Hot Property

She's on the list of sexy stars to watch out for, but there's more to Mylene Dizon
than being a boldie.
By Heinz Bulos
May 200J

ylene Dizon hates being
compared to Rica Paralejo.
She's oended by people
branding her as a boldie. And she is ed
up o the same question being asked oer
and oer: "a/it /a vagbota." She says she
already has a standard reply: "ota ba ,vv.
^ag brebrea.tfeea /a vg bata."

People remember Mylene as a co-host o
the teen magazine show, "Kada". Len
then, she already had a one-o-the-boys
persona. She shited to acting a ew years
later because she needed money to
support hersel, since her whole amily is
in the States.

She neer actually dreamt o being an
actress, seeing hersel more o a person
behind the camera. As a child, she'd
rather take the pictures and the ideos
than be in them. 1he idea o being in
showbiz was ar rom her mind.

She decided to take up Communication
Arts the day ater she auditioned or
"Kada", when she ound out that the
people behind the show were ormer
Lassalites who took up the course in
college. She was a reshman then, taking
up Lconomics and Business
Management, and totally lost and
traumatized by her irst accounting class.
She had always wanted to take up
something related to the arts but had
been unsure about what she wanted
exactly.

Putting together her loe or being
behind the camera and her hatred or
accounting, she decided the next day to
shit course. She was one thesis away
rom completing her course when her
mother insisted she stay in the States with
them or good. Ater liing there or our
months, she decided to return to the
country and lie independently.

She became an actress to support hersel,
joining ABS-CBN's Star Circle. In the
batch's press introduction, contrary to
showbiz people's propensity to tag
upcoming stars as the next so-and-so, she
raised quite a number o eyebrows when
she exclaimed, tongue in cheek, "li, I'm
Mylene Dizon. I am vot going to be the
next Aiko Melendez!"

In hindsight, she was right. Aiko is in
hibernation while she is 1he Next Big
1hing. \ho happens to be in a plain t-
shirt and aded jeans making hersel at
home at Lddie Boy Lscudero's home
studio.

Mylene is not what you'll call a great,
classic beauty in the mold o say, lilda
Koronel. She's pretty alright, and bucks
the typical ve.tia arti.ta. She has little
va.a appeal, otherwise she would hae
ollowed the ootsteps o Jolina
Magdangal and Judy Ann Santos. She
doesn't hae the lusty appeal o Joyce
Jimenez or Anjanette Abayari, who hae
all the large cures in all the right places.
She also does not possess any quirky style
that will position hersel or instance as a
bimbo like Rua Mae Quinto.

In short, she would hae been stuck in
teen lick hell. A supporting bit here and
there, and the occasional dance number
at noontime shows. Respected as an
actress perhaps, like Cherry Pie Picache,
but obscure. 1here are two things that
M
pushed her out o her hole: acting talent
and timely packaging.

She had been recognized as Best New
Actress, so no one doubts her abilities.
She's probably the only actress playing a
teenager who can brood and show angst
and be belieable. ler packaging as a
serious, more mature actress came at a
time when it seemed only local moies
promoted as sex ilms made money. It
was conenient or the showbiz press to
brand her as a good girl gone bad,
alongside Rica Paralejo and Assunta de
Rossi. In any case, it worked.

Mylene in person sounds like Mylene as
described in interiews -- tomboyish,
irreerent, opinionated, her language
shiting between cottegiata slang and ba/,a
lingo. She likes to cuss, in a manner o
beer buddies -- macho poseurs who curse
in un. She is anything but sweet. I only
she doesn't look so great in lingerie, you'd
look at her as one o the boys.

During the interiew, she spoke as i she's
perorming. It's not an act but it seems
that's just how she talks. She pondered,
she murmured, she guawed, she argued,
she baby talked, she called a spade a
damn dirty shoel. She had an opinion on
a lot o things, some o them lawed but
all o them with coniction. I she doesn't
know something, she'll say so.

Career on the Rise
biously, Mylene and her
managers made the right
decision to do the moie,
"Gatas". It was the break she needed, and
the end to all the teenybopper roles or
the 25-year old. "I'e always wanted to
get out o that," she intoned.

At the height o the bold trend in local
cinema, promoting "Gatas" as a bold
moie and Mylene as the next bold star
was plain good business sense. I it had
been promoted as an historical moie,
who would hae watched it Mylene was
oended by the label but just went along,
knowing that's how it works.

1he moie did well at the box oice and
garnered critical acclaim at the same time.
Most important, it established Mylene as,
on one hand, a serious actress, and on the
other hand, a sexy star.

