Every child and woman wanted to be a mermaid when the movie “The Little Mermaid” came out. My daughter had mermaid fin-leggings made for her birthday. Children in parties sang Ariel’s song, “Look at this stuff, isnt it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete.”
THE AUTHOR with Ria Atayde as mermaids
So, imagine how excited I was when I was cast as the sea doctor mermaid on ABS-CBN’s Sunday primetime TV series “Wansapanataym,” until the challenges presented itself. During the costume fitting, they told me my silicon fins were Anne Curtis’ from her series “Dyesebel” and you know how sexy Anne is. My legs were so squished I could feel the bones of my knees.
The costume designer said it will get better when we are at sea. Well, it did though the sea was very rocky during the shoot. We had to keep afloat with our heavy silicon fins and I had to engage my core for around two hours under the scorching sun to show my fins.
“The struggle is real,” said Ria Atayde, actress and daughter of Sylvia Sanchez. She is my daughter Merlina on the series. But because the two of us are passionate about acting, struggles like these are a walk in park. The saying there’s no business like show business is not true. We work for a living. It’s not all glitz and glamor.
The fantasy series titled “Ofishially Yours” with the pun on the fish as the main character portrayed by “Pinoy Big Brother” star Elisse Joson becomes a mermaid (half-fish). You will have to watch next Sunday why and how she becomes one. Last Sunday, her character was already introduced as this brat who does not care about anything nor anyone else but herself. She owns a bar near the beach and when she throws tantrums, she would throw bottles into the beach, thus, polluting the sea.
I particularly love the hair-pulling scene of Ria and Elisse last Sunday. Ria’s character Merlina was sent to land to clean up the polluted waters. She had to transform into a human with legs in order to do this and I made the pearl that I gave her to transform.
When she became human and was cleaning the bay, Elisse was throwing her usual tantrum and threw a bottle near the beach that hit Ria’s head. This was the beginning of the conflict.
“Ofishially yours” also stars BoybandPH. The group is composed of Ford Valencia, Joao Constancia, Niel Murillo, Russell Reyes, and Tristan Ramirez. Also in the cast are action star Jeric Raval as King Agos, the king of the seas and multi-awarded actress Janice de Belen as Elisse’s mom. The fantasy series runs for eight Sundays at 6:45 p.m.