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Paolo Ballesteros dons the headdress and becomes Zaido’s Ida. What does he bring to the role?
Other than the main two protagonists of the old Shaider, the character most people associate with the show is the gender-bending grandson of the lead antagonist: Ida. In the GMA-7 incarnation of the franchise, Paolo Ballesteros dons the headdress and becomes Zaido’s Ida. What does he bring to the role? And why did he accept the role in the first place? Paolo Ballesteros cleared that the reason he accepted the role of Ida was because of the challenge it poses to him as an actor. He explained, “Nung unang sinabi sa akin na kasali raw ako sa Zaido, inisip ko anong role.” When it was revealed to him that he was being offered the role of Ida, he was confused. “The first thing na pumasok sa isip ko nung sinabing Ida, (ay) ‘yung papaano niya sabihin ‘yung ‘Time Space Warp, ngayon din!’ Sabi ko, ‘di ba, babae ‘yun?” Paolo said that because of the offer, he researched the character and found out, to his surprise, that Ida is in fact a man. He scoured the internet for clips of the old series just to find out for certain. “Kasi, parang hindi ako makapaniwala na lalaki pala si Ida. Kasi ‘di ba, nung pinalabas sa atin, ‘yung voice niya (pambabae)? “So ako, parang, ah okay. At least mas challenging, sabi nga nila, dahil magpo-portray (ako) ng kakaiba. Tapos ‘yun nga, ‘yung boses iba. It’s not the usual na kontrabida kasi hindi siya lalaki, hindi rin siya babae. Even after his initial apprehension, Paolo still felt a little nervous about the role -- especially because a lot of fans are familiar with the Philippine-dubbed voice. To make sure he gets it correctly, he watched the available clips of the original series online and tried his best to imitate the voice. “Ayun, pinanood ko ‘yung babaeng voice na dito lang sa Pilipinas. Tapos, pinanood ko rin ‘yung Japanese voice niya. Bale, ‘yung pinaka-preparation ko (is) pina-practice ko ‘yung voice niya. “When I got the script, binabasa ko (na) ‘yung mga lines niya. Tinitignan ko kung paano ko siya pwedeng i-deliver.” Paolo shared that he had a hard time with Ida at first. After all, the character is a transvestite who doesn’t show a lot of emotion, whereas actors bank on showing their emotions to show their acting range. “So pina-practice ko ‘yung lines ko using the voice, kung paano sasabihin (ni Ida.)” To really prepare for the role, Paolo laughed as he revealed that he did most of his training in front of his bathroom mirror, copying Ida’s deadpan delivery and voice. -- Text by Jason John S. Lim. Photos by Mitch S. Mauricio. The conquest of the Kuuma for universal dominance continues every weeknight on Zaido! Catch Paolo Ballesteros as the beautiful Ida right after your daily dose of news from 24 Oras. You can also watch him every Saturday on the long-running noontime show, Eat Bulaga! Opinionated on how Paolo voices Ida? Talk about it at the iGMA forums with fellow Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan fans! If you’re not yet registered, take the time to register now! Who knows? You might even get to chat with your favorite Kapuso star! Plus, check out other Zaido character articles exclusively found on iGMA.tv! Zaido Files: Gallian Zaido Files: Cervano The Amasonas Feel the Fun with Fanatxt by texting PAOLOB to 4627! (Each Fanatxt message costs PhP2.50 for GLOBE, SMART, and TALK 'N TEXT, while it costs PhP2.00 for Sun subscribers)