Charlie Dizon is ready for any role

Charlie Dizon is beaming with contentment. And why shouldn’t she? Her winning the Best Actress award in last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) for her performance in Fan Girl opposite Paulo Avelino had created a lot of buzz and instantly made her presence felt in showbiz. Acting offers have been coming in left and right. In fact, just by enumerating the acting projects she’s done, and about to do — even in the midst of a pandemic — already makes it obvious that downtime is pretty rare on her schedule.

“I do get overwhelmed sometimes na sunod-sunod na kahit gusto ko mag-prepare ng matagal for a project (but just couldn’t),” she admits. “But I’m not one to complain. I’d rather be grateful because not everyone gets the same opportunity as I am and I feel like I’m just so blessed kasi tuloy-tuloy ‘yung trabaho ko. I mean hindi lahat ganito ‘yung na-e-experience so instead of thinking that everything is coming so fast, I’d rather be grateful more than anything else.”

Charlie shares portraying different types of character allows her to showcase her ability to lose herself in a role.

“That’s the beauty of being an actor because you get to play roles different from your personality, kumbaga you’re trying to become someone you are not. Nag-e-enjoy akong gawin ang isang character ‘pag malayo sa totoong buhay ko,” says the 25-year-old actress.

Small wonder, it excites Charlie no end for audiences to see her taking on a new role that will make them laugh, cry and fall in love with her in My Sunset Girl, directed by Andoy Ranay.

“With the role, niramdam ko talaga ‘yung given circumstances at kung bakit ganun yung nararamdaman ni Ciara,” she says, pertaining to her character whose fatal illness becomes a major hindrance to her lovelife in the iWant original series co-produced by Dreamscape Entertainment and All Blacks Media.

In My Sunset Girl, as the synopsis puts it, Charlie is free-spirited Ciara who defies her circumstances in pursuit of love and happiness. She suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum, an illness that could turn deadly if she is exposed to sunlight for a long time. As a result, Ciara’s inability to go out and travel inspires her to do vlogs and make friends online.

Ciara then meets Lucas (portrayed by Jameson Blake), a travel enthusiast who promises to help her accomplish her goals in her travel bucket list. Her strict mother (Mylene Dizon) prevents her from getting close to him and asks Lucas to stay away from her daughter. Ciara, instead, follows her heart and falls in love with Lucas.

Mothers, indeed, know best as Lucas is only manipulating Ciara to fall in love with him so that he could help his father Elias’ (Joem Bascon) evil intentions.

Meanwhile, one writer observed that Jameson has become her perennial screen partner. Asked to comment about it, Charlie nodded with a smile and said, “It depends on the management or on the project that will be given to me because I’m very open po kung ano ‘yung ikagaganda ng work, okay po ako na maka-partner si Jameson.”

Jameson, on the other hand, doesn’t see any problem with whether or not they become a permanent loveteam. He is just enjoying the moment or how far will their partnership go. “We’re just enjoying the project that we have together and making the most out of it. So, that’s what I am focused on, rather than thinking how long are we going to be (onscreen) partners.”

What Jameson likes most about Charlie is her attitude. “She’s the same person. She didn’t change na porke’t may award na s’ya or anything but I can say she’s more focused, more professional when it comes to work. Of course, before, when I met her, we weren’t working on projects like this and now that we are, nakikita ko ‘yung professionalism n’ya and I can say that we’ve become closer. Other than that, I’m really proud of her.”

Charlie maintains that she has remained the same in spite of her popularity. “Perhaps, if there’s any change in me that would be my schedule which has become so busy kasi mas nagtuloy-tuloy yung mga projects. But more than that, di ko po iniisip kung ako ‘yung lead. Mas iniisip ko kung paano ko magagawa ng maayos kada project kasi yun ang kinakatakot ko lagi na what if work suddenly becomes scarce at mawala ito sa kin. So, it doesn’t matter whether I’m the bida or not because my thoughts are always about giving my best every time there’s a project.”

And with or without a loveteam, Charlie is ready to do any role, including daring ones, that will truly put her acting ability to the test. “As long as the story requires my character to go daring, then I’ll do it.”

(My Sunset Girl will start streaming worldwide on July 14, 8 p.m. on the iWantTFC app — iOs and Android — and iwanttfc.com. New episode is every Wednesday.)