MAINE Mendoza first gained fame as the “Dubsmash Queen” but it was on July 4, 2015 when “Eat Bulaga” first got her as Yaya Dub. And then she was accidentally paired with Alden Richards and that really boosted their careers.
Maine thanked all her fans in her Twitter account on her 6th anniversary: “Ang bilis talaga! Ang dami na ring nangyari at wala na akong mahihiling pa.
Maraming salamat sa mga patuloy na sumusuporta at nagmamahal. Mahal ko kayo!”
Some fans said she didn’t even acknowledge Alden’s contribution to her career, but Maine is now really spreading her wings without him. After “Daddy’s Gurl” and “Eat Bulaga” on GMA-7 and “PoPinoy” on TV5, she now has yet another new show on BuKo, the Buhay Komedya Channel, a collaboration between Cignal TV and APT Entertainment. Maine’s new show is of a totality different genre, a reality show titled “#Maine Goals.”
“I made a bucket list of things I haven’t done in my life and I’ll do them all in ‘#Maine Goals’,” she said. “I’m very excited about it as I’ve always wanted to try new adventures. In real life kasi, I’m introverted, very shy, so ‘# Maine Goals’ will take me out of my comfort zones. You will see me being a cuchera. Yes, magpapatakbo po ako ng karetela. I grew up in the city so we have an episode showing me trying farm life. So naging farmer ako feeding the pigs and chickens, and it’s very educational for me.”
And Direk Mike Tuviera added: “At very entertaining din ang bawat episode. Sa editing pa lang, tawa na kami nang tawa kasi si Maine is a natural comedian. She comes up with funny lines na adlib lang niya while she is experiencing things that she hasn’t experienced before. So in each episode of the show, we watch her grow and experience more from life and she realizes that she has so far lived a very sheltered life.”
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Director Joel Lamangan is truly the most prolific filmmaker of the pandemic. Others may be jobless but he’s doing movies non-stop. His “Anak ng Macho Dancer” has just been shown and now, two new films of his will be shown consecutively, “Silab,” a dark sex-drama introducing nymphet Cloe Barreto on VivaMax on July 9, and “Lockdown,” a slice of social drama about cyber sex workers with hunk Paolo Gumabao on KTX starting July 23.
Aside from these films, he has several other completed works waiting for release: “In the Name of the Mother” starring Snooky Serna and Rita Daniela; “Ang Huling Birheng Bakla sa Balat ng Lupa” with Teejay Marquez and Edgar Allan Guzman; and “Deception,” the reunion movie of Mark Anthony Fernandez and Claudine Barretto. And he is about to start shooting two new movies: “Walker,” which is about streetwalkers, and “Bekis on the Run” for Viva with Christian Bables and Diego Loyzaga, scripted by Ricky Lee.
And to think he was infected by the Covid virus when he was about to direct a series for TV5. “Yes, October last year, pupunta na kami sa location, pinag-swab test ako, positive daw. Hindi ako naniwala, kasi wala naman akong nararamdamang kahit ano. So pinaulit ko sa iba, positive pa rin. So pinalitan ako sa series at nag-self quarantine ako sa room ko. ‘Di ako lumabas for two weeks. Positive thinking lang. Total rest and lots of vitamins. Sabi ko sa sarili ko, magne-negative ka.
“Then nagpa-swab uli ako, negative na. ‘Di balik na ako sa pagdidirek ng bagong movie.
Galit na galit ang mga kapatid ko sa’kin, lalo na ‘yung nasa States, ‘di ako kinakausap.
Inatake pa ko sa puso, ‘di ba? So gusto ko raw ba magpakamatay? Sayang naman ang datung, ‘di ba? So habang kaya pa, sige lang.”
He’s so happy he can now do movies without any constraints. “Before kasi, iniisip mo, may censorship, baka ‘di papasa sa MTCRB. Now na sa streaming pinalalabas at wala sa jurisdiction nila, we have the artistic freedom to do what we want without prior limitations.
Pangarap ko talaga ‘yung may kalayaan akong gawin ang nais kong gawin at ipakita ang nais kong ipakita na walang pakialam ang anumang ahensiya ng gobierno.”
