Rappler Video: Looking for Cherie Gil

MANILA, Philippines – Actress Cherie Gil, daughter of singer Eddie Mesa and screen icon Rosemarie Gil, celebrates her fiftieth year on the cover of Esquire Magazine’s second year anniversary issue. In this video produced by both Rappler and Esquire, journalist Patricia Evangelista speaks to the woman who once called her clan cinema’s royal family.  

Below is the transcript for the Esquire-Rappler interview video with Evangeline Rose Eigenmann Rogoff, also known as actress Cherie Gil.

Cherie Gil: I’m a Gemini, by the way. They say I’m double-faced. No I’m not double-faced, I’m more than double-faced, I’m schizophrenic. I’m more than two people. I’m like many, many, many people. I’m still coming to terms with who Cherie Gil is.

You know I’m an actor, and so are my brothers, so are my nephews and so are my nieces. I’m just glad to be an Eigenmann, more than happy to be an Eigenmann. I’m prpoud, so proud. I respect my family, the legacy. I’m not going to let it die, because there’s just so much to give. I know we’ve made a mark.

I have made a mark. Please tell me I’ve made a mark.

Rappler: Do you think you’re beautiful?

Cherie Gil: Yeah. Sure I am, I’m not going to deny that. I want to look like this for a long, long time. I think I’m just being true to myself. And if I’m able to use that for women to feel confident, for me to feel confident, to do more things, why not?

Not that I’m trying to change the world. It’s just trying to change a dimension in thinking because sometimes we’re just stuck in so many many conventions and so much Catholic thinking.

Rappler: Does being a celebrity demand you be a certain kind of woman? Are there rules you have to follow?

Cherie Gil: In this country, yeah. There’s a part of me that’s a woman, that’s just needing what other women do and a celebrity. And I’ve arrived at a place that I don’t care really to explain what I’ve come to be.

Rappler: Did you use to care?

Cherie Gil: No (laughs). In fact, I never cared, and maybe it’s a curse. Maybe it’s a curse.

There are certain things you don’t get as a woman. I’m alone right now as a woman. And I’m putting my energies into what I do best which is what I love to do. Well. Why not?

Rappler: Do you feel you traded being a woman for being an actor, being a celebrity?

Cherie Gil: There are moments. You know, I have a daughter, and my daughter wants to be an actor too. And the fact that I can only tell them to do what they love to do in life is for me to be able to live exactly that. Maybe I’m short for being with them physically but I’m always in touch with them, and theiy’re happy for me. So to pay the price, I don’t think I’m paying a price.

To be Cherie Gil is to love, love, love, everything. People, work, men.

My name is Evangeline Rose Eigenmann Rogoff and I’m fifty and I am an actor and I will remain an actor for a long, long time. And I love what I do. And I love you, you’re amazing. Oh my God, I’m so drunk.

Video produced by Erwin Romulo. Cinematography by Geric Cruz and Patricia Evangelista. Writing and editing by Patricia Evangelista. Score by Armi Millare and Ely Buendia. Follow Cherie Gil on Twitter @macherieamour – Rappler.com