At the tail-end of October 2015, the whole of the Philippine television-viewing public buzzed over a hot ticket to a ginormous gathering to celebrate an accidental phenomenon. Throngs of public transport collected in front of the Philippine Arena—the biggest stadium the country has ever seen—all raring to witness a historic event. People from all segments came in, streamers and banners in tow, chanting and gushing over one thing. It was like the Superbowl that we never had.

A PRELUDE:

The Gospel according to AlDub

Months before, the television and online sphere have been struck by a spectacle with a magnitude that can only be compared to that of a Pacquiao boxing match or a Papal visit. Week after week, AlDub, the portmanteau birthed by a 45-minute to one-hour skit in the longest-running noontime show, Eat Bulaga, effortlessly created records, only to be broken and beaten by itself the following week. It was a milestone that became so grand and powerful it silenced competitors.

In the middle of it all were two young charmers—oblivious of their impact and influence. One was Maine Mendoza—an unknown social media ingenue that everyone would start calling Yaya Dub—hidden behind 15-second-lipsync performances of popular songs and movies done hilariously through her signature facial contortions. The other one was an industry regular, Alden Richards—a suave, dimpled token pretty boy, with a face so cherubic it translated easily to squeals and cheers of fancy among fans, one pabebe wave at a time. Their connection was unbridled and the accidental love team was born. In no time, the nation would call him the personification of the modern prince charming.

AlDub: Sa Tamang Panahon, the cathartic TV moment cheered and even cried for by all of 55,000 venue spectators and over half of the country’s total local television viewers, told the nation that a concept so overwrought and so tired as “love” can be made “lovable” again. It was a religion that made us believe again—and its scriptures are written behind character sketches and punchlines that got us all hooked without even trying.

And there he was, Richards, clad aptly in a princely outfit, set to finally meet his onscreen love. The numbers were nothing short of historic, and the nation was left wanting for more. It was a success of epic proportions.

***

Fast forward to almost three years after he exploded to superstar status, Richards remains a force to be reckoned with. After the frenzy had dialed down, what remained was the actor the nation has grown to love, with a career spanning almost a decade, and the tools to survive in this brutal industry being put to the test day by day.

One look at his resume, it is safe to say that Richards has easily checked items off any aspiring actor’s checklist. He has shared the screen with bigwigs in roles that go beyond the leading man handbook, sold memoirs and records, filled coliseums, and worked tirelessly on a seven-day workweek with a reputation that continued to be spotless.

For a special collaboration with Boardwalk Philippines, a homegrown brand Richards has remained in ties with through the years, Rank meets with the 26-year-old multihyphenate for his cover—a fitting follow-up to our premiere issue that fronted his onscreen love pair, Maine Mendoza.

It is safe to say that to this day, Richards remains an elusive commodity—his calendar is either closed for an endorsement shoot, an out-of-town show, a rehearsal for his Sunday variety show, a promotional tour, or that steady stint he has in the noontime show.

Chasing Richards down for a good hour or two for a shoot and interview has been a challenging, even daunting, task. Much to our team’s luck, the gap in between his day’s packed schedule for the brand gave us a slim but rather significant opportunity to sit down with the young actor, deck him in Avel Bacudio’s latest retail-wear collection and talk about his continuing romance with success.

In one of the floating cottages of Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort, peopled by the day’s crew, we were met by a laughing Richards, pacing back and forth, his face letting out animated responses as he exchanged banters with his long-time cast of loyal entourage of handler, personal assistant, make-up artist, and stylist.

Hours before, in between toiling Manila traffic and meeting our cover boy, I asked Harriett, a Rank contributor who vows allegiance to the AlDubnation, particularly to Richards’ army of screaming fangirls, what makes the young actor so special. She enthused, “Actually, maraming mas guwapo. But for me, hindi siya natatapos sa pagiging guwapo. He possesses this magic that makes you look up to him without alienating you, or making you feel like you’re anything below him. He doesn’t act like a god that you could just emulate from afar, unlike the others. It’s like cheering for a friend, that’s why I don’t feel embarrassed by it.”

Upon exchanging pleasantries, we started setting things up for the shoot with Jerick, the day’s designated photographer and Richards’ long-time collaborator. Richards then blurted out a recollection of our first meeting, some six years ago in a cover shoot where he was hailed one of the faces to watch out for, and another one two years later when that prediction proved to be accurate.

His is a brand of likability that isn’t taught or manufactured. It’s this sincere geniality and bonhomie that never appears put on and manic that makes him engaging and accessible—beaming with energy that makes you want to be around him.

