Rhian's Italian Experience

Filming for ‘I.T.A.L.Y.’ is a lot of fun, per Rhian Ramos’s stories. But just how fun is Rhian’s fun? The young actress reveals just how much of a workaholic she is, and shares some of her fondest memories while filming her latest movie. Text and Photos by Jason John S. Lim. Rhian Ramos can not please everyone and she knows this, so instead she focuses on pleasing those who she can—like the Filipino crew of Costa Magica! As per Gone to Italia, Rhian explains how the crew they met didn’t even know each other, how she and her co-stars asked to throw a party for them at the ship before they left, and how much fun that was. But there are also other sorts of fun that she wants to talk about! Working abroad Working aboard a cruise with a time limit is enough to stress anyone, but Rhian says that they made sure to make it all fun so they don’t feel the pressure. “All of us were really determined to make this a really good movie in the fastest amount of time.” And besides, who can’t have fun while working atop a cruise ship in another country, right? Rhian adds that they had very great crew to work with as well! “They’re so hard-working!” Getting to work with Dennis Trillo Dennis has a reputation of being very quiet when not the one on-call, but Rhian says that she was pleasantly surprised to find out that there’s another fold in this claim: “Once you get to talk to him [pala], he’s really nice and he’s fun to talk to. “He makes the funniest comments!” The Italian experience Rhian is a seasoned traveler (she admits that she’s a frequent visitor of Thailand). So she doesn’t have a problem with understanding accented English. “[And the Italians] are a little more fluent than Thai people.” “You understand [that you have] to bear with the accent and talk slow when you’re having a converstion.” The young actress says that there isn’t really a problem with that. Especially since the actors she speaks with “they’re pretty intelligent and they’re fun to converse with.” Learning a new language “When we walk around the ship, we’re all ‘Buongiorno!’ But sometimes, we end up saying ‘Bon Jovi’!” Rhian shares with a laugh. She continues that this happened so often, that even the Italians they worked with starting calling out ‘Bon Jovi’ to them as well. “But one that I learned without connection to the movie is when we hang out with the crew.” The bubbly actress explains that the crew they were with also knew Spanish and French, other than Italian. And whenever they would greet her, they would say ‘Good morning, Bella’, “which is supposed to be ‘pretty’ or something.” Of course with learning a new language, there are other less-nicer things to learn. “‘Yung iba, tinuruan akong magmura—it’s so funny!” “It’s always like that though,” she adds. “They’ll teach you the rude stuff [first, and] then later on you get to converse.” Getting to exercise her comic timing “There’s a certain amount of comedy in this flick,” Rhian begins, saying that it’s something she really appreciates about I.T.A.L.Y., that there are moments that for each character where they could break the tension. She also adds that her role in the movie is very different from what she usually does for Bubble Gang. “Ang yabang ng pagka-comedy ko dito; maangas ako sa movie na ‘to. And Mark and I would kind of play with each other’s minds. “It’s something that I think would be fun to watch for the Filipino audience,” she finishes, before adding that she hopes people appreciate their chemistry in the movie. All geared up for I.T.A.L.Y.? Talk about it at the iGMA Forums! And if you’re not yet registered, register now! Who knows? You might even get to chat with your favorite Kapuso Artist through the iGMA Live Chat! Or you could learn more about the movie from its stars! Just key in RHIAN on your mobile phone, and send to 4627 for all telcos. You can also subscribe to DENNIS, JOLINA or MARK by texting their names instead. Each Fanatxt message costs PhP2.50 for GLOBE, SMART, and TALK 'N TEXT, and PhP2.00 for Sun subscribers. (This service is available only in the Philippines)