“FPJ’s Batang Quiapo” may be loaded with wicked characters who make our bloods boil because of how cruel and ruthless they are, yet it still has benevolent characters who make us believe that kindness still exists in this world. And one of the best-loved characters in the top-rating series is Tindeng, the courageous and dedicated mother of Marites (Cherry Pie Picache) and doting grandmother of Tanggol (Coco Martin) and his siblings, commendably portrayed by veteran actress Charo Santos.
Throughout the first year of the series, we’ve witnessed how her character ferociously deals with every trouble that she and her dysfunctional family have gone through, as well as with every person that would cross her and her loved ones. Among her most trending and most intense face-offs was with Lena (Mercedes Cabral), the conceited paramour of her son-in-law Rigor (John Estrada), which she fondly reminisced about as she was asked to react to it.
Charo recalled that Tindeng has been begging her daughter to consider calling it quits with her husband because she doesn’t like how Rigor disrespects Marites. Her appeals further intensified when she caught Rigor and Lena red-handed, more so when she eventually found out that he had already taken her home because he got her pregnant.
According to her, she was able to pull off those series of sequences by putting herself in the shoes of a mom whose child is being treated unfairly and holding on to the rage that Tindeng felt. Knowing the reactions of the viewers three months prior to the filming of that scene totally helped her as well, as she felt like bringing with her their wrath against Lena and translating them into the fury of her character.
The veteran actress then expressed her amusement to the comments of netizens after watching the fiery encounter between Tindeng and Lena, with people telling her that what she did was still not enough because of all the gigil and anger she had caused them. Besides, there were also other audiences who expressed their astonishment that the calm and soft-spoken Charo that they know can actually be violent and vindictive.
Even though she’s a great actress, she admitted still being challenged in doing that scene and portraying Tindeng in general. First and foremost, they are two individuals with polarly opposite personalities, yet both of them are women of principles who can bravely fight for their loved ones and what they believe is right. And second, she also found the physical requirements of that particular scene really tough since we could see how strenuous and stressful their skirmish was.
Charo revealed that they actually had to rehearse their sampalan over and over again because their directors, especially Coco, wanted the scene to be truthful and make the audiences feel and see the fury of Tindeng. When asked how she cooled down after that scorching scene, she simply breathed in and out, shook the anger off, and quickly checked on her co-actor – Mercedes in this case – to find out if she hurt her or not.
“’Yong energy naman na binibigay ng eksena, hindi lang isang artista ang magdadala no’n. It’s really the collaborative effort of all the stars, of all the characters in the scene,” she said.