In silence, I observed and attempted to understand the mysteries of Alden Richards—devoid of any preconceived concepts of who he is. But how do you really decode a phenomenon? What is left to say about someone who’s been exposed to a magnifying lens for nearly three years. Talking to Richards is like talking to a man who has seen it all and yet with the sheepish qualities of a child raring to brave new frontiers. In the full hour or so that we have spent with him, somehow, I uncovered three truths written in the book of Alden Richards.

 

ALDEN RICHARDS IS A MAN OF GREAT EPIPHANIES.

The first and probably the biggest would be the realization of a path he never knew he would tread on to this day—far from what his childhood dreams of airplanes and businesses created for him.

In his third birthday celebration in the 39-year-old noontime show, a tearful Richards expressed a message of gratitude for the undying support thrown at him by the people that “made” him—his supporters.  Along with this, as he has never failed to do so yearly, he gave a message of thanks to his mother, Rosario, who passed away in 2008. He said, “Ma, siyempre, everyday naman nagdarasal ako, lagi kitang kinakausap na sayang pa rin na you didn’t get the chance to experience these.”

“These”, as everyone could imagine, refers to the perks of fame that his stature has afforded him now—the kind an aspirant could only dream of. Six years ago, when I asked him how he feels following the dreams of his mother for him, he answered in a manner you’d expect from any enthusiastic newcomer.

Now, with box office records, solid backing of unrelenting fan clubs, and an acting resume that has considerably bulked up long after he has struck gold with AlDub, it is evident that he has formed a deeper understanding of what fame and this industry really is.

He declared, “In this industry, you’re not really sure what you’re going to get. I think we all know that this is a seasonal job. Sometimes you’re hot, sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re just there. Sometimes you’d get famous instantly and sometimes you’d get lost easily. I still get overwhelmed when I look back. I guess it’s my mom who saw ‘show business’ in me. If I didn’t even try, I think my life would be very different now. I never realized that I would be in this position. But I am more than happy where I am right now.”

Unlike his partner, Richards’ celebrity isn’t exactly unexpected. But his surge to the top was—one that involved a stroke of genius and a touch of luck that galvanized his place in an industry that made him more of a lurker in his first few years. He has stayed in front of the camera five long years before his name became an adjective to describe anyone who is nothing short of perfect.

He said of his beginnings, “I was really scared when I entered the business—very uncertain. If you don’t have that much confidence you’d be eaten alive. Nilakasan ko lang talaga ang loob ko and I pushed myself to certain limits to be able to cope up with this industry.”

But for him, the biggest competition wasn’t the slew of newcomers waiting in line to be noticed in the same game as he did. He added, “Everyday is a competition with yourself. At first, di ko alam ang capacity ko as a celebrity—an actor, singer, dancer, host etc. Pero ang dami kong ginawang adjustments and andaming dumating na realizations sa sarili ko as I went along in the business. Later on, I realized I have been walking in this exciting road to self-discovery all along.”

Richard Reyes Faulkerson Jr. would dip his toes into the game early on in 2009, joining a reality television search that wouldn’t give him the airtime that he wished for. Two years later, in 2011, he would start to take on roles that would test his mettle as an actor in shows like Alakdana and Tween Hearts. He slid, of course, into the usual route to stardom in the form of saccharine portrayals in several teen-oriented shows before being thrust in a baptism of fire with a role of a perturbed killer on the loose in Yam Laranas’ The Road.

“I’ve learned to appreciate the things that I have been doing during my second year. That’s when I started seeing the benefits of my job.  I got the chance to know myself more as an actor. Kaya ko pala. I can do things that my mom wanted me to do when she was alive. Before, it was just a joke. Pagbigyan lang. Oo lang ng oo. But then in time, di na ganun ang nangyari. I grew to love the industry and I grew to understand that there is something greater than just being called an actor. There’s a purpose behind all of it.”

2015, as history would write it, would be a fateful year for Richards and for the world of show business as a whole.  He landed a temporary hosting stint in Eat Bulaga in between overseas tours in lieu of a regular showbiz job before he was formally introduced as an official Dabarkads opposite stalwarts Vic Sotto, Joey De Leon, and Tito Sotto. He took his jab at hosting and throwing punchlines to the test with a group of established comedians and noontime personalities with only his boyish charm and dimple that could disarm audience members in the studio and at home in his arsenal. He would then be dubbed as the Pambansang Bae, a guy designated to melt every girl’s hearts. And there, he would meet his unexpected match, resulting into a collision of fates that would etch his name next to the pantheon of the biggest superstars the local showbiz industry has ever seen.

