LOS ANGELES — Camille Mana is one of those rare Fil-Am Hollywood actresses who have stayed grounded all these years.
We still remember when we did our first interview with her and she did not hesitate to come to our downtown apartment then for the interview.
Then we watched her in New York where she portrayed the title role in no less than Jesse Eisenberg’s play, “Asuncion” and acted opposite Eisenberg and Justin Bartha at The Cherry Lane Theatre.
A humble and smart actress, the UC Berkeley alum once told us how she finished her economics course in three years so she can pursue her first love, acting!
Now Mana is portraying Ruby, the sister to Mel Bayani (Liza Lapira) on CBS’ crime drama series, “The Equalizer.”
She is also set to appear in the Leah McKendrick-helmed comedy “Scrambled” which also stars Yvonne Strahovski and June Diane Raphael. It is about a broke, single millennial who unleashes an existential crisis when she freezes her eggs.
Below is our e-mail interview with Mana.
Congratulations on your role in “The Equalizer”. Can you please tell us how you got the part?
Thank you. It was a very standard audition process. I had read for the casting director previously. This role, Mel’s sister, came up and I read on tape and received the offer from that.
The non-traditional part was that I was coming off a seven-week stint of COVID sickness, and this was the first audition I was able to complete in that entire period. It was a boon to receive it after a challenging period.
Can you please tell us more about this very special Filipino episode on “The Equalizer” where the Bayanis have a reunion?
The show has been on CBS for three seasons now and has done such a lovely job of developing backstories for the other leads.
Mel Bayani (Liza Lapira) has had her love story explored throughout the seasons, since Harry (Adam Goldberg) and she fight crimes together, but this was the first establishment of who her family is.
It is such…
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