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Jennylyn Mercado: Filipino Actress/singer

Guest kris_argee

By Guest kris_argee
in global celebrities

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Guest Melyxcious

Guest Melyxcious

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^she reminds me of Iya in those pictures for some odd reason.

In a way she does but her eyes are smaller, and a more tanned complexion though o.o''

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Guest kris_argee

Guest kris_argee

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from People's Journal

article posted November 14, 2006

Jennylyn kicks back

By: Becky Aguila

BECKY SPEAKS

ONE young girl who has earned my respect is Jennylyn Mercado.

Considered GMA’s modern day Cinderella, Jenn has weathered many storms at such a young age, and continues to do so as the years unfold. Her stillness in the brouhaha of a dog-eat-dog world speaks of a serenity that is becoming of a lady.

When I first saw Jenn, she was such a little girl, looking through doe eyes wide in a mix of fear and curiosity, chewing on her lower lip that reddened more so against her pale skin that looked paler still framed in her long black hair that hung all the way to her back. She had refused to wear anything other than her highly conservative outfits and had kept her mother within her proximity at all times. Her heart-shaped face and her petite frame warned against a frailty that would be one of the most biggest hurdles she would have to get past as a talent in the entertainment world, but it belied a voice so powerful it would throw her so fast into a world that was even faster – so fast that the double inertia could be maddening. In fact, it almost was!

In 2004, Jenn became the StarStruck champion and had become a household favorite. This catapulted her into a series of song recordings, teen flick tapings, concert tours, and movie shootings. As the schedules overlapped, days blended into night that blended into day. Our little girl had kept up. Stress would manifest into physical exhaustion and would intensify as emotional baggage from a childhood trauma would be compounded time and again as people got more and more curious about the rising star.

As if that wasn’t enough, the little girl was growing up and had found herself falling in love and stumbling hard. Transitioning from one role to another may be easy on screen, but in real life, how does one deal with becoming friends to sweethearts and back again to friends? Especially if one is an inexperienced, idealistic teenager with the entire world watching her grope her way through the dark tunnel of discovery and recovery, with all the inevitable bumps and mistakes along the way? To make matters even trickier, the love team had been in consistent demand, so to make the fans happy since they had always been supportive, the love team carried on. Since the team has two players, the adjustment had been doubly hard, especially since the team was dealing with matters of the heart. But nothing time can’t heal. Or at least teach.

If it’s one thing time can’t save anyone from, based on my experience of being the “victim” in my late forties, it’s the rumors that go around. Jenn has had to deal with rumors that feed off the manifestations of her physical and emotional stress. From being suplada around the people she works with to being “easy” with the boys, she has been attacked from all sides. For the life of me, I could not see Jenn as either suplada or “easy”. All I see is that little girl who isn’t so little anymore, who can be grumpy from fatigue or who can be excited over a text message from a boy she finds cute. All I see is a young woman reacting as any young woman would, only when push comes to shove, this young woman refuses to give up a grain of truth about herself.

Jenn stays real. She does this by relentlessly going for what her heart calls her to do. Sing, it says, so sing she does. Act, it says, so act she does. Go the extra mile, and go she does. There is no stopping her. In the last two months, she’s been hospitalized for fatigue; but the minute she was out, she was back on her feet training for her upcoming action movie, Super Noypi, directed by the very young and talented Quark Henares.

Her character is Lia, a hyper-active, strong-willed agent from the future who goes back to the present to fulfill a particular mission. Since Lia is an action heroine, she necessarily does stunts that are executed here in the Philippines by male stunt artists.

But since Direk Quark is young and enterprising, he has certain demands for the aesthetic quality of this film and asked Jenn if she could do the stunts her character has to do so that it is genuine as compared to the stunts being done by a double.

Without flinching, Jenn said yes and found herself doing back flips on a harness which is as hard to do as it is easy to watch, and flailing a 26- inch fighting stick that is as heavy as a 10-pound dumbbell. She found herself hanging from a helicopter 100 feet instead of the 20 initially agreed on and jumping from one car to the next where the windshield shatters on cue – all this after a month’s training, first with Jon Escudero from Red Corner to Philip Co, stunt coordinator from Hong Kong who was a contemporary of Jacky Chan. Despite all the safety measures guaranteed for every stunt, there are moments that I fear for her life as anyone watching on the sidelines would. Jenn does admit to being afraid of getting hurt especially since there are pains that cannot be avoided like scratches, rope burns, and black and blues, but nothing fazes her. No trace of the suplading they rumored her to be, which she attributes to the amazing, highly supportive crew of Direk Quark, who would all smile and cheer her on with every stunt. Oh, but if there is one non-negotiable with Jenn, it would be the loud explosions. It triggers such irreconcilable fear in her, but only that particular noise. The noise of rumors and slander on this young lady falls on deaf ears.

Jenn kicks back. After a long day or a tiring week, she surrounds herself with love – her family as well as her little crew that makes sure she has everything she needs in the biz, from her manager to her handler to her personal assistant. When time allows, we go on videoke nights like any regular group of friends in a videoke bar in Timog, and when time becomes a luxury Jenn can afford to splurge on herself, she sleeps in late and stays in bed for as long as she can. Cinderella turns into Sleeping Beauty yet waiting for her true love’s kiss.

And at my age, I still believe in fairytales thanks to ladies like Jennylyn Mercado. I so do love playing the role of the Fairy Godmother, helping dreams come true! And I have dreams myself, that are slowly becoming a reality. Godmothers, after all, don’t really have to be fat and on the verge of having a heart attack!

As for those tales being woven about myself, about lovers and apples of temptation, I say to the storytellers, “Thank you for your sweet flattery. I am off to more challenging adventures, wait and see!” My bounce will turn into leaps and I will have a love affair with the industry like I have always dreamed I would!

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Now & Forever

11/13/06 episode

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