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With a sunny outlook and her first title role in the much-anticipated GMA primetime series ‘Sahaya,’ this Kapuso star is ready to own the summer.
Bianca Umali is happy.
It’s birthday season for the Kapuso star, who turns 19 on March 2.
But that is hardly the reason for her happiness. In fact, she does not like celebrating her birthday, preferring to just “stay at home and just watch. Or read or eat.”
“Magastos, eh!” she tells GMA News Online.
Part of the happiness is because of her upcoming show, “Sahaya,” the biggest role so far in her 10-year showbiz career.
“Sahaya is not a only a project for me, but she’s also a milestone sa buhay ko,” Bianca says.
She likes to talk about the show as if it were an actual person. “Sahaya is my first title role. And I’m very excited about that. Actually hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin nagsi-sink in sa akin,” she says.
But her happiness goes beyond career success.
“Masasabi ko what true happiness means. It is because I feel it,” she says.
With Bianca, you can sense that she truly is happy. But what does that mean, exactly?
“It is when things come to where they are supposed to be.”
The show will premiere this March, just as summer begins to kick in, which is perfect because Bianca is the ultimate summer girl. Despite her tight schedule, she always looks forward to traveling — one of her goals for the future is to go to more places, with her family and loved ones. She relishes those brief pockets of time when she can feel like herself in a foreign place, where no one knows her. While traveling, she is not Bianca the celebrity, and she can indulge in her tiny pleasures: reading, writing, painting.
Which brings us to the next reason for being happy in her role as Sahaya: “I love the beach!”
It is the one of the few luxuries she allows herself to have. And now with a new show where she plays a young woman from the sea-dwelling Badjao tribe, she gets to spend more time by the shore.
“Pareho kaming anak ng dagat,” she says of Sahaya, but quickly clarifies that it is one of only a few things she has in common with her character.
Growing up, Bianca always relished moments when she and her family would go to the beach during the summer, whenever they had time and money for a trip. When she became a celebrity and began to earn good money, Bianca even took up scuba diving as a hobby.
Now, as if proof that she and the sea are really meant to be, Bianca’s role in Sahaya requires her to take up freediving lessons — a fact she both enjoys and endures. “You would think na dahil I do scuba diving, mas madali ‘yung skin diving. But no, it’s really difficult. You really have to adjust sa skin diving from scuba diving kasi wala kang gamit na equipment.”
From the outside looking in, getting her first title role, on primetime no less, at such a tender age seems inevitable. Bianca started doing commercials at the age of two. She got her first show, the Kapuso children’s program Tropang Potchi, in 2009, when she was nine.
Thanks to her charm and natural acting talent, she received a steady stream of projects in the network’s TV dramas — from “Paroa: Ang Kuwento ni Mariposa” (topbilled by Barbie Forteza) in 2011 to “Mga Basang Sisiw” in 2013.
Her breakthrough role came via the 2014 religious drama “Niño.” The show, directed by the late Maryo J. Delos Reyes, starred Miguel Tanfelix in the title role.
“Niño” wasn’t the first time Miguel and Bianca worked together — they had both starred in “Paroa.” But their partnership on the show spawned a popular love team, lovingly called BiGuel by their fans.
Bianca and Miguel would co-star in a series of Kapuso shows — “Once Upon a Kiss” in 2015, “Wish I May” in 2016, and “Mulawin vs. Ravena” in 2017 — before they topbilled “Kambal, Karibal,” a surprise primetime hit that sealed BiGuel as a draw.
Her career trajectory is seemingly typical of any rising star. But there is a reason she has been described in past features as “not your ordinary celebrity.”
Even that would be underselling her a bit. Bianca is not your ordinary celebrity because she is not your ordinary girl.
It was her mother’s dream for Bianca to be in show business.
Sadly, she would not live long enough to see her daughter’s star shine. Bianca lost her mother when she was just five years old. Five years later, her father passed away as well, and Bianca grew up with her paternal grandmother, Lola Vicki.
“Life is not easy. With or without the situation I am in, life is not easy, I’m telling you,” Bianca says when asked to describe her life growing up. “Life is going to kill you. But it was actually an extra challenge for me, because I didn’t have a choice talaga.”
Living without her parents at a young age taught her to be responsible not just for herself, but for other people.
