Ashley Ortega and Khalil Ramos Talk About Professionalism On Screen and Real Relationships

 

It's been a while since we talked to Khalil Ramos and Ashley Ortega. I interviewed them in different projects and yes, it's high time they get together in a project, and in this instance, it's Cinemalaya. Their entry this year is called "As If It's True", directed by John Rogers under the great folks of The IdeaFirst Company.

It's much of a Gen Z story where social media, content creation, influencer marketing is the name of the game. A relationship brews between Gemma Watson and James (a struggling musician). As Khalil mentions, it discusses relationships  and those that can be shown as real, or happening just for clout and exploitation.

This is certainly exciting for Ashley Ortega's career as she just came off the highly successful series "Hearts on Ice" which she did with Xian Lim. Though she feels a lot of pressure to do better, she's optimistic to do a project with Khalil since Gabbi and Ashley pretty much started in showbiz at the same time. They've been friends for a while which she feels would be advantageous for the things they would need to do in the film. There will be some sort of a romantic flick ingredient here ala "American Pie" but it'll be different, a little depressing at situations; quite different and will be in a Filipino setting. Here's our mediacon earlier on video, please, enjoy!

Khalil will also be starring in "Tick Tick Boom" under 9 Works Theatrical Production. This is his debut in theatre, and has been a learning experience for him because things are being done differently. He was matched with the role of Jon because of his very artistic vibe. Show happens August 5-27 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium - RCBC Theater. 

These are just some of the awesome achievements of Sparkle artists Khalil and Ashley, but I'm sure there will be more. If you already enjoyed their previous shows, movies and projects, it'll be a good thing to consume this new movie and theatre project from the two. I'm quite optimistic about what's happening with Ashley since this is pretty much, her second serving of a lead role. Khalil on the other hand has also been very busy with projects (and really thankful for it). When I asked about getting some negative opinions online, he also hopes his situation with Gabbi would be a good measure of what should happen when an actor has a real relationship while being paired with other actors on screen. Strictly professional.

HEARTS ON ICE Cast Speak Highly of Xian Lim's Ice Skating Efforts, Excited on Ashley Ortega's Lead Role

Spent a few hours with some of Sparkle's brightest stars who's part of the cast of the new show HEARTS ON ICE. This is the first of it's kind, you could say the launching project of Ashley Ortega as she now takes the lead as Ponggay in this new series. She also gets to be paired with premier actor Xian Lim who's going to be interesting to see in a story of love, hardships, hope and perseverance. Athletes would surely be connecting with their characters as it'll be showcasing a lot of the things that are happening behind the scenes. Aside from that, they want people to get inspired about how they triumph over life's obstacles since it is a very hard sport. 

Together with Ashley that afternoon was Skye Chua, Hannah Arguelles, Shuvee Etrata and Kim Perez (which unfortunately we didn't get to take a solo shot of because he was doing interviews). Skye actually is part of the Philippine national team, very skilled and equipped to do this stint on GMA and admitted to have had trouble doing acting, and her emotions which she usually do on ice came in handy. She used it to make sure she's also going to do good as Ponggay's rival. Hannah on the other hand will be Xian's little sister, and will be doing a lot of scenes with the Viva actor as they've got family issues to take care of too. Shuvee on the other hand will play one of Poggay's best friend and will give advice as it'll be hard to go through life without one. Kim will be on Xian's side and might provide help when his best friend would get in trouble in the show.

Xian Lim who is Ashley Ortega's partner in the show impressed not just his co-actors but even the professional skating athletes who's part of the show. They were so happy about his progress in the short amount of time he spent in training, so now he's super into the sport already. He took exams and has progressed and passed, which may mean he's going to be doing a lot of his own moves in the show.

Here's my part of the interview, hope you enjoy my questions as I did asking them!

Here's a little talk about their ice skating experience and how Ashley had to go back to training just for this show.

 

Hearts on Ice starts at 8:50PM weekdays on GMA, and replays a few hours after (11:30 or 11PM) on GTV. Make sure you catch the episodes to support not just Ashley and Xian, but the whole ensemble cast that's got veterans and new artists in the mix. Congratulations, I've heard it's doing good in the ratings still! I also have a few videos of their routines on our YouTube channel so just look for kumagcow on the app!

More Stars Renew with GMA Artist Center

It was a very lovely day to talk to several of GMA's homegrown stars particularly teen star Bryce Eusebio, singer and actress Denise Barbacena, the stunning Pauline Mendoza, beauty queen Patricia Tumulak, champion singer Hannah Precillas,  demigod chef Jose Sarasola, great villain Ashley Ortega, the pretty Analyn Barro and model/actress and host Luanne Dy.

During the blogcon they told us what they plan to do now that they renewed ties, but they also delved a lot of the conversation about their individual experiences during the lockdow. The pandemic has gotten to a point wherein they weren't able to shoot their projects or continue taping for it. They also got to do several things like businesses durign the time so they could earn a little because they needed to also pay the bills. They want to also improve more, expect that they'll have more shows because the network gives them quite a lot even back then.

Check out our interview with them a few days ago:

It was awesome to see them working again, hearing them sing and of course, tell us about new shows (First Yaya Book 2!) here's hoping they would be able to continue shooting shows as the new normal becomes a reality.