Martin, next in line

We’re referring to Martin del Rosario of ABS-CBN. The meetings were arranged by Star Magic for the former.
Here’s what we found out.

Shy Guy: His mother says that as a child, Martin del Rosario, an honor graduate in both elementary (valedictorian) and high school (salutatorian) at Lourdes School in QC, was so shy he could not bring himself to talk before an audience.

One time, he was to take part in an oratorical contest and he couldn’t memorize the rather long piece.

His parents ordered him to stand in a corner of the living room as some form of punishment. He was warned not to leave the spot until he had memorized the piece.

The stand-up sessions went on for several days, interrupted, of course, by the regular activities of a normal child.

In the end, Martin memorized the oration and went on to win a place in the contest. Martin, who’s turning 19 in November and a promising actor at ABS-CBN, now credits his prowess in memorizing long lines off his script to all that standing in the living room.

His mother, Tet, now refers to him as the first stand-up actor in the family.

Standout Performance: Following a standout performance in “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin,” Martin is being groomed by ABS-CBN as its next target of a build up campaign.

Abby Niestas, his handler at Star Magic, reports that her ward, who started acting in 2007, will be promoted soon as a full-fledged leading man in a teleserye that’s now-a-brewing.

Martin characteristically shrugs off congratulatory remarks thrown his way over lunch, preferring to be low-key through it all. He’s still shy and speaks little and credits these same characteristics in maintaining a good balance between his public and personal lives.

All that peace and quiet about him, however, creates an outlet as soon as he faces the camera. The shy boy is left in the background, overtaken by whatever character he plays.

In “Minsan,” Martin says he was truly intimidated by the senior stars and his more seasoned co-actors like Coco Martin and Maja Salvador. It didn’t help any that he was asked to level up to their maturity as actors.

Martin is currently at work as second lead on a movie starring Gerald Anderson and Sarah Geronimo. He goes to UP as a Business student intending to shift to Broadcast Communication next semester.

SOURCE: http://mb.com.ph/node/335989/martin-bea-next-line