Lola Vicki was there each step of the way for Bianca, who pursued her mother’s dream for her.
It wasn’t easy.
Bianca recalls being an extra — “I would rather call them talents now,” she says — for TV shows such as “Darna” and films like “Yaya and Angelina: The Movie.”
With Lola Vicki at her side, she would fall in line for auditions to get bit roles. They would join the crew when it would pull out at 3 a.m. from GMA Network in Quezon City to get to location shoots, because they didn’t have a car. And because they lived in Paranaque City at the time, simply getting to work was already a lot of work.
“That time, talents weren’t really given a nice standby area. Kung saan lang pwede umupo, like sa sidewalk. Naalala ko noong time na ‘yun, lagi akong may dalang karton sa taping. Kasi ‘yung karton na ‘yun, ‘yun ‘yung hihigaan ko. Kaso hassle; kapag umulan, kapag nabasa ‘yun wala na akong hihigaan,” she says.
“My lola was always with me noon. So can you imagine? Kaming dalawa lang magkasama, nagbubuhat kami ng gamit na kaming dalawa lang.”
But those childhood experiences instilled in her many things. For one, she’s thrifty, which is one of the reasons she does not like celebrating her birthdays. She also feels restless when she’s not doing anything. “Gusto kong laging nagtatrabaho, may ginagawa, kahit naglilinis lang ng kwarto. Hindi ako mapirmi.”
These days, she manages to talk about all those experiences with a smile on her face. “The struggle was real,” Bianca says with a laugh.
She acknowledges the hardship, but she is not bitter.
“Living with my lola — and losing my parents — a lot of people see it as a tragic situation. That it’s really sad and depressing. A lot of people would tell me, ‘Hindi ko kaya ‘yan. Kung ako ‘yung nasa posisyon mo, baka nabaliw na ako ngayon.’ I don’t see it that way. I actually see it as a blessing,” she says.
She likes to think her mom and dad guided her through the early, difficult years. Looking back, Bianca realizes projects and opportunities never stopped coming for her when she needed them. “There were always opportunities for me,” she says. “And ‘yung passion and hunger ko, it never died.”
Bianca is quick to add: “I’m not happy about it. But I believe that everything happens for a reason and it does.”
It is a cliché, yes, but Bianca, with a wisdom that belies her age, injects the common aphorism with gravitas. “If it wasn’t for the things that I’ve been through, I wouldn’t have learned the things that I know now. I wouldn’t be what I am today, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I think it’s what made my heart bigger,” she says.
“I wouldn’t have a great story to tell if it didn’t happen to me.”
In that story, the biggest chapter written so far up to this point would have to be “Kambal, Karibal.”
The show — whose story involves twins, a vengeful spirit that possesses bodies, a love triangle, and a family drama — also stars Miguel Tanfelix, Kyline Alcantara, and Pauline Mendoza.
Bianca is the first to admit that “Kambal, Karibal” wasn’t expected to be much, but the audiences loved it. It became a fixture on television from November 2017 to August 2018.
“Kambal, Karibal is a big step. It’s a leap for me,” Bianca says.
But she also admits feeling lost and sad during that period. Was it because of the expectations placed on her shoulders when she headlined an unexpected hit show? Was it the fact that she became finally, legally, an adult — even though her life experiences would tell you she has been an adult long before she turned 18?
Was it because of the spotlight and the popularity — with her Instagram followers almost reaching two millions, with tabloid and news headlines calling her the next big star of GMA and the “Kylie Jenner of the Philippines”?
Bianca does not want to say. What she will say is that the period was an “eye-opener.”
“Siguro it was also Papa God’s doing,” she says. Bianca reveals that she “prays a lot,” since she was a child. “Pinakita niya sa akin kung sino dapat ‘yung mga taong pinahahalagahan ko. Kung sino ‘yung mga taong dapat minamahal ko, at kung sino ‘yung mahal ako ng tao. Kung sino ‘yung mga andiyan para saluhin ako kung walang-wala ako.”
She adds: “Maraming mga bagay during that time ang nagbukas ng mga mata ko, ang gumising sa akin. The show showed me reality — which is kind of an irony because the show is about things that you would never imagine na totoo. But because of the overall experience, it made me realize reality.”
