A new Dawn rises

Hailed as the most beautiful, most fashionable and best actress time and time again, this 44-year-old still attracts screaming fans in their tweens, and even outshine beauty queens. How does someone beautiful since birth make life decisions, find love, and defy aging? Here are 10 things you should know about Dawn Zulueta.

1. She is a perfectionist, both at work and as much as possible, in her home. “It’s my wanting to be in control.”

 â€œI don’t like that there is a stone that is left unturned,” she says about her habit of wanting to know every little detail when it comes to her shoots. “I want to know exactly the ins and outs. I’m also a producer, and I want to be able to help solve if there is any hitch anywhere.” She says it also extends to her home, where she is all about cleanliness, organizing and labeling things. “In the cupboard, I want to see everything. Taller and heavier things at the back and the smaller ones in front!” 

2. She admits to having been a “mean girl” in her younger years in school.

She attended grade school in Carilagan, moved to Assumption Antipolo, and attended high school in Colegio Sta. Rosa. “I was always a class officer. President, treasurer, palit palit lang, including muse! That was funny,” she laughs. “I would hold these caucuses with my friends, whenever there was a new student we would assess her. I was the leader of the pack, ‘Okay, is she cool?’ I was the first to approach and introduce myself, we’d try her out, then I’m the one that would ask, ‘What do you think?’ It’s kind of bad! Everyone goes through that phase.” She has one brother, whom she was very protective of. “If I heard that he got into a fight or someone bullied him, I’m there! ‘Who is heeee? Bring him oooout!’” she says with a grumble. “I was like that! Parang hindi diba? Well, I’m not like that anymore.”

Dawn did not continue on to college. If she knew back then what she now knows, would she have balanced her work and college? “Yes,” she says forcefully. During that time, she wasn’t really sure of what she wanted to get into — maybe become a fashion designer (“But back then there were no schools for that”) or a biologist (“But I wasn’t into math, show me numbers naduduling na ako”). When she was accepted in UP, she had already signed a contract with Viva Films. “I was 18, I was already independent, my concern was how to survive, how to pay the rent. If you have concerns like that, immediately you have to prioritize.”

3. She has one big regret in her career: declining doing a movie with the late, great director Lino Brocka.

“He even called me on the phone, almost parang begging, saying ‘You know, I’ll take care of you, you just have to trust me. This is the role, you are going to be a mistress and it’s Eddie Garcia who is playing the part. I understand your reservations but I know you can do the role. This is the thing. There is this kissing scene.’ Ay! Wait! Talagang I was so torn. I just could not imagine myself. I was 18. I was so prudish. I can’t believe I turned him down. I actually turned him down,” she recalls. “You know a few months later, he died, he got into that fatal accident. That is one of my regrets, that I didn’t get to work with that masterpiece of a man.”

On being a reluctant celebrity: “I only started to appreciate it when I got commendations. It was only then I started to feel, ‘Maybe there is something more to this than just the money. They see something in me that I don’t even realize. I should think about this.’”

On whether she regrets any role she took on: “Every time I look back, I think sana I paid more attention to the kinds of roles I took on. I don’t regret that I took on certain roles, but sana I thought better about how to portray it. Sana I was more interested in what I was doing.”

4. Dawn Zulueta in numbers:

29: Number of years in the industry

8: Number of awards won, including 1992 Famas Best Actress for the classic film Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit. Dawn has done 38 films, plus numerous TV shows and musicals. 

7,000: Number of pesos paid as her talent fee for the Close-Up commercial that launched her showbiz career when she was 17.

31: Her waistline in inches. “I have tried all the treatments in Marie France kaya I know they work. It all depends on what your body needs, just consult with their doctors.”

17,619: Number of fans on the Facebook fan page of the official CharDawns, the nickname for her love team with Richard Gomez.

5. On the undying magic of the Richard-Dawn love team: “I suppose it really has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve had a past, and it was a serious relationship what we had before.”

She shares that after they broke up, it was around two years of no communication before they were able to be friends again. “Aside from being able to pick up a little from that past, there is also all this time that he and I have been able to evolve separately. I feel excited to work, with him particularly. Sa dami na ng pinagdaanan namin together, all the experiences we’ve had in the last 15 years, we had separate lives na, got married, had children, we are able now to collaborate and use all these experiences to enrich our characters,” she explains.

On their die-hard fans: “We started to see this new breed of fans, kasi they’re young, they are already the kids of our fans, let’s put it that way! It was really clear when we did the Walang Hanggang Pasasalamat show in Araneta. Before pa coming out onstage, we could really hear the people. And when he and I came out, just the way the crowd reacted, I turned to him and said, ‘Can you believe this?’ ‘I can’t.’ ‘I can’t either. I don’t know how this happened.’” She compares it to the fans they encountered before and adds, with a laugh, “Hindi mo na ine-expect kung gurangers ka na diba?!”

“I approach my work differently now. Unlike before ang dami kong insecurities. What are people going to think if I do this? If I say that? I was so concerned. Now I just want to be myself, there’s nothing wrong with being myself. I’m secure in that thought, and that’s the thing that I wish I learned earlier.” She declares: “I’m open na now, I have no fear.”

6. Before they got married, she actually told her husband Congressman Anton Lagdameo: “I don’t want to be a politician’s wife.”

