Abloom! (Rhymes with zoom! zoom!)
The waif is gone. Chynna is all woman now. Wow!By Enrique Ramos
Published in Pump (07/2005)
The reedy ingenue is no more, skinny legs and all. Don't go looking for her. She's not coming back.
Chynna - suddenly, blessedly 21 lbs. fleshier at 22 years old -- is all woman now. And this woman loves to eat. Nothing comes between her and a scrumptious serving of her all-time favorite dish. Except maybe special occasions like the PUMP inaugural cover shoot, which consumes several hours and an array of sexy, glamorous poses guaranteed to highlight her curvaceous creaminess. On this day, the kare-kare will have to wait.
Early this year, Lara Serena Roque Ortaleza took a good hard look in the mirror and realized that it was high time to leave teenybopperland. She could no longer be the model-thin cutie pie that people had known her to be. Heck, it had been three years since she was a teen. She was already a w-o-m-a-n. Time to look like one.
While it was admirable that the actress looked deceptively long and leggy at 5'3", her handlers at GMA Artist Center decided her 85-lb. frame was starting to cut an anorexic figure on TV. Was it a coincidence that the writers of her regular sitcom, Bahay Mo Ba 'To?, named her character Ting-ting? Memo to one of the network's prized possessions: put on some weight, young lady!
And so Chynna asked for and was granted a couple of months' rest so she could beef up. This meant no extra jobs on top of her sitcom and regular SOP Gigsters gig. "I went to the gym almost everyday, and I started eating whatever I wanted," she relates with glee. "Before I hardly ate rice. But now after going to the gym I'm really matakaw. I like eating now."
The results are breathtaking. She weighs a bootylicious 106 lbs. on the day of the shoot, and it shows most prominently in her finely cantilevered hips and statuesque posterior.
"My butt is really big!" she mock protests to her mother, Leah.
"What can we do? Putulin natin at ibenta?" Mrs. Ortaleza quips without missing a beat.
As soon as the pictorial begins - and it becomes immediately apparent to everyone on set that PUMP has hit the jackpot with its choice of first cover star - the gracious and portly Mrs. Ortaleza lets slip the "f" word. "F" as in fat. Incredibly she believes her daughter has gained too many pounds.
The PUMP crew politely but pointedly tell her that she's mistaken. Chynna looks mightly fine, we object needlessly, as the exquisite pictures in this exclusive shoot will attest anyway.
"I'm glad you guys think I look great," Chynna says later.
Does she agree with her mom?
"I think I'm OK. It's just that I have to lose my stomach. I really don't want very defined abs. I just want it flat. That's it. I'm happy with everything else."
She agrees when told that women in general are less kind to their kind when it comes to weight issues. For proof she cites her personal trainer and his wife, who's also a personal trainer. She says the former is more appreciative of her shapely physique, while the latter is less forgiving.
At the end of the day, what does she think?
"I think I look better now. And it shows in my aura. I'm happier."
Her aura, it must be said, has always been a sight for sore eyes.
The daughter of advertising man Gryk Ortaleza and little sister to two older brothers, Chynna was still a boyish 12-year-old when she landed her first TV gig - as a junior reporter on the kiddie public affairs show, 5 & Up. The stint lasted two years. Even then her winsome smile and easy volubility made her a natural for showbiz.
But first, there was high school and puberty to hurdle. "I was in 2nd year high when I started to get conscious about my appearance. That was after my first rejection from a boy," she reveals.
"I was thinking, 'Oh why? Why did he reject me? Maybe because I wasn't appealing enough.' So I started grooming myself. Sabi ko kay Mama, 'I'll grow my hair long.' Until finally, I realized it's nice to be a girl."
And being all girly soon paid off.
In 2001, the 18-year-old Chynna burst into the national consciousness as the bubbly "Kitikitext" girl in a series of softdrink commercials, the kind that launches showbiz careers. True enough, this led to a high-profile role as a sprightly fashion plate opposite heartthrob Richard Gutierrez in the hit teen drama series Click. For the next three or four years - while honing her acting chops in a couple of soaps and a few more teen-oriented shows in GMA - she would be identified as one-half of this extremely popular loveteam.
