Rhian Ramos: This Girl Has Turned Into a Woman

Rhian Ramos takes the lead in GMA’s TV adaptation of 1992 hit Sinungaling Mong Puso, where she breathes life into her character Clara, a mistreated wife who looks for love beyond her husband’s straying eyes and hands and finds it – in a man ten years her junior.

It could seem like a role befitting a talent who possesses a treasure trove of experiences as deep as the ocean, but Rhian’s wisdom as an actress — and as a woman — is enough to power her through this now showing afternoon primetime’s drama to the very last scene, as this story proves.

By JOSE PAOLO S. DELA CRUZ

Inside, her heart was breaking.

Her makeup may be flaking.

But just like the song, her smile stays on.

Rhian Ramos’ show must – and will – go on.

She is long-legged, but she isn’t as tall as this writer imagined her to be. Nor is she as intimidating as the regal, statuesque beauty I’ve seen on print and onscreen. But she is definitely sublime, even more so in person — with her angelic face and the long, dark mane that frames it.

But beneath her youthful good looks and vivacious personality, one would find that she is so much more than an attractive lady. She is a full-grown woman, both from the inside and out. Not the damsel in distress that tabloids have long tried to project. No longer the victim that most people would like to believe she is. She is Rhian Ramos — and she is whole.

Good girl gone bad

Rhian broke into the scene more than half a decade ago, as the apple of the eye in some popular fast food commercial. Soon after, she found herself transformed from commercial model to one of the small screen’s most prominent ingénues, the type that many a hated villainess has dunked into a toilet to complete her melodramatic fits of rage.

All that changed though with her starring role in GMA Films’ My Kontrabida Girl (My Antagonist Girl), where she plays the meanest villainess of them all, opposite matinee idol Aljur Abrenica. And while the two leads’ chemistry is easy on the eyes (at the very least), it is Rhian’s highly anticipated faceoff with Philippine Cinema’s quartet of sheer, female evil — Cherie Gil, Maritoni Fernandez, Gladys Reyes and the legendary Bella Flores — that keep tongues wagging.

It was a welcome breather for Rhian who often plays the role of the aggrieved lead, in some tearjerking evening drama. “It was a good challenge for me, because usually ako ang sinasampal, nilulublob sa toilet (I’m usually the one being slapped, dunked in the toilet). This time though, it’s my turn,” she says with a naughty grin.

Every rose has its thorns

In Tinseltown — or even in local showbiz — a woman’s skyrocketing career seems to be the most fitting nightcap to a love gone awry. Think Nicole Kidman (post Tom Cruise), Jennifer Aniston (post Brad Pitt) and even Elizabeth Taylor (eight times over). Which leads us to ask: Is Rhian’s trailblazing comeback fueled by a broken heart?

As many would remember, Rhian became subject of a much hyped internet scandal in late 2011. The video featured a very emotional Mo Twister — Rhian’s former flame — as  he purged himself of “their” sins from the comfort of his web cam. The confession soon made it to YouTube, to the delight of gossip-hungry netizens. Accusations were hurled and the public feasted on whatever juicy morsel of gossip would leak. The relationship of more than a year reached the end of the road. Even at its aftermath, more scandal looms, as the tabloids feast on Mo’s recent tweets. But Rhian knows better now.

Knowing that tragedy is what you make of it, Rhian gathered the pieces of her broken heart, her broken life. As her ex flew out of the country, Rhian flew to her dreams. It was a hard task, she admits — difficult, but never impossible. “God sees what you can take. As negative as it all felt at the time, there really was a greater reason why all those things had to happen. Depending on people’s mindsets, you can draw good or bad from it. Question it or learn from it.”

Naysayers at that time quickly deemed Rhian’s career over, like the many starlets before her whose glitter quickly faded into oblivion after their scandalous innuendos saw the light of day. But a return to showbiz was the least of her priorities at that time. “Whether it was over for me in showbiz or not — it wasn’t my concern. My concern was how to protect the people that I loved.”

To mend her broken heart, Rhian stayed out of the limelight and opted to take a much needed break. “I felt, at that time, that I was locked up in my own world. And when these things happened, it became a good time to reconnect, be with the people that I loved.” It was in that quiet space between truth and turmoil that she found the answers to her questions.

Her support group — mainly consisting of friends and family — helped her get past the storm and on to the proverbial silver lining. It was an irony in itself, too, for they were the same people who warned her of the impending romantic disaster she turned a blind eye to as a lovestruck little girl. “There was a stage when I was so hardheaded and there was nothing anyone could say to make me listen. I guess, in a way, they were forced to just let me fall. And I did.”

On the road to recovery, Rhian soon encountered an important gem: self-respect. “Before I always tried my best to make people happy, which in turn makes me into this ‘Yes!’ person… sometimes to the point that I empower other people to take advantage of that. But when I learned to love myself a little more, it tells people how you deserve to be loved as well.” With that self-respect also came another power, the ability to ascertain her God-given right to say “No!” It’s her most favored word of late, she says with a giggle.

The actress also shared that her experiences made her aspire for more wisdom. No longer content with being just smart, Rhian is now more cautious of how she deals with people. “I would say I am stronger. I would say I am wiser. Smart is different from wise. I think I’m wiser now with the way I deal with people, with how quickly I just give myself to them.”

It’s often said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Yet for Rhian, not even life, in all its maladies, was able to turn her heart to stone. And if her clothes, and newfound love for colors like salmon, corals and whites are any indication, one can say that Rhian, then 21 at the time of this interview, has started to embrace her womanhood – for all its strengths and weaknesses, assets and flaws. “Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and I’m surprised at how I look. And I can’t help but tell myself, ‘There’s something different about you, and I just can’t put my finger on it,” she concludes, as the smile of a woman in peace breaks on her face.

Indeed, this girl has turned into a woman – and what a woman she promises to become.

(Photography by FRANK HOEFSMIT | PeopleAsia April – May 2012)  

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