“No one has seen it coming, even Maine and I. There were no scripts followed and things that came exceeded everyone’s expectations. And now, there’s so much that I have done and so many things that I have learned. Everyday, as I do things to add up to my portfolio as an actor, the inferiority I felt when I was just in the beginning of my career, fades away. I am growing everyday. Now, I feel like I am in a good place.”

ALDEN RICHARDS IS FAR FROM PERFECT.

But if there’s anything that he has learned, with his career undergoing a renaissance of sorts, it is that reminding everyone of this fact is a complete exercise in futility. And why not? When the world has woven an overly-romanticized, knightly-version of himself, it is hard to shed this notion of “perfection”. But this is something that he has accepted and lived through with grace and humility. He has learned to not let everyone else’s expectation be ball of chains wearing him down. Instead, this served as an indicator that he has a lot more to offer.

No small thanks to his laser-sharp focus and a phalanx of loyal supporters in the form of his family, friends, and fans, he has learned mastering the discipline to sift through whose voices he should listen to in order to get past the demands of his newfound fame, in the convoluted environs he has chosen to live in.

He noted, “It’s different when all eyes are on you. Kahit hindi mo i-compare ang sarili mo sa iba, sila ang magko-compare nun para sa’yo. At the end of the day, you have to identify healthy critics. Minsan, yung mga taong araw araw mong kasama ang magsasabi sayo. Minsan, yung mga taong nakakakita lang sa’yo through different media, like TV and social media. And from that, you get the good points you can use to evolve.”

After Joey De Leon’s prediction on July 16, 2015 proved to be prophetic, Richards’ celebrity has become unstoppable. Everything that he touched turned into gold—magazine covers, commercials, recordings, and television programs. Along with this, came a price. Richards may have been hailed an A-lister all three years of his life post-AlDub explosion but it is not without its struggles. While his fame could’ve allowed him to recline in a nirvana of national, even global, admiration, he knows he always has to step up to be at the top of his game all the time. He had to live according to rules indirectly set for him by the people who have elected him and his love team partner into juggernauts. In the duration of their continuous reign, AlDub (and now MaiChard), has never left public scrutiny—especially in social media.

Richards noted, “Social media have a lot of good points. Connections and gaps between people all over the world became smaller and you get to spread news to other people immediately. But people are so entitled now in social media with their opinions. They say and do what they want to do. And it is something that you have to learn to live with, otherwise you would be sucked into it.”

He continued, “I’ve learned how to read and not feel anymore, regardless of the comments. Kapag good comments, of course, masarap basahin. It’s a different story kapag they tell you want they want to see. It feels like ang dami-dami mong boss sa social media. Ang dami nilang gustong makita, andami nilang gusto mong gawin and sometimes, you just cannot give it to them. And somehow, that turns to hate and that for me, can’t be helped. You have to learn to tune those voices out because it would just derail you from your real goal. It’s really dependent on you how you’re going to take it in. If you ingest everything, hindi maganda. Ako, I take the good points and the bad comments, I use it to make me better.”

Curious. One would ask: What does an Alden Richards still need to offer when a simple cursory search of his name in any search engine would lead you to accolades he copped in the duration of his young career? As early as 2011, the year he entered the scene, he was already awarded the German Moreno Youth Achievement Award by the FAMAS Awards. His role as Joma in Alakdana would begin his growing list of recognitions, getting nominated as Best New Male TV Personality by the PMPC Star Awards for television and then winning the Outstanding Breakthrough Performance by an Actor by the Golden Screen TV Awards.

Then came 2015 when nominations and awards came in pairs. He was nominated as Best Talent Search Program Host for Bet ng Bayan, a show he hosted with Regine Velasquez, and won the Best Drama Actor for Ilustrado, in one night for the PMPC Star Awards for Television. The streak would continue the following year when he snatched the trophies for Breakthrough Recording Artist and Breakthrough Male Star of Philippine Movies and TV both by the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation Box Office Entertainment Awards. The same organization would then hand him the Male Recording Artist of the Year and the Prince of Philippine Movies plum the next year.

Just recently, the PMPC Star Awards for Music unveiled its roster of nominees for 2017. Richards leads the pack of male performers in the list with a Song of the Year nomination for “Rescue Me”, in his album Say It Again, which also earned him Album of the Year and Male Recording Artist of the Year nominations. This is after the same institution awarded him a Best Single Performance by an Actor for his dedicated performance in an Eat Bulaga Lenten Special.

