Cinemalaya win helps expand ‘Rookie’ actress’ versatility

Patricia “Pat” Tingjuy has made great strides after bagging the 2023 Cinemalaya best actress trophy for her performance in “Rookie.” Not in acting, though, but in another aspect of her life.

Pat is also an architect. In fact, she attended her oath-taking ceremony on the same day she won in last year’s edition of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival for Samantha Lee’s female-centric full-length feature.

“The day that I won best actress was also the day of my oath-taking, making me officially an architect. The week after that, I already started working,” Pat told reporters in a gathering to launch her as one of two new artists of Nyma, the transdigital talent management agency under Kroma Entertainment.

“After shooting in April, I went looking for an architecture job. I never thought of the effect of making ‘Rookie’ on me. I never thought I’d win any award. I even forgot that they were giving awards,” she said, adding that she felt a lot of pressure while doing the movie. “I would always think, ‘I shouldn’t mess up.’ I didn’t want to hassle anyone. I was new and I still didn’t know how to do it, so I just followed everything they said.”

In “Rookie,” a high school volleyball coach (Agot Isidro) spots Ace (Pat) on her first day at a new school and invites her to try out for the team. While initially feeling out of place, everything changes when she falls for the volleyball team captain Jana (Aya Fernandez), who dislikes her because she sees her as a threat. Ace eventually finds friendship and freedom with her teammates, but a postgame incident involving the team’s physical therapist changes her world forever.

Positive reactions

Pat said she was flattered to hear positive reactions from members of the LGBTQIA+ community on how she represented them in the story. “I didn’t expect it would affect people this way. I was kind of overwhelmed after the film because people were sending me messages, thanking me for representing them. I just said ‘thank you’ also,” she added.

Pat said she has always wanted to try acting when she was younger but didn’t know how, until she met a friend who does TV commercials. “I asked him, ‘How do you do that?’ He told me that he has an agent and could introduce me. From then, I began doing commercials myself. After some time, another friend, who is also a producer, sent me a message to say I should audition for ‘Rookie.’ I did, and one thing led to another, then I got the role,” she recalled.

Now that she has Nyma handling her career, Pat said: “I’d like to position myself as a versatile performer. As much as I want to focus on my acting, I still want to try other things. Also, I have no specific genre that I want to pursue right now. I guess I’ll know when I’m there.”

She said she would love to work with writer-filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone, who co-produced “Rookie” under Project 8 Projects. “I first saw her after attending a workshop for ‘Rookie.’ Kinilig ako. I also want to collaborate with Dan Villegas, her partner. For actors, I want to work with Ms. Dolly de Leon and Liza Soberano,” Pat said.“Work doesn’t always have to be in acting, or the performing arts. It could also be in architecture, like studying landscape architecture because my dream project is to build a resort,” she said.

Pat is also very much into sports. She used to be a volleyball head coach for Spike and Serve Philippines. “I love tennis and volleyball—every aspect of it. Sports makes me a better person. It makes me aim for something. This also reflects outside the court, stadium or field. I’m hoping to still be able to play volleyball professionally so I can take it off my bucket list,” she said.

The other new Nyma talent is Adelina Eugenio, who has 3.2 million followers on TikTok. She is celebrated for her engaging and educational beauty content. “I contacted Nyma because I felt like I was already working too much that I would sometimes experience burnout. I see what they do for other content creators. I know this is something I want to do for a living. I want to stay in the business,” said Adelina, who is also interested in doing commercials and event hosting.

Meanwhile, Kat Bautista, Nyma’s general manager, said: “Workshops are always part of our strategy, even for talents who have been with us for a long time, because they need to evolve. We’ll be investing in workshops for Pat in terms of her acting, and for Adelina, in terms of makeup and representation worldwide.”

She added: “We sat down with them. Pat has many goals, and so the challenge is how to address them all at the same time. What’s exciting is that we already have internal collaborations for Pat, like with Frances Cabatuando for architecture, or with Christian Bautista, who is not just a singer, but is also a landscape architect. For Adelina, it will be about growing her makeup brand and how to expand that.”