"I was very lucky our loveteam clicked," she says. "But Richard and I both knew we had to separate so we could grow. I have my talents, he has his."
And so Richard flew solo last year. Or rather, flew off with another romantic partner, Angel Locsin, in the hit fantasy series, Mulawin.
Chynna, on the other hand, came clean about her off-screen romance with another Click alumnus, Railey Valeroso. There's been a brief breakup, but the relationship has grown strong after two years. She means to say it recently jacked up 21 pounds of muscle.
"It's not been easy," she admits, "but we're trying to mature as a couple. What I like about Deo (Railey's real name) is the fact that he's a man. He's really strong. I need that in a relationship because I'm also strong as a woman. There's balance."
If you could read auras, you probably wouldn't miss that, either.
The even keel is even more evident in her professional life.
Chynna remains with the GMA Artist Center, but the course of her career is now being charted by the actor Albert Martinez, who has lately turned himself into an events and marketing maven. It is Albert's idea that the actress be known henceforth by only her first name. Through his guidance, the network is in step with this, as they say in showbiz, "repackaging."
Chynna is elated that lately her roles on GMA have become more challenging and she is being cast alongside a more mature set of actors. Such is the case with her stint in season seven of the Love to Love series where she stars with Paolo Contis, Jay-R and Cindy Kurleto. "I'm happy that GMA has recognized the fact that I'm not a kid anymore," she says.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in 3R, the girl-power magazine show she co-hosts with Iza Calzado and Bettina Carlos. It would have been a stretch for the Chynna of, say, two years ago to pull off this assignment, notwithstanding her 5 & Up pedigree. Now, she is clearly in her element as she offers advice to young women about career, love, sex, relationships, and personal fulfillment.
"We're really fulfilled as hosts of 3R," says the actress, currently a University of the Philippines Distance Education student, who aspires to spread her wings all the way to the GMA news and public affairs department. "It helps that we get to draw from our personal experiences. Iza, Bettina and I really brainstorm on the topics, and our contributions are really valued by the staff. That's very encouraging because that's not always the case when you work in showbiz."
Chynna also had a memorable stint as finalist on this year's MTV VJ Hunt, where the rabid Incubus fan got to showcase her formidable hosting skills and pop music IQ. She recounts: "That experience, I enjoyed every minute of it. 'Coz when I was in MTV I was really happy doing what they asked us to do. Plus, I met a great bunch of people in the other finalists. We got along very well."
She didn't win, but the AMP Txters' Choice special award she took home only underscored the breadth of her fan base. This Chynna is a hugely popular girl, er, woman.
With a hot new bod and the hype that this career-defining PUMP cover shoot is bound to generate, she can only get more popular. Especially with the boys.
"This is the right time for me to pose for a men's magazine like PUMP because I want people to know I'm not a kid anymore. I've grown up into this kind of a woman. And I want to show that because I'm proud of who I've grown up to be."
And with that delicious quote, Chynna adds flavor to her luscious pictures on these pages... and most definitely earns her kare-kare.
Not very sporty?
"I'm not into sports, unfortunately. I'd rather be a cheerleader.
"I'm not the athletic type. Maybe because when I was young I was really thin. I tried volleyball and other sports. But since I'm the type of person who has to excel in everything I try to do, I decided huwag na lang.
"If you ask me what my sport is, it's probably dancing because that's what I did in high school. Maybe now that I have a little more bulk I can try different sports, like mountain climbing. Adventurous kasi ako. Skydiving, bungee jumping, anything that involves high places.
"In 3R they really want us to get into sports. I took up scuba diving so I could conquer my fear of going underwater. I tried that when I was 14 and I couldn't do it. Also basketball. I want to try it and understand why boys like it."
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