Publications, online portals, student critics, and renowned award-giving bodies continue to give nods of approval for Richards as a host, recording artist, social media influencer, endorser, and of course, an actor. And still, he remains unstoppable.

ALDEN RICHARDS IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

Then, until now, it is hard to look at Richards and not see the indomitable force created by the AlDub phenomenon. To this day, he remains a much-beloved icon to the solid army of fans that reared their pairing so strong it withstood the test of time—exceeding timelines leading to an inevitable demise many naysayers thought the pair would have.

In November of 2017, a mysterious open letter from half of the tandem shook not just the fandom but the industry. Rumors of a supposed AlDub “break up” circulated and got fans in quite a ruckus, which compounded when Mendoza took a temporary hiatus from the public eye—something that Richards responded only with warm messages of support for his partner and an assurance that whatever questions this move has raised will be dealt with and answered “sa tamang panahon”.

This serves it right as the concept of “tamang panahon” stood as the show’s battle cry in the entirety of its existence. And for Richards, waiting for the right time, has been, in great lengths, the biggest lesson he acquired living a small but highly significant part of his near decade life in the spotlight—in the universe created by the marvel that is AlDub.

He said, “Patience. Tamang panahon. Letting things happen and unfold the way they should. These are valuable lessons that the Kalyeserye and EB have taught me. Do not force things to happen and manifest. Let it unfold. Kumbaga, parang flower yan. You do not force a flower to bloom. Patience talaga yan. Actually, it’s not a question of waiting, its enjoying things as they happen and seeing where it’s going.”

Beyond the gift of influence, what AlDub has blessed him with is an elevated look at his craft. When the fascination over the love team sensation quieted down, what is essentially left is a man who has developed a deeper respect for his role as an actor.

He noted, “Since the fanbase exploded, the reach of AlDub has been across all markets. It has been good on our part because we have been able to inspire people. That’s the main thing that EB wanted. With that, I’ve learned to share certain things to people, especially wisdom through social media and to the expanded fanbase. But more than anything, what I love most is that I was challenged even more as an actor with the projects I am now getting. Hindi na madali. The characters are becoming more complex and are not just the simple boy-next-door na na-inlove. I’ve began receiving more challenging and more mature roles, and those are priceless.”

His high regard for his craft is something that he has fortified long before he became a sensation. His repertoire of roles has gone leaps and bounds from his contemporaries—having sparred with Nora Aunor for a short film called Kinabukasan and going the lengths of interviewing Rizalistas for his role in Ilustrado, as the national hero himself.

Of late, people have paid attention to his masterful portrayal in bringing life to a role of an activist in a docu-drama. The depth of his portrayal as Martial Law activist Boni Ilagan was well-praised and it garnered him online attention. He recalled, “That’s a memorable role because it has become something significant to the country. Di sya fictional character. For me, to be able to play a character that is part of our history has its effect until now, yun ang mga dapat binibigyan pansin na mga roles. It’s important for people to know what happened.”

When asked any future roles he dreams to portray, he shared, “Madami pa. There are still a lot of roles to be played. Right now, lahat ng mga basic roles nagawa ko na. I think it is time na umakyat na tayo sa level 2. Yun yung mga roles na may complexity ang characters and diverse in terms of characterization. In a role, actors add layers to the character. You should not just be restricted to what you have been given. Walang growth dun.”

He went on into saying, “I think it was Direk Gina Alajar who told me, there are no small roles, only small actors. When you watch films, sometimes yung maliliit na characters ang tumatatak. Walang small, small roles, it is how you do and execute it.”

Almost a decade into his storied career, and almost three years into his life as Alden Richards, the superstar, I asked what his present day self would tell his younger version. He took a pause and breathed in response, “Always believe in the power of your dreams. I was very ambitious when I was young. I’ve always wanted to do a lot of things with my life. I’ve always felt this strange energy that I that there’s something big that’s going to happen—a huge turn of events is about to happen. I always had that to keep the flame burning. Do not envy others, sooner or later you’ll get to that point. It will come to you, you just have to work hard for it.”

 

Produced and Creative Direction by Leo Balante

Assisted by Harriett Icay

Styling by Ello Eregil

Grooming by Kusie Ho 

Fashion by Avel Bacudio at Avel Designs Fall-Winter 2018

Videography by Calvin Cardenas

Special thanks to Leysam Sanciangco, GMA Artist Center and Sherryl Serna of Boardwalk Philippines