Rico Yan Encounters

I had three interviews with Rico Yan. Each interview, I remember extremely well.

The first one was on the set of Gimik. I remember we sat on a ledge just outside the house they were shooting in. And i asked him if he wore boxers or briefs. I don't remember his answer but I remember his laughter upon hearing my question. I remember his concern as he asked, "Do you mind if we stay around people who smoke?" I remember thinking he could've asked me if I minded being around people who farted, and I would've said yes. I would've said yes to anything he asked me, I found him so cute.

The second one was a full-fledged interview. We met at Cafe Ysabel. It didn't feel like an interview, because we ended up talking about what seemed like every topic known to man. I felt like I was hanging out with a friend. I remember he asked if I wanted wine. And the girl who never drank more than a sip from her mom before said, "Yes, I'll have wine with dinner." He bought the entire bottle. I remember being thrilled. After dinner, he then asked me if I wanted coffee. And the girl who used to tell anyone who would listen that she hated hot drinks said, "Oh yes, coffee would be wonderful." It felt like a real date. I thought, I'm being paid to do this?

That was a few weeks before my birthday. Little did I know that my best friend Monica planned a surprise that had to do with Rico Yan. See, everytime it was my birthday Monica always tried to concoct me some surprise that had to do with my crush at the moment. At that time it was Rico Yan. The evening of my birthday, I had my friends over and my pager went off. (It was days before texting and cellphones.) When I read the message, I screamed and chased Monica all over my living room. Evryone started yelling, "What happened? What happened?" Then I read the page to everyone in the room: "From Rico Yan, Happy BirthdayI'm sorry I wasn't able to go to your birthday party. I love you." Monica said, "He paged you?" I glared at her, "Don't tell me you didn't have to do anything with this!!!" Finally she did confessed that she did page him, asking him to come to my party, but if he couldn't could he possibly just page me a greeting? I asked her again, "Are you sure this wasn't just paged by you?" She swore it wasn't her. And since it was a page, not a text, and there was no way to trace or prove it was actually Rico who paged, I believed her. And doubted it at the same time. Nevertheless, that page stayed in my pager for 3 weeks. Heck it was an "I love you," and it was from Rico Yan. It was a fantasy of a lifetime.

The third interview was the funniest one. We agreed to meet in Chili's Greebelt. We sat at the table by a window, and I remember people's heads turning as they passed. But I eventually forgot to notice them as our conversation got more and more interesting, and more and more hilarious. The interview at Cafe Ysabel was more for getting to know Rico Yan — his school, his shows, etc., etc… This one was more fun questions like, what would you choose, having all the riches in the world, being the wisest person in the world, or having the most beautiful girl in the world. He chose the most beautiful girld in the world because, he said, riches, you can work for. And for being wise you can get with experience, but the beautiful girl, she's a hard person to get! And I remember that he asked me some of my questions back. That's something that rarely happens — when the interviewee actually ask you what your opinion is.

The funniest part came at the end of the meal — when he found out that he didn't have enough cash on him to pay for the meal. He thought he could pay via EPS with his BPI card. I said, don't worry, I'll pay for it, it's okay, but he wouldn't have it. He called for his driver, and it turned out there was enough money in his car. He kept on joking. "Oh no! I can see the headlines now! Rico Yan has no money to pay for food!" I laughed and told him, "Don't worry, I'm not that kind of a reporter."

Afterwards, he asked me to go to Greenwich with him. He was going to get a couple of pizzas for the hairdressers at Salon de Manila. We waled from Chili's to Greenwich talking the entire time. This time I couldn't ignore the looks we were getting.

By that time he was getting pretty popular, especially since the series of Greenwich ds had just come out. But the looks we were getting were nothing compared to the reaction we got at Greenwich. There all heads just turned to him. As we stood in line, business tried to go ojn as usual, but the cooks in the back kept on jumping to get a look, and the cashier was smiling was smiling really broadly not at the customer she was attending to, but at us, and we were 4th in line. He ordered 4 large pizzas and then all he had to do was sign for it. I joked him, "We should've eaten here pala. Then you lack of money wouldn't have been a problem." He laughed. I remember thinking, hey, I made Rico Yan laugh.

Soon after that, the love triangle of Judy Ann — Wowie De Guzman — Rico Yan went in full force., and their movie, Paano Ang Puso Ko hit the theaters. And the girl who rarely watched Tagalog movies dragged her friend Mariel (because she had dragged me before to watch a Bobby Andrews movie, I forget which) to watch Rico Yan and Wowie De Guzman compete for the attention of Judy Ann Santos. I guess I became a full-fledged fan.

Months after that, I ran into Rico at CCP, where ABS-CBN had a show called Kultura Para Sa Masa, where he was one of the host. I remember crossing paths with him, and our eyes meeting. I thought he would remember me, and maybe we would talk for a bit. But all he said was, "Thank you for watching."

I got offended. What did he think of me, a regular fan? Did he not remember the three interviews we had together? Did he not remember the Chili's incident? How dare he! But the truth was… I had become a regular fan. And it was my pride that made me think I was supposed to be so important that he would remember our interviews when, I am sure, he had had thousands by that time. I was acting like those fans who proclaimed a celebrity a "snob" when all they were being was tired at the end of a work day, like any regular human being.

Well, Rico may not have remembered me, but I will never forget him. He will always be that matinee idol I had my 15 minutes of bliss with. Some people swooned over New Kids on the Block. Others, Brad Pitt. I swooned over Rico Yan, and I got to be his date for a few hours in Cafe Ysabel and Chili's. I got paged an "I love you" from him on my birthday. I got a picture with him at Salon de Manila. I got to make him laugh.

When I heard Rico Yan died, I felt that I lost a friend. Which is weird, because I really can't claim to being anything but a writer who just happened to have an assignment of interviewing a celebrity.

But those few hours i spent with him, I found a funny, intellligent, and incredibly real person to connect with an laugh with. And it is that guy I cherished for those few wonderful hours that I mourn for.

Goodbye, Rico. I'll miss you.

By Paulynn P. Sicam

Reprinted from the Star Studio Magazine, April 2002