Ahead of his first project back in ABS-CBN, Rafael Rosell guested on Tonight With Boy Abunda on Wednesday, July 24 to share his thoughts about working with Denise Laurel again, his current girlfriend of three years, and his hilarious encounter with the legendary Kalinga tribal tattooist Whang-od Oggay.
Rafael will co-star with JM De Guzman in the upcoming Ipaglaban Mo episode about two brothers who have opposite personalities. JM’s character often disobeys their parents while Rafael portrays the good brother persona. The Ipaglaban Mo episode will answer how some brothers are willing to sacrifice even their reputation for their younger siblings.
Rafael met his girlfriend of three years, Valerie Chia, in a gathering and eventually exchanged numbers only to find out that they had a lot of things in common. He refused to answer questions about marriage because he prefers to keep it to themselves for privacy.
On working with Denise, he said they are working out details for an upcoming project together. They worked together in Precious Hearts Romances series “Midnight Phantom.”
Rafael also shared his hilarious encounter with Whang-od. He met her during a taping for a teleserye and wanted to have a picture with her after knowing that she was the oldest and last mambabatok, tattooing using bamboo, in the country. He was warned that Whang-od was too fond of physical contact and Rafael revealed that she touched his intimate part before their picture was taken. But he brushed it off and took it as a compliment and referred to the experience as endearing.
Rafael then played the SaRAF o HiRAF challenge, which includes the famous Chubby Bunny Challenge wherein he has to stuff his mouth with as many marshmallows as he can and say TWBA five times with his mouth overflowing with marshmallows. The HiRAF part of the game challenged Rafael to do ten push-ups. “I stopped seeing the meaning of trying to get a six pack or chiseled body,” he said, revealing that he hasn’t been regularly going to the gym for almost two years because he wanted to do more meaningful things with his time rather than to workout for hours and hours for nothing.
He would then of course not escape TWBA’s Fast Talk wherein he revealed that the teleserye he would love to be part of is Sino Ang Maysala? Mea Culpa, which is headlined by Jodi Sta. Maria, with whom he shared an on-air pairing in the 2011 teleserye 100 Days to Heaven. He also chose “Liza” over “Kathryn” and “Nadine”, and emphatically said Cherie Gil is the sexiest woman in the Philippines
Watch more of Rafael Rosell on TWBA in this video.