And as expected from the young actress, Bianca manages to find a silver lining out of the experience.
“I started learning and realizing — and I started to love myself. I started taking care of myself. Because I’m actually used to putting other people first before I put myself first,” she says.
“Sa 18th year ng buhay ko, ‘yun ang natutunan ko: self-love and self-care.”
Which brings us back to why Bianca is happy these days.
There’s Sahaya, of course, which is set to premiere soon. Bianca refuses to share specific information about the show, fearing it would be a “spoiler.” But the show, directed by award-winning film director Zig Dulay, is already poised to be one of GMA-7’s grandest TV dramas to date.
“She is a Badjao girl,” Bianca says, again referring to the show as a person. “And the show’s goal is to represent ‘yung mga Badjao, ‘yung kultura nila. We are also sending a strong message for feminism din.
“People ask me, ano ba ang story ng Sahaya? Is it a love story? Is it a fantaserye? Is it a drama? It’s actually not just one of those. It’s actually everything. Sahaya is a story about life. Ano ba ‘yung lahat ng aspekto ng buhay? There’s love, there’s adventure, there’s education, there’s culture, there’s family, journey na pagdadaanan mo. All of that, mapapanood ‘yun sa Sahaya.”
This is the hardest she has had to work for a role, as Bianca had to undergo training and workshops for dancing, language, and skin diving.
Every detail, Bianca says, is given meticulous attention to stay true to the culture of the Badjao.
Yet another thing that makes her happy: her co-stars.
Aside from working with perennial onscreen partner Miguel Tanfelix, she is also working with StarStruck Season 6 Ultimate Survivor Migo Adacer for the first time.
She never gets tired of working with Miguel, Bianca says, even though they’ve done numerous shows together. “We know each other so well that we don’t need to adjust for each other anymore. Kabisado namin ‘yung isa’t isa. It’s great na I’m still working with him. If we are given the choice of who we would want to be partnered with in every project, we would choose each other because it’s easy for the both of. It’s easy to be partnered with each other,” Bianca says.
Of course, Bianca is open to work with other actors. And, she says, Miguel is open to work with other actresses. “We never close our doors with working with other people kasi hindi kami choosy sa trabaho,” she says. “But happy kami kapag kami ‘yung magkatrabaho.”
She says of Miguel: “Kasi, kami sa isa’t isa, comfort zone namin, eh.”
But all those things are just part of the trappings of showbiz. Bianca’s happiness transcends that. More than work and her career, Bianca is happy because of the people around her, because of the blessings she has received, because — perhaps for the first time in a while — everything feels like it is where it should be.
“I am happy because of everything that’s happening in my life. It’s because of how I’ve seen myself grow,” she says.
Again, Bianca does not want to elaborate. This is another thing she has learned: keeping a bit of herself, despite being a celebrity who is expected to share everything.
“I just know, right now, I am happy,” she says.
She sounds assured, confident. She knows what she wants out of life. She knows why she loves herself, amid all the hardships she has encountered in her young life.
Talking about herself in the third person, Bianca says: “My favorite part of Bianca is the stories she has to tell. She has a lot of stories to tell. And for some reason, I don’t know where she gets her words of wisdom from. She reads a lot. She prays a lot. She loves a lot. And hard. But I don’t know how or where she gets the passion and the love and the patience from.”
And unlike in her younger days, showbiz has become her dream, not just something she has to do to survive.
But she has learned to love herself more, so Bianca is now learning to focus on herself as well. She wants to travel more, for instance. She wants to spend more happy moments with her family — she has six half-siblings, children of her parents from previous marriages. She wants to make her Lola proud.
“Kung meron pa akong pagtatrabahuhan pa, it’s because of my Lola,” Bianca says.
“’Yung ibang pangarap na gusto kong ma-achieve? Sobrang dami. But kung ano ‘yung meron ako ngayon, hindi na ako hihiling pa. I am contented with the things I have — both career-wise and my personal life,” she adds.
“When I pray, lagi kong sinasabi, hindi ko deserve lahat ng meron ako. Nevertheless, I still got them. And God has actually given me more than I could ever ask for.”
Hindi ko deserve lahat ng meron ako. Bianca says this like she means it.
But we beg to differ: Bianca does deserve everything she has gotten — and more.