She abhors the boldie label and being
compared to another teenybopper-
turned-sexpot, Rica Paralejo. At the same
time, she acknowledges the act that the
moie, and the warped promotion, hae
boosted her career. "It did add a little
something to my name. People who saw
'Gatas' saw that the moie was not really
commercial. It's nice because I get my
own one-on-one interiews, I get my own
eatures in the magazines. \e can look at
scripts now, and now I can really pick. I
can say no to the not-so-nice ones."

ler next project is with Via, and to
aoid being pigeonholed, she decided to
take a dierent route. She said, "\e
wanna go the opposite way but at the
same time, it will hae the same /ititi."

She doesn't hae one dream role, as she
inds hersel impressed by perormances
in the latest ilms she gets to watch. 1ake
or instance the controersial "Lie
Show", aka "1oro".

1hat's one kind o role she'd loe to play.
She's drawn to obeat, out-o-the-norm
characters, "It's like when I saw a moie
o Angelina Jolie with \inona...Girl,
Interrupted. Dream role /o riv ,vv. Like
when I did 'Gatas', that was not a typical
war chick."

Right now, she's into the Meryll Streep
school o acting. "\hen she's crying,
she's vatatara. It's not your typical Pinoy
acting. I hate it when arti.ta. cry, they just
O
stand there and let their tears all. a/o
ictim aiv a/o voov, givagara /o riv ,vv /a.i
a/ata /o ,vv ,vvg tava."

I gien the chance to direct a moie, she
said she would direct an "angry ilm, like
Natural Born Killers". Looking back, she
recalled doing ideos or class projects
wherein she got all her main characters
killed in the end, in saage, non-typical
ways at that.

It wasn't angst or a dark nature she
ascribed this inclination to. Just a taste or
the non-ordinary and a need or artistic
expression.

Of Cameras and Computers
ne thing Mylene misses is being
able to go around the streets and
taking photos with her manual
SLR camera. She used to go around in
relatie obscurity shooting people and
street scenes, in black-and-white,
photojournalistic style. Now, people
recognize her and haen taken to posing
beore the camera.

One would think she's into gadgets like
digital cameras. "Actually no," she said,
"I'm araid o change," pointing out her
old, beat-up jeans as an example o how
diicult it is or her to dispense with her
old stu. Ironic or a girl who changed
her image practically oernight.

But she loes to play with Adobe
PhotoShop Deluxe on her computer,
manipulating her photos such as changing
the hue on the ly. "ley look! It's turning
green!" acting out her amazement.

She's ar rom being a techie, begging not
to be asked what the specs o her PC are.
"It's the equialent o a Pentium 3" is all
she oered. She plays Pinball and
Solitaire with her computer, hardly surs
because it takes oreer to download
pages. "^a/a/aiv /a va, vagtootbbrv.b /a
va, ai ba tao.. Mageerror a!" 1he typical
whining o an Internet user. She uses a
prepaid Internet card since she hardly
consumes online time.

She howeer e-mails her amily a lot and
uses DialPad to get in touch with her
loed ones. She relishes the idea that they
don't hae to pay long-distance phone
bills to talk or hours.

She tried to do research on the \eb to
prepare or "Gatas", but all she ound
were a couple o war-time photos that
didn't help a lot. She relied on her
grandma and other senior citizens to
know about how people those days
talked, behaed, and dressed up.

She has no plans o haing an oicial
website. She had one years beore
actually, when Cybernet Lie hosted a site
or her. She was asked a ew questions
and beore she knew it, she had a
homepage. But nothing much came out
o it ater. Now, it's ABS-CBN and
PinoyCentral that post materials about
her on their site. 1he thought o hiring
someone to make her oicial site is
embarrassing or her. "I preer i
someone just approached me," she
explained.

Sex and the Net
ylene said she has mixed
emotions about the Internet.
She likes the act that it helps
her communicate with riends and amily
easily. \et, at the same time, she's aghast
at the bizaare stu aailable online.

"^aatir a/o .a vga hacked pictures. Pero
yung pornography, some are va/a/a
evgav,o. Spy cam, agina cam, tabat vg cam
verov ai,av!" She's seen ake nude photos
o her, which she thought ridiculously
unny and didn't bother her at all. ".tav
vavav vg amily /o ai a/o ,vv." She een
O
M
kidded she'd get those guys to teach her
PhotoShop tricks.

Cyberporn is a source o amusement or
her. But she gets grossed out at the
hardcore ones. "Some are okay, some are
sexy, some are done really well. But there
are some va gross, like 'Shit on my lace",
"Lat my Shit"...eww!...yuck! Yvv tataga
vv/ba vi,a, ivieat vi,a ,vvg eb. vvvg babae.
Di /o /a,a. Cavvv va ba /aairi vga tao
vga,ov. .t .a/a, ,vvg vga "\orld's Largest
500 Gang Bang!" 500 Crabe itovg babaevg
ito, talented!"

