The role that Dolly de Leon embarks on for Request sa Radyo will, admittedly, be a challenge, but she’s never been one to back down before. Here, the actress talks about having dinner with Lea Salonga, missed calls, and pre-show rituals . When Dolly de Leon heard that Lea Salonga was heading to Manila in August, she invited her out to dinner, just the two of them.
She knew they were going to do photoshoots and interviews together over the next few weeks, to drum up publicity for their upcoming October show, Request sa Radyo , and she wanted to break the ice ahead of time. Because while both women had garnered international praise and recognition as noteworthy actors, they had never actually met. “I wanted to get the awkwardness out of the way, and this helps with the process.
So I booked a room to give her some privacy, after all, she is Lea Salonga,” says Dolly, seemingly still oblivious that she is Dolly de Leon, hugely admired as the first Filipino to be nominated for a Golden Globe award for supporting actress in any motion picture, for her role in Triangle of Sadness , back in 2022. Dolly, a character actress who says she felt invisible practically her whole career, sometimes being assigned roles without any names, just the generic “doctor” or “judge,” says she hasn’t gotten used to the idea that she has joined Lea on the world stage as a performer who is a source of much national pride for fellow Filipinos. “It’s a lot of pressure, you know,” she s.
