Tough Luck Club

Keeping millions of individuals glued to their screens and at the edge of their seats can’t be easy, after all. Left to its own devices, the entertainment industry, especially our own, has a habit of taking on new talents and testing the waters for mass appeal, or the uncanny critical darling.

- Cerdric S.Reyes

SHOW BUSINESS HAS A TERRIBLE HABIT OF FORGETTING.

These talents feed the line. Only a handful of fresh-faced teen idols are able to incite the response necessary to propel them to stardom, and this exclusive club forms the earmarks of a generation. Vilma Santos, Rico Yan, and Scout cover girl Nadine Lustre are just some of the lucky ones. When we think about specific eras of pop culture, they’re the ones that we remember.

To the club that thousands of new talents strive for, it seems Ronnie Alonte was given an all-access pass. For a moment, right at the end, just as relief started to settle at the close of 2016, all eyes were on the smug-faced newcomer. He was by all means a star on the rise, but the end of last year hitched wagons to Ronnie’s ascent and secured his place as one to watch. Serving top billing on two films of the Metro Manila Film Festival simultaneously can do that to a young actor’s career. Still, Ronnie’s was a new name, one that rang like a tune and commanded attention. Snappy and memorable, his was the kind of moniker that agents pitched in meetings, because a pretty name is just as important as a pretty face. But Ronnie Arthur Alcantara Alonte has been his name for 20 years, since he was born in Biñan, Laguna. His name is real, and despite a maddening onset of success, so is he.