By Ruben V. Nepales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:06:00 07/29/2010

Filed Under: Entertainment (general)

LOS ANGELES — When we interviewed director Ryan Murphy in Cancun, Mexico about “Eat Pray Love,” his film with Julia Roberts, we grabbed the chance to ask him how he came to cast Charice Pempengco in his hit TV show “Glee.”

“I knew of Charice because she was on ‘Oprah,’” began Ryan, casual in an all-white outfit in a Ritz Carlton meeting room with a stunning view of the Yucatan Peninsula coastline. “I saw those clips of her singing. One of the producers had heard of her, too, and met with her. I had to meet her, myself. She came in — she’s so tiny and cute. I thought we were just going to be introduced. I’d heard her album. She said, ‘Do you want me to sing for you?’ I said, ‘Okay.’ She opened her laptop... she had a demo—she hit play and she sang. She was in my office for half an hour. When that girl opens her mouth, angels fly out.”

“I was just so taken by Charice,” enthused the director, who created the series about a high school glee club, which won the Golden Globe Best TV Series-Musical or Comedy early this year and earned 19 nominations in the coming Emmy Awards. “I loved her spirit. I loved the story of her and her mother. She was just so proud telling me that she had bought her mother a house. So it went from just being a meeting to, ‘Oh, I have to put that girl in that show somehow.’ So we’re writing her a really good role. She’s going to start in the first episode of the new season. I’m really happy. That’s one of those things where somebody walks in and you’re just so touched that you say, ‘I have to write something for you.’ So that’s how it happened.”

We asked Ryan, who also created the acclaimed FX drama series “Nip/Tuck”and directed the feature film “Running with Scissors,” to confirm if Charice’s character is a recurring one that we’ll see in coming seasons.He answered, “You never know with that show, but Charice’s role is the same size that Jonathan Groff’s character had this year—her character is not in every episode but she will be in a lot of episodes. She is the rival of Lea Michele’s character. That’s what Charice plays. I wanted to do a diva-off thing.”

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