Model and actress (who has never been a part of a love team) Solenn Heussaff offered a bit of profound insight to Filipino showbiz fans on her blog yesterday when she broke down the “love team” phenomenon: “Before actors are coupled in a love team, they’re actors first.”
Who would’ve thought?
Although actress Maine Mendoza wasn’t mentioned in the post, it comes just days after Mendoza’s appearance on another celebrity’s Instagram caused a stir in the AlDub Nation (the name of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza’s legion of online fans … yes, that’s a thing).
She reacted to her fans bashing Jake Ejercito, actor and son of former president Joseph Estrada, in a long open letter where she was forced to explain to her fans that she and Richards were “just friends.”
Love teams are actors paired together by TV networks and film studios to star in soap operas and movies. Some love teams have led fans to believe their favorite stars are also real-life couples, something the industry, frankly, seems to encourage.
The rumored pairings are rarely denied, probably in order not to offend the rabid fan bases who loyally watch their movies and TV shows and support their other projects.
“To set the record straight, I have never been part of a love team. I remember, though, when I was still starting in showbiz, I was asked to attend an event with my supposed ka-love team in the making,” Heussaff wrote in her blog.
“There’s definitely a certain magic about two complete strangers working so well together and having undeniable chemistry. I have always been amazed at how this happens and how involved fans can get.”
She said that selling the romance is part of a love team’s job. “And as an actor, you want to be able to do different kinds of roles. You want to act with different people, because you learn from every new person you act with,” she added.
But she said when love teams do their jobs too well, fans tend to get too attached.
“Mean things are said to the actors involved, especially in social media.”
She added, “it even gets to the point when the actors in the love team lose a sense of who they are, because they’re trying so much to portray themselves as a couple both on-screen (which is okay) and in real life (which is not okay if it’s being forced on them).”
Mendoza expressed a similar thought in her open letter. “I have not been able to do what I want and say what I feel because every time I try to express my thoughts and feelings, some of you tend to misapprehend and invalidate them in so many ways,” she said.
Heussaff had this message for fans who are a little too involved and engaged in their favorite love teams personal lives: “Are we polluting social media with so much unnecessary attacks and hate? Why don’t we use it to share support and inspiration instead?”
She added, “We can also draw lines. Let’s love the couple on-screen, but also respect them as individuals off-screen. We can love the work that they do as actors, and still support their individual lives. Let’s make love teams what they’re supposed to be about: Love.”
