Post by Sky on Dec 20, 2005 2:31:00 GMT 7
Hollywood Dreaming with Julia, not Roberts
First posted 05:38pm (Mla time) Dec 16, 2005
By Albert Pili
Inquirer
Editor's Note: Published on Page C4 of the December 16, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
JULIA CLARETE IS GOING TO Hollywood. How about that? Considering that her main motivation for joining the competitive reality show, Hollywood Dream, was to merely do a monologue and just have enough TV exposure to keep herself working, Julia got more than what she bargained for when she actually won.
And to think that the ruggedly beautiful actress was a dark horse in a tough playing field that included promising newcomers like Rafael Rossell, comebacking young stars like Baron Geissler and Roxie Barcelo and veterans like John Arcilla, Pinky Amador and award-winning actor Raymond Bagatsing—whom she beat by just a single vote—it made her victory even sweeter.
“I just want to keep working, that’s all,” Julia told this writer at the Eat Bulaga dressing room during a break from the show. “There was a time in my career when I wasn’t getting work and no one would talk to me. It was a terrible feeling that I wouldn’t want to go through again that’s why I’m constantly working very
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hard on my craft because there’s so many things to correct about me as an actress.”
Julia’s triumphant stint in Hollywood Dream is not the only Cinderella story worth writing a screenplay about. The life story of this spunky doe-eyed girl is inspiring as well. A big fan of John Lennon, she said her name was actually inspired by “Julia,” a moving ballad from The Beatles’ White Album that Lennon wrote as a tribute to his late mother.
She started her career in the hit kiddie gag show, Ang TV. Small roles in movies and the legitimate stage followed while her love for music also eventually found her singing in lounge bars. But it was a lead role in an Extelcom commercial that led to her big break.
“I became a part of ABS-CBN’s Star Circle Batch 4,” she recalls. “But it wasn’t until I got the contravida role in the soap opera ‘Sa Puso Ko’y Iingatan Ka’ that I really got noticed.”
Playing the scheming Sheila, Julia made life very difficult for Judy Ann Santos in the show and as a result got the thumbs up of the critics and the thumbs down from the fans that hated her character.
“It didn’t bother me at all that I was playing the villain or the bad girl,” she says. “I was really happy to get that role and was really challenged with the character. As for the fans feeling that way towards me then, I didn’t mind. I actually found it reassuring, in fact. The more people hated me, the more that I thought that what I was doing with my character is right.”
After her stint in that soap opera, meatier roles in more Star Cinema movies followed including the Aga Muhlach and Joyce Jimenez comedy, “Narinig Mo Na Ba Ang Latest?” and the surprise youth-oriented box office hits, Trip and Jologs.
“I miss doing films like Trip and Jologs, they’re so much fun to do. But I guess it’s like a cycle, there will always be times when those kinds of films are in demand and times when they’re not.”
Julia’s acting style is characterized by her dead-on interpretation of the characters that she plays. More often than not, it’s her eyes that say a lot more than the dialogue she’s supposed to memorize. In a horror acting segment of Hollywood Dream, Julia impressed judges Armida Siguion-Reyna and director Joel Lamangan with her largely silent interpretation of the sequence.
“Thank God, I got that right,” she says recalling the sigh of relief that she heaved when she was commended for her reading. “It’s a horror sequence so I thought I’d show how terrified I am not by screaming and saying a lot but by simply not saying anything at all and just relying on my facial expression to convey my fear.”
In between her acting career, Julia still managed to find the time to take up courses in Advanced Management and Business Administration, studies in the field of business that would serve her well in case the whole show biz well dries up.
And it almost did. After being with ABS-CBN for the longest time in her career, she was released from her contract and for a while became a freelancer. That’s when offers became few and far between and Julia found herself being an out-of-work celebrity.
“Those times were really hard and depressing,” she remembers. “I was behind in my apartment’s rentals and was about to be evicted. I just wanted a second chance.”
That second chance came when a guest stint at Eat Bulaga eventually led to a regular hosting stint. Toni Gonzaga has just left the show and for a while, the show was trying out several guest hosts to fill her void.
“I was a guest contestant in their TKO portion and I was told backstage that if I do well, the show just might consider me as one of the hosts. I actually won that contest and now I’m here.”
Although Julia had to endure unfair comparisons with her predecessor Toni Gonzaga, she proved that her effervescent presence was exactly what the show needed. It also didn’t hurt that she’s a very competent host who is more than capable of making people laugh. And she can sing and more than hold her own against the likes of Ciara Sotto and Gladys Guevarra in the much-awaited TKO portion of the show. In short, she was a perfect fit.
But you know what happens when it rains? Yes, it pours and Julia’s blessings did not stop with her Eat Bulaga break. For the first time in her career, she is now an image endorser of Bonjour de Corp, a local casual wear line she now wears in the show and for most of her waking hours.
An outgoing girl, Julia prefers things that are out of the ordinary—extreme sports like ultimate freesbee, artwork by Francis Bacon and Gustav Klimt and, believe it or not, farming in New Zealand which is actually her “ultimate dream.”
Her fondness for rock music is also something that she can now afford to indulge. Julia is currently fronting a band called Circus that covers classics by the Rolling Stones, The Doors and The Clash. They’re now coming up with their own original material. She also has solo singing stints, working her butt off to save for a laptop that she’s long been dreaming of having.
With her victory in Hollywood Dream, that laptop may not be the only wish that will be granted for Julia this year. With a much-coveted Screen Actors Guild card as one of her prizes, there will certainly be numerous opportunities for this very talented artist to well, eventually pass the audition.