She's aware though o the need or
responsibility, especially at home, as well
as the utility o controlling the Internet.
"1here are \eb nannies, so i eer you
hae kids who can access the
Internet...I'm not sure though /vvg gavvv
/a-eectie." 1old that Net ilters are not
100 eectie, she resigned to the
ineitable. "Yvvg ad a tavg vita verov va.
low do you control something like that
a aivavi aavivg porn sites today, gavvv ba
/aaavivg pererts .a vvvao Merov a .itavg
or 2 dollars, verov /avg 3-day trial. 1attovg
arar /avg 'yeah, yeah!'"

I eer a ideo still or publicity photo o
her naked circulates around the Net, she
said she'd just let it go, "!ata va a/ovg
vagagara. ivataba. /o va vga .a eti/vta,
bat a a/o vagaa-girl." Asked about
what she'll do i the notorious case o
Rua Guittierez whose nude photo taken
in a priate party got posted all oer the
Net happened to her, she replied, "I saw
that one...avg ibte-blame /o .ariti /o.
Responsible a/o, ba/it a/o vva,ag,
knowing va celebrity a/o and knowing va
reae vavg,ari ,vv. Ma/abavgga vo /vvg
.ivo vav va, bara/ vg ideocam. \ou're
dead, man."

Mylene has no qualms about cybersex, "I
did it once. \ith my boyriend a then.
le bought a computer. ^agataga, /avi
vg Internet...'bv,, cybersex!'. I mean let's
be honest, vagigivg naughty ta,o /aag va,
gav,av. '\hoa!'. It's just out o curiosity,
just plain un. ^vvg vva vagvtat a/o, avg
aavivg channels. Kavi va.a mIRC e.
Davivg channels! 18 and oer, 40 and
oer, black 18, white 18, teens, children,
3-way sex..." she recalled bemusedly.

She een assumed a sexy character in chat
sessions, prompted by her then boyriend
what to write, just to ool around with
sex-stared strangers. Dati vvv, ai a a/o
arti.ta vvv, tivataga, /ovg description .i
Amanda Page. .t avg nickname /o
'Amanda'! ievre avg aavivg vagra-
priate .a a/iv!

She doesn't see anything wrong with it.
avovg vagagara .a vga taovg ,vv, e tri
vita e .ige. I they get aroused, i they really
get o by it, then ine. Kav,a /av,a vavav.
Priate vavav, you don't reeal your
identity."

Sex and Iilm
ylene has the same open-
mindedness when it comes to
sex on ilms. She has seen the
controersial moie "Lie Show" on a
VCD copy o the director's cut. She
obsered, "Know what I like it. .vg
robteva /a.i totoo .i,a e. .tav vo vavg,a,ari
,vv. So va.,aao .i,avg totoo bivai .i,a
vatatavgga vg tao. \ou know how people
are. .,ar vitavg vaavo, avg .ariti vitavg
bavtot.

She added, "My stand would be, i
courageous /a enough ara vatavav /vvg
avo avg vati .a i,o, watch it. Pero /vvg in
denial /a, rag vovg avooriv."

1he new M1RCB is stricter this time
around, now that the Catholic Church has
re-established its hold. 1his deinitely will
aect the local ilm industry. Said Mylene,
"^a.a aviv, itovg age group vaviv
va/a.atata, ,vvg moe. Are we going to
M
ight this or not Kaitavgav vativg agtabav
because it's going to aect us, our
industry and the artists in this country.
Lerybody's going to be so scared to
ight or to express themseles. And it's
sad."

She and her ellow artists hae been
discussing possible solutions. It is up to
them to take the cudgels in upliting the
ailing local ilm industry. "Maravivg
cowards va producers," she noted,
pointing out the ormulaic method o
making moies that has turned o the
likes o Mike de Leon. Still, she sees some
hope among the new crop o directors
like Lric Matti.

ler riends hae also been mulling oer
putting up an indie awards similar to the
Sundance lilm lestial or een the local
Metropop, wherein independent and
unknown artists -- ilmmakers, animators,
musicians, artists -- can submit their work
to be judged by their own peers. Mylene
said they're toying with the name
"Desidido Awards" to relect the artists'
determination to create and present their
work. She regrets seeing artists who hae
the talent but do not hae the budget to
showcase their work to a wider audience.

As or the persistent issue o sex in ilms,
taba. vativ .i,a .a ibavg enue where we
can release stu like this. Like what they
did during the Marcos time. Merov .i,avg
.aritivg theater. I we hae our enue that
we can control e ai ok."

"1here's a place and time or eerything,"
she concluded. 1ake it rom someone
who is basking in the limelight or being
in the right place at the right time.