Maricel and I
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After 35 years in showbiz, Maricel Soriano has accomplished what many of her peers could only dream of, thus earning the moniker Diamond Star. At 41, she has gracefully gone through life, survived personal crises and came out unscathed. Her “new” image has intrigue people in show business, and some wondered if she had undergone surgical procedures.
Planet Philippines recently sat down with Maricel for an update on her career, life, family and love.
She arrived on the dot for our appointment. With a ready smile, she stretches her hand with warmth of acceptance and chooses a spot where she would not be hit by a beaming light at UCC Café on Connecticut St. in Greenhills, San Juan. Her tranquil presence debunks her reputation as 'Taray Queen.'
I am myself. She is honest, straightforward, brutally frank and has no fears of expressing herself, leading many people to label her as mataray.
“Who would want that image?”. she inquires as if throwing back the question to her detractors and to those who labeled her as such.
“I can’t help it if they see me as someone mataray. I cannot please everybody. I am myself, which is my personality. I was very much aware that I came from a broken family, and no matter how I deny it in the past, maybe I had all this defense mechanism in me.”
She continues: “Hindi kami mayaman. ‘Di rin naman masasabing may kaya. Kung anong meron, pinagtrabahuhan.”
She explains that what she has become is an amalgamation of her varied experiences in life. Given that she started in show business at the tender age of 6, she has accumulated a vast wealth of insights and lessons that helped her survive the many obstacles in life and made her a stronger person.
Surmounting tough times. The tough times she encountered and the personal challenges she surmounted, she says, have molded her into someone who can fathom the real meaning of work, hardship and pain.
“I can remember we have nothing to eat. I had to work,” Maricel recalls the dark days of her life. She says she is grateful for the process she went through.
There was a point in her life that she felt like a dead man walking. “Ang feeling ko ‘di tumatakbo ang dugo sa katawan ko. Kasi masyado akong nag-dwell sa problema. I came to a point in my life that I became bitter. Galit na galit sa sarili. And it took me a while before I was able to forgive myself.”
Somehow, through the mistakes, no matter how painful they were, she realizes that her sad experiences were the bridge that brought her to where she is now.
Finding inner peace. The one day, she found God, an experience which she describes as unbelievable. “It was the right time, God’s perfect timing,” she says of her spiritual awakening. “Wala talaga akong kawala. Para bang huli ka! I surrendered everything. I embraced everything. I admitted that whatever that had happened in my life, I allowed it and I chose those things to happen. It was so spontaneous, no script whatsoever.”
All throughout our three-hour conversation Maricel never for one moment appeared emotional or dramatic despite the passionate and personal topics at hand.
“I can always say that this is always me. I am still me. I just found peace in the midst of a chaotic world,” she proudly proclaims.
Each day she communes with God. She starts her prayers with the Act of Contrition and proceeds to seek for the gift of wisdom. She credits the inner peace she found to the struggles and crises.
She says she is now more perceptive, sensitive to the feelings of others, and determined to explore and enjoy life.
The joy of motherhood. She reveals that it has been more than a decade now that she had not gone out on a romantic date. She enjoys playing the role of mother to her two teenage sons, Marron, 19, and Tien, 13. Being a mother, she says, “is a growing up and learning process.”
“Each of us goes through a process. We learn life’s lessons through the many times we stand up from failures, and that is how I want my sons to be molded as they grow, to value the beauty of struggle and winning battles,” she explains.
Like other parents who painstakingly rear their children, Maricel does not consider motherhood as a problem but rather as a challenge and a fulfillment.
Art imitates life. In fact, in her role as wife and mother in two of her former hit sitcoms, Kaya ni Mister, Kaya ni Misis which eventually became Bida si Mister, Bida si Misis -- both opposite Cesar Montano -- she tried to replicate the role of the late Nida Blanca in John & Marsha as a loving and supporting mother to her offspring, played by Maricel. The current sitcom John En Shirley is an offshoot of the old show where Maricel now plays the grown-up daughter of Dolphy and Susan Roces.
Maricel is one star who dared during her heydays along with Sharon Cuneta to take on the role of a bida-kontrabida in the film Kaya Kong Abutin ang Langit, which led to more mature roles for her. Looking back, she says it was a brave move and welcomes the idea of doing similar roles in the future.
Asked if there are still dream roles that she hasn’t done, she says, “I prefer roles that are very contemporary. I want to be able to touch more lives through the medium that I have chosen to work with.” Her character in her latest film, Inang Yaya, is one that most mothers could identify with. She is a nanny to a kid and at the same time a mother to her own daughter who is under the care of another woman. The story is something that is a common reality these days.
What she wants to achieve in the roles she takes is to be a “mirror” to her audience and to connect with them effectively. “I am particular with the story. May kurot ba sa puso ko ito? Tinamaan ba ako?”
Maricel sees her chosen profession as a venue to make a difference.
“It is a question of how do I contribute in order to be a blessing to anyone. It is no longer about me. It’s about them.”
In her younger days she dreamt of becoming a flight attendant in order to be exposed to different cultures or becoming a lawyer. Those dreams may have faded but she does not have any regrets about everything that she had gone through and finally becoming an actress. After all, being a Diamond Star is no small matter.
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