“I remember before we got married, it was one of my considerations. I told him, ‘You better promise me you won’t enter politics.’ His uncles were already in it, baka mamaya siya na ang patakbuhin. Ayoko. I really don’t like. So yeah, he promised me. But of course we all know now that that promise is broken,” Dawn laughs. “I could not naman be selfish. I couldn’t say, ‘No, because you promised me.’ I saw that he’s perfect for the job. He is a people person, community-oriented, he really wants to help. I’m proud of his achievements. And now it’s already his third term, landslide win pa din.”

It was actually when Dawn had decided to give up on dating that she realized Anton was “the one.” “I was tired already of partying, I was tired of the single life. You’re always on the lookout, who’s my next date, who’s the prospective boyfriend. I didn’t want that anymore. I felt, if nothing na talaga, I don’t mind growing old this way. I’ll just work and work, okay lang, magpapayaman na lang ako! If there is really somebody out there for me that God has planned, then you just plop him here in front of me. I don’t want to go searching anymore I’m tired na,” she recalls. They’d been friends for some time, until one day, Anton set up Dawn to spend “alone time” with him. “I liked what I saw, we kept dating. And that was it.”

7. On exposing her kids to showbiz and politics: “I want them to get to know my work and understand it better and have an appreciation for it, same with their dad’s work.”

Colleagues in the industry attest to how Jacobo, 7, and Ayisha 3, are often spotted on set with Dawn. “As much as possible I take them around with me, if the whole week is work, they just come to my set, or even to Congress,” she shares. “The time I am not working, I am just with them. I really just try to stay with them, even if it’s just to lie down and sleep, or even if we are not talking and we are all on the iPad. Basta we are together,” she laughs.

“I’m especially proud when they have achievements. When Ayisha uses big words when she’s talking, like the other day she used the expression, ‘What the?!’ Ha? Anong ‘What the?!’ And Jacobo, he’d come home with a (soccer) trophy kasi daw naka-three strikes siya!”

8. Dawn’s five most treasured fashion items:

1- Black mink fur coat: “I really love it talaga but I can only wear it when I’m traveling. I tell Anton, ‘Can we go to the opera? Broadway? I just wanna wear this.’ He got it for me last December. I am lucky my husband loves to shop.”

2 - YSL Tributes: “They are so comfy even if they are so high, you can be on them the whole day!”

3 – Let’s-go-anywhere bags: “Right now I am loving my Loewe. I try not to have too many bags that are only for a certain outfit or occasion. I like these dump-anything-inside-and-go kinds of bags.”

4 - Large sunglasses: “I have a collection of all these bubuyog sunglasses. Especially in our weather. My dream is to find the perfect big one that is also polarized.”

5 – Jewelry: “I am really a collector. As a matter of fact, I collect it more than real estate. I’ve always believed that it’s about the only kind of investment that really grows.”

9. The four bad habits Dawn broke in the name of beauty.

1 - Baking under the sun: “I was a child of the ‘70s. We didn’t have sunblock. Back in our time, nagpapasunog talaga kami! I would bathe in beer or Coca-Cola and lie down in the hopes of getting roasted. Bad talaga yun! People think nagpa-glutathione ako. No, I just really stay out of the sun. Now, just from the door to the car, nagtataklob pa ako.”

2 - Not paying attention to skin types: “For many years in my adolescent years, I suffered through acne. Not only my face, my chest, my back. I used to wonder why, until about 15 years ago when I met this derma friend of mine, she said, ‘i-skin test kita.’ I discovered after, I was allergic to perfume! And here I was with my pabango (she motions spraying all around) Yun lang pala. Just find out what you are allergic to, don’t be tempted to buy all these expensive things.”

3 - Lack of sleep: “Sleeping for me is important talaga. But sometimes with our work you cannot help it. I really need eight hours.”

4 - Sleeping on her side: “Never sleep like this! (she motions her hands on the side of her cheek) Your lines will become deeper! How do you do it? You have a pillow wedged here (she points to the front) and wedged here (points to the back) That way you will never slide too much burying your face in the pillow. I have a hundred pillows on my bed!”

10. Dawn admits to having gotten pretty much everything she wanted in life: “I’m very positive kasi when I think about my dreams. When I think about what I want, I can really see it in the future.”

“I prayed for children, I got it. I prayed to be financially independent, I got it. I prayed for a good husband, I got it. Career, I have. There are other things I am praying for, but I know I am going to get it later on. Even if it doesn’t look like it is doable, I believe in it,” she says. She does reveal one thing she really wanted but didn’t get: “When I was younger, there was this guy that I really had the biggest, biggest crush on. I prayed so hard sana he’s the one I’m going to marry. But I didn’t marry him. I would’ve still been happier now than if I had gotten my wish!”

Other things she wishes for? “I envision that my children go to Ivy League schools, or maybe in Europe, and that I will be traveling when I am older to visit them. And I have a home somewhere in Europe, it’s a dream talaga for me!”

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“How does it feel? I’ll give you a hint of what it feels like,” she gets close when asked what 44 feels like, as opposed to when she first hit the peak of her career in her 20s. “Honestly, you know what, I still feel like I’m 24. Here (points to her mind) and here (points to her heart). When I was in my 20s I used to look at 40s as so old. But now I realize, this is what it feels like pala. There really is no difference! You’re just coughing a bit more, you have back pains, but that’s all. As long as I take care of my body I think I’ll enjoy myself ‘til I’m 70 or 80.”

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E-mail me at askiamsuperbianca@yahoo.com or message me on Twitter @iamsuperbianca.