The call that rewrote Kim Molina’s career
If it weren’t for this missed callback, Kim Molina’s career could have gone in a drastically different direction. In 2018, while waiting on the set of “Maalaala Mo Kaya” for her final scene of the day, she received an unexpected phone call. It was from a local liaison for the creative team behind the international tour of “Miss Saigon.” They had returned to Manila to scout talent for the upcoming production, and Molina learned that she was in the final running for the role of Gigi.
They only needed to hear her sing in person, she was told, and the role was as good as hers.
“They wanted me for Gigi, and they needed me to be in Makati at 8 p.m. They said, ‘You just have to sing, and that’s it. You’re in, okay na,’” Molina shares at a recent press conference for her upcoming film, “Wonderful Nightmare.”
She couldn’t, for the life of her, leave. Still relatively new to mainstream showbiz, she didn’t want to sneak out and risk being seen as unprofessional. Ironically, it was her theater-honed discipline that ended up holding her back from what could have been her biggest break as a theater actress.
“I said, ‘I’m on the set, ‘di ako pwedeng umalis.
Mapapagalitan ako. Nakakahiya!’ Galing ako sa teatro, and my mindset was that kapag nasa work ako, ‘yun lang ang focus ko,” she says. “I asked if they could wait, and they said no.”
A full-circle moment—almost
Long story short, Molina missed the callback—only for her scene to be shot at 12 midnight. “Iyak ako nang iyak sa kotse,” she recalls. It would have been a full-circle moment since she was actually named after Kim from “Miss Saigon.”
And to add insult to injury, when she later watched the episode, she saw that her screen time was but a blip—literally just her passing by.
She wouldn’t call it “a nightmare,” or maybe even a career regret, at least now that she has the benefit of hindsight. After that heartbreak, Molina landed her biggest movie break with “#Jowable,” which reportedly earned P115 million at the box office. Her role in the hit afternoon drama “Kadenang Ginto” was also given more prominence.
“I just told myself that maybe something else is waiting for me,” she says. Perhaps it was what was meant for her, and she’s thankful for it. “If natuloy ‘yung ‘Miss Saigon,’ feeling ko wala ako dito ngayon. Baka hindi si Je (actor Jerald Napoles, her fiancé) ang mapapangasawa ko. Now, it just feels like one of those dreams you have, but don’t know why you had.”
Theater ethic in film
Molina’s trajectory would continue to grow toward TV and film. And while she hasn’t been as active onstage (one of her last stage outings was “Zsazsa Zaturnnah the Musical… ‘Yun Lang!”), she still gets to apply her theater ethic in different media.
“We keep on studying. We always take inspiration from other actors whenever we watch movies or plays. We observe how they approach their work, which in turn also helps us,” she tells Lifestyle Inquirer. “I would love to take further acting lessons.”
This mindset helps, especially for projects she anticipates to be challenging, like “Wonderful Nightmare,” which opens on Feb. 25. Because it’s an adaptation of a Korean hit—which also already has a Taiwanese version—it comes with built-in pressure and inevitable comparisons.
Molina plays Lui Manuel, a successful but emotionally guarded lawyer whose life is upended by a car accident caused by a clerical error in heaven; someone else with the same name was supposed to die. To fix it, she must return to Earth as a weary housewife and mother for a month.
Thrown into family life and modest means, Lui gradually learns to care for her child (Althea Ruedas) and appreciate her husband’s (Napoles) kindness, and in the process, experiences a life she never knew before.
Distinctly Filipino
While the script is largely the same, she knew she had to inject her own twist and add a distinctly Filipino flavor to make it more relatable to the local audience. “It’s my dream to take on an adaptation, but I was also nervous because I knew I had to make it different,” she explains. “All the nuances—the way I talked, the way I spoke—I figured out my own way.”
“Knowing that parenting differs from family to family, from culture to culture, I drew inspiration from my own mom,” she adds.
While doing film and television has been an enjoyable and instructive experience, Molina—who rose to prominence onstage playing Aileen in “Rak of Aegis”—says she would still love to return to her theater roots and immerse herself in the thriving local scene. Time can be difficult to come by, though. In fact, she had to decline a role because rehearsals would coincide with her upcoming honeymoon. (She and Napoles plan to wed in March)
“Back then, there were only a few plays, and if you didn’t make it in, then that’s it,” she says. “But now there are so many shows. And I know that there will always be opportunities for me.”
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