ENTERTAINMENT industry veteran Johnny Manahan just can’t retire.
Whether he can’t turn his back on the entertainment business or that showbiz just cannot let him quit, Manahan — man of many talents — has returned to do what he does best — spotting, polishing and rearing talents before propelling them to the public consciousness as the next shiny star. This time, however, he is on GMA, once the rival of ABS-CBN where Manahan worked for decades as vice president and head of its talent discovery arm, Star Magic.
At a Zoom press con Tuesday, Manahan revealed he will officially work as consultant of GMA. His duties, however, will not be limited to that because he was given a wide berth from where he can help evaluate talents and shows, as Atty. Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA, himself asked him.
Asked to elaborate, he explained: “Actually it’s kind of vague right now, because what we are doing is looking at their set-up in Artist Center and see if anything can be improved in the operation of Artist Center. But overall, I suppose, what they want to do is develop a new breed of GMA artists and new breed of ambassadorsa of GMA. ‘Yun ang main goal…just to see how we can work with the GMA team, kung ano kailangan nila or hinihingi nila sa akin….”
But Manahan is not in a hurry to tinker with GMA’s well-oiled machinery. In the development of the network’s “new breed” of stars, the ace image builder is taking his time.
“Pinag-aaralan muna namin, but there are certain things we can see right now that we can improve, [such as] issues ng styling and issues ng imagery, how we can market these people better,” he enumerated, “Even with the older stars, it’s possible to maybe … kung type lang nila because most of them mayroon ng certain image. But the younger stars there’s a lot of leeway to create a persona na authentic pa rin. Kahit may glitz, may glamor sila, they have to somehow spring from their authentic person something that the audience would desire.”
On his new network and tasks, he said he felt buoyant.
“Parang nabuhay ako, kasi I have this passion for training artists and bringing up this young artists. Gagawin namin lahat umusbong ang mga personalities nila, yung mga authentic selves nila and I feel buoyant, very light, lalung lalo na nung nakilala ko mga executives, napaka friendly nila. Napakabait and very astute ‘yung mga tao na na meet ko so far.”
He felt he has come full circle as he used to work in GMA before Martial Law was declared.
He has nothing but good works for his new co-workers. He does miss his former colleagues in Star Magic, but he said two of them have joined him in his move to Kapuso.
Will some of his former wards follow him in his new home?
“Hindi ko masasagot,” he said,”Alam naman nila ang gusto nilang gawin. You’ll never know.
Tulad ni Bea [Alonzo, who was just welcomed by the network last week]. Nagkataon lang na gusto nya lumipat. Hindi naman kami nag-usap. Or the others. Kailangan pag-isipan nila saan talaga ang puso nila — and to find work where people can appreciate them.
“Abangan na lang natin ‘yun,” he teased.
