.

That idea sounds a lot like the slogan at the official Fame Web site: "How big you make it is all about how far you take it."

Anchored to the ground

At first, her father Artie Perez de Tagle, who back in the 70s also had a stint in showbiz, and her mother Evelyn Enriquez were worried that she might not be able to take the rejections that might come her way.

"I had to beg my parents," Anna Maria tells So.

Eventually, they relented, even consenting to let Anna Maria move to Los Angeles for her Hannah Montana work from San Diego, where they lived (though she was born in San Francisco).

Since then, her parents, along with her two older brothers King and Miguel, have always been her biggest fans and supporters, whom she always acknowledges during interviews.

And then there's her grandmother, Sylvia, whom she gets to see or at least talk to more often because they both live in Los Angeles.

"I'm so proud to be her granddaughter," she tells so.

She credits he family for keeping her anchored to the ground, avoiding the kind of troubles that entertainers like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan had to go through.

"The key thing is to have the best family. It all boils down to that," she tells So.

Spreading the word

Anna Maria is quite aware how encouraging her success could be to other aspiring Filipino and Fil-Am entertainers, as Lea Salonga was when she got the part of Kim in Miss Saigon.

"I'm spreading the word about how talented Filipinos are," she tells So.

And she never hides the fact that, despite her American citizenship, she is a full-blooded Pinay.

"I'm proud to be Filipino. I'm proud of my heritage," she says.

Once she even took friend and co-star Miley Cyrus to a Max's Restaurant in Glendale, California and introduced her to Filipino food: "She liked the lumpia and fried rice. But she was scared of the crispy pata."

In the call-in portion of Kababayan LA, a viewer asks her if she would like to make a movie in the Philippines if given an offer.

"Of course," she says quickly. "The last time I was there was when I was ten. I'd love to go back."

And, answering another caller's question, she says she'd also love to do the Kim part in Miss Saigon, if it should ever get made into a movie.

For more information, visit Anna Maria Perez de Tagle's Web site | | More

Source: GMANews