What a difference a mom on and off-screen makes?

Is there a difference between an actress performing a role of a mother onscreen and an actress delineating a character of a mom off-screen? 

In this day and age of cyber supremacy, there are many ways to look at or we can say how an actor—one that acts; doer—acts and reacts as ma in any piece of life. 

For instance, Marian Rivera even before marrying husband Dingdong Dantes had taken on a role of a married woman who has kids in some GMA Network’s TV drama like a flash forward instances of imagining life with children in such project as “Endless Love” where lovers like her and Dingdong would talk about their future family without necessarily projecting palpable situations of being parents to their kids. In other words, there are many ways to experience being a mom even without the benefit of a reproductive processes or toeing the line of adoption. 

But then again, Marian tied the knot with Dingdong in a church wedding at the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Quezon City, In between their private living life and the acting wife and husband not only in bed, they eventually were endowed and blessed with their first born, Zia and later, with their second kid, Sixto. These succession of birthing two offspring officiated the legitimacy and real performance of Rivera as a mom which she had also experience on cam but without the benefit of actual giving birth. But just a simulation of it could expound her conscious or an unconscious expression of a woman who is assigned with an ovary and other procreative body parts. 

The point is—one can be a mom without necessarily going through the natural process of being one. 

Or for that matter, a transgender man or woman or a gay man can be a mom in virtual form as adoption or artificial insemination, i.e. vitro fertilization on cam or behind the camera. 

One glaring example of this is television star Korina Sanchez having twins Pepe and Pilar instantly without her getting physically pregnant by former senator and secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas or perfume entrepreneur Joel Cruz having eight children without undergoing a nine-month pre-natal period for each one of them and still instilled in himself a mommy personification. 

I remember the still missing popular entertainment writer, publicist, talent manager and TV host Boy C. de Guia who had analyzed the protean characteristics of his wards like Carmi Martin who he saw as an intelligent woman because of donning various roles on the big and well as small screens. “Nakikita ko na ang isang artista, madali siyang mag-react sa mga bagay-bagay o maging (I can imagine an actor being easily provoked or reacted on things or being) emotional or irritable behind the cameras dahil marami siyang natututunan sa kanyang pagganap (because she learns a lot from acting) in front of the cameras,” recalled Kuya (a term of respect to an older man by blood of by affinity) Boy in one of our casual conversations in the past. 

Binibining Pilipinas-Universe 1982 Maria Isabel Lopez had done a lot of mommy roles even when she was still unmarried to Hiroshi Yokohama in flashbacks or fast-forward scenes to create a narrative so when she became a mother, first to Mara Lopez (now an actress in her own right) and Ken Yokohama, an engineer by profession, it was already her second skin because of so many insights she has thought and realized in her reel performances as a mom, surrogate or not. 

One can be a mom of many persuasions and backgrounds on and off-screen so there’s no demarcation line anymore between a reel mom and a real mom. 

At this point, Maria Isabel isn’t only a surrogate mom to Loisa Andalio in the soon-to-be-aired “Love in 40 Days” in ABS-CBN Kapamilya Channels but she’s also a fiery mom in the flesh who has recently delivered nationalist speeches live or virtually in the US about the state of political decay and economic collapse of the Philippines. 

No worries. 

Anyone can be a mom these days in virtual realities and portray the role to a T in any capacity as Marian has proudly noted in her Instagram during the celebration of Mother’s Day yesterday. “Being a mom made me understand and appreciate more the never-ending love of mothers. Kung sino ako ngayon ito ay dahil sa Mama and Nanay ko na walang sawang nagmahal at nagsupporta sa buhay ko (What I am today is because of Mama and Nanay who have unendingly love and support my life).

Kaya naman isang special celebration ang hatid ko sa inyo ngayong (Therefore I am sending you a special gift this) Mother’s Day with our favorites from Conti’s. Mas naging special pa to (This has even become special) with Conti’s Triple Berry Mousse, para sa tatlong henerasyon ng nanay (for the three generations of moms), mama and mommy.

“This Triple Berry Mousse is a perfect gift to spread love this Mother’s Day and every day. Get an additional tote bag gift when you purchase this special cake on May 6 onwards.”