|
|
|
|
|
Paolo
Montalban - More than Just A Pretty Face
By Carla Robinson
Paolo
Montalban may be years removed from his native home in the
Philippines, but he has retained the breezy allure that is so typical of
people of the sun. When I walk into the hotel room where we are to
discuss his role in American Adobo, the first thing he asks is if he
can fix me a drink. For a moment, I forget whether I'm about to carry
on business or pleasure. Before I turn on my tape recorder, he asks if
I'm sure I don't want anything to drink, or, better yet, how about
something to eat? I assure him that I'm fine, thank him for his
refreshing hospitality, and settle in for one of the most relaxed
interviews I've ever conducted.
It's an understatement to say that the 28 year-old
actor, voted one of People Magazine's "Fifty Most Beautiful
People" in 1998, is a looker. Although he acts surprised when I
tell him that with a puss like his, he could get pigeonholed into
playing pretty-boy parts, his resume legitimizes my comment. His big
break came when he was cast as Prince Charming opposite Brandy's
Cinderella and Whitney Houston's Fairy Godmother in Disney's 1997
smash TV version of the classic
fable. Currently, he's juggling parts
in the TV show "Mortal Kombat: Conquest" (where he's a
featured hunk) and a stage production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Cinderella. Next, he'll do The King and I at The Papermill Playhouse
in New Jersey, and I'd bet my bottom dollar that he'll be displaying
plenty of chest to go with his charm. That is, if the show's producers
know what's good for it.
|
|
|
|
© 2001 Magic Adobo Productions
Paolo
Montalban in American Adobo
|
|
With a tiny bit of
arm-twisting, Montalban confesses that his image isn't exactly an
accident. "I'm familiar with the Prince Charming angle," he
says, "because I've worked my whole life to try and be
that." In order to play Raul, the womanizing cad in American
Adobo, he says he had to use the same finesse, but with a
different spin. "It's the same guy, but instead of being
thoughtful, he's thoughtless." Montalban says he's proud of the
film.
|
|
|
|
"The great thing about the movie is
that it's about friends and there's no good guy and no bad guy.
Everyone's good and bad. They piss each other off and make each other
happy. That's real people." I can't resist needling him about the
People Magazine thing, and he takes it in stride.
|
|
|
|
"I think they just wanted to throw
a guy on a white horse in Malibu Valley and have a two-page
spread," he jokes, one-upping me. When I accuse him of having
campaigned for the honor, he laughs. "Are you kidding? When they
called me up, I thought I'd won money. I didn't believe them until it
hit the shelves."
Clearly, Montalban doesn't take his
"princely" status too seriously. "It's not like I walk
into a club and say, 'Hey baby, you know who you're talking to?' I
don't sit in the bar conveniently browsing through my 1998 issue of
People Magazine."M
February 2002
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
Support MOSAEC, Visit Our Sponsors
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Vote for MO'
Make Donation Below |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
