The hard work begins
CAN you actually spot a potential star given the short span of time you get to interact with them?
This was among many questions posed to Cherie Gil, Heart Evangelista, and Jose Manalo at a recent press conference, relating how they evaluate potential winners in “Startruck,” GMA-7’s artista search show, which is on its 7th year now.
The trio, dubbed the Star Council, are in charge of separating wheat from chaff out of the thousands of hopefuls who have joined the contest.
They admitted it is difficult but not at all impossible.
“You can sense it somehow,” Cherie explained. “I mean we cannot predict if that someone will actually become a really big star but you could actually discern it if they have the qualities that make one.”
“It goes beyond the looks,” Heart expounded. “You kind of recognize it when someone has that thing we call the ‘it’ factor.”
When told how this approach proved abortive numerous times in the past with some of their actual winners having gone back to relative anonymity while the likes of Alden Richards (eliminated early on when he joined ‘Starstuck’) and Kyline Alcantara (taken out when she joined a competing artista search in another network) became stars, Jose, on his part, said, “’Yun nga ‘yung challenge sa amin, na makuha talaga namin kung sino ang karapatdapat.”
“Mahirap pero ‘yun nga, kailangan mabusisi kami,” he added. And how will they go about it? Cherie, Heart, and Jose were one in saying talent comes first, more than anything.
“Honestly, I would want them to have both talent and looks, if not, then I’d rather pick one who has definite talent. Looks could be developed as you go along,” Cherie said.
Heart added, “I agree. Nowadays, there are so many things one could do to enhance his or her looks. Talent, on the other hand, is something that I think should be innate, it should be there na.”
Jose, on the other hand, deadpanned, “Tinatanong pa ba ‘yun? Siyempre dapat talent. Tignan mo na lang ako. Sa hitsura kong ito, malamang hindi rin ako mapipili kung mukha lang ang pagbabasehan.”
Cherie made clear, “It’s really hard, mahirap ang work namin as council but in the end, we can’t help but make a choice. I guess we’ll just have to be very, very careful in who we pick and who we eliminate.”
The show is to make its debut tonight and host Dingdong Dantes promised it will be gripping from the get go.
“Magkakatanggalan agad eh so, abang abang tayo kung sino ang papasok o hindi,” he said.