Third world celebrity

Giselle Töngi-Walters

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Life is more relished, more fulfilled because I know what it is to live a 'real' life, away from all that comes with being a celebrity

 

Giselle Töngi-Walters

(Writer’s note: In the year 2000, at the age of 21, I packed my bags, sold all my valuables and migrated back to America. Here is an excerpt of a memoir I am working on, titled “Third –World Celebrity.” It perhaps captures best the angst and depression I was going through in my life at the time. Take into account that I was only 21 at the time and very much overworked, looking for some sort of artistic spark in my day to day activities.)

The decision to move to America was something that excited me. The thought of going to New York to live and therefore be able to legitimize my craft consumed every waking moment prior to my ill-fated attempt to leave the islands. I wanted to become a true thespian. It was just what I needed to do to shake the awful ungrateful feeling I had for the showbiz industry in the Philippines.

I had become like a robot, day in and day out, shuffling to and from the set, with hardly any sleep. The working conditions are brutal and if one is willing to put up with it (most do), you could make a really good living selling your soul.

There is hardly any artistic merit to the kind of work that I was relegated to. For 7 years, I worked like a dog, and realized that the fame and fortune wasn’t worth degrading myself for. Maybe I got haughty and full of myself or maybe I felt like I needed to just expand my wings because I had already attained what to my mind was relative success.

I was on 3 prime time shows and was on the cusp of overexposure, if there is indeed a tipping point where one is seen just a tad much. My schedule was always a nightmare to try to manage because of my back to back bookings between television tapings, rehearsals for my dance show, live mall appearances, occasional ribbon cuttings for establishments and the ever profitable corporate hosting gigs.

These were not career making opportunities but rather what we called “rackets,” a term loosely thrown around by my colleagues to refer to jobs that were easy, paid well and therefore done entirely for money-making purposes.

How can one say no to host a two-hour corporate gig for a cigarette, liquor or casino company if they would wave hundreds of thousands of pesos in your face in exchange for a few measly hours of your time? It was a golden opportunity to earn “fuck you” money.

Integrity in work

So you see, I had realized very early on in my life that integrity in my work was essential to keep me going. Once I lost that, I needed a change of environment because I just could not handle everything else that came with being a celebrity.

Sure, it sounds too idealistic especially for a young woman who had everything at her fingertips. However, migrating back to America to study my craft and live a normal life not only kept my sanity. The experience has grounded me and reinforces what is most important to me as an artist and a human being.

As a celebrity in the Philippines, it is easy to lose track of the meaning of a job well done. Is it the accolades and awards given by your peers that at the time had become questionable due to scandals of award switching? Is it the people on the set who you are surrounded by everyday that clap and applaud every time you do a crying scene? Is it the number of endorsements or magazine covers that you’re on that measure one’s self worth? CERTAINLY NOT. 

Coming back home to the Philippines after over a decade was a very difficult decision, especially since it wasn’t just me but my family in tow. The reasons we migrated back are more for my children than anything else. The children’s age – 6 and 4 – was really the big deciding factor. It was now or never.

More Filipina

My husband and I realized that the Philippine culture and the Tagalog language is something we want our children to learn first hand. Being only ¼ Filipino, I didn’t want them to lose that, especially because I associate with being a Filipina more than being Swiss, since my formative years were spent here in the Philippines.

It isn’t so much nationalism but the desire for a well rounded upbringing. My mother is also a reason we wanted to come back to the islands. Because she is in her mid-70s, I want my children to spend time and remember their grandmother as a presence in their lives when they are older. After graduating college, I also knew that I could take my artistry a bit further since I had now attained the skills to be more than just a talking head. And that excited me. 

FAMILY. Giselle Tongi-Walters poses with her kids Kenobi and Sakura

It’s been over a year now since we migrated back. The children are very much settled with the move yet they talk about Los Angeles quite often, most especially their grandparents, my in-laws. But my in-laws visited earlier this year so that has definitely filled in the void.

I am back to work as an actress, producer and writer. I have started doing more theater projects to balance out all the commercial mainstream work and so my artistic soul is fulfilled. And most especially, my husband and I have more time for each other as he works in consultancy as opposed to the daily grind of his work in America.

Life is more relished, more fulfilled because I know what it is to live a “real” life, away from all that comes with being a celebrity. But now, I take all the “star” treatment as a pleasant surprise as compared to expectations before I migrated to America.

Life is how you live it and no matter where I go in the world, I know I can pursue my heart’s desires, with my family at my side and the experiences I’ve cultivated. – Rappler.com


Giselle Töngi-Walters is a professional ‘slashie.’ Besides being mom to Sakura and Kenobi, she is also an all-around media personality. She is a model/product endorser/radio jock/writer/actor for film, TV and theater, and producer for second generation Fil-Am content. Being part of the Rappler team is a way for her to utilize her academic and showbiz experience and hopefully make some sense beyond all the chismis.


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