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Veteran actress Cherie Gil

I would like to be able to emanate the human side of Diana Vreeland. We talk about the woman, the human being, thats what I like to capture, the poignancy of that.

Tucked into a dark corner of the bar right across the Peninsula Manilas Salon de Ning, Evangeline Rose De Mesa Eigenmann more popularly known by her on-screen moniker Cherie Gil looked like a beautiful anachronism. With her pulled-back hair, all black outfit, and with the lit cigarette she held in one hand and the flute of wine in the other, she seemed to fit more in the swinging 60s rather than the present day.

A lot of it is due to the veteran actress ability to get underneath the skin of the characters that she portrays. When she sat down with the Students and Campuses staff for this 60 Minutes interview, she had just come from the press conference of her latest passion project: Full Gallop, a one-woman play on the life and times of legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who helmed Vogue from 1962 to 1971.

My Own Mann Productions Full Gallop will open with a gala night premiere on March 14 with regular performances on March 15 and 21 at 8 p.m. and on March 16 and 23 at 4 p.m. at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium of the RCBC Plaza.

I would like to be able to emanate the human side of her with the help of Bart (Guingona, the director). Its actually quite poignant, she says of the play. It all starts with who she is. We talk about the woman, the human being. Thats what Id like to capture, the poignancy of that.

Diana Vreeland is merely the latest in the long list of characters whose foibles, pathos, and poignancy she has captured and performed on screen and on stage in her 37 years in the business. Its easy to remember the various roles she has played on screen, from the lesbian Kano in Lino Brockas Manila By Night, to the spoiled Trining in Peque Gallagas Oro, Plata, Mata, and to her oft-quoted villainess Lavinia Arguelles in Emmanuel Borlazas Bituing Walang Ningning.

Her success and longevity in the business isnt exactly surprising. She does, after all come from a family of thespians from her father and mother Eddie Mesa and Rosemarie Gil to her brothers Mark Gil and Michael de Mesa.

When I started, it wasnt even a planned thing. I just got involved because my dad has a TV show. They would ask me to come and sing a song and I would sing and play, she recalls with a laugh. I just wanted to be on stage. I wanted to be performing, even in school. I was meant to be on stage yata, to be the center of attraction.

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