Woman of the World
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 9, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 As The World Turns Lea Salonga, known as
the singing voice of Disney’s Mulan and Jasmine, has also won an
Tony Award for her turn as Kim in "Miss Saigon."
By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Before landing her current soap gig, the closest Lea Salonga
probably ever got to TV soap suds was watching Bubbles on
“The Powerpuff Girls.” The actress/singer has never
gotten hooked on daytime dramas but professes to make time for some
loony toons.
“I’m a big cartoon freak and I usually have my TV
tuned into the Cartoon Network,” Salonga said in a telephone
interview from New York. “I guess now that I’m on the
soap, I watch our soap ““ when I remember to turn on my
TV.”
Since March, the Tony Award-winner has traded in the stage for
afternoon screen time on the CBS sudser, “As the World
Turns.” Salonga, 30, best known for her heart-wrenching turn
as Kim in the original Broadway production of “Miss
Saigon” and as Disney’s go-to-girl when the singing
voice for Mulan and Princess Jasmine (“Aladdin”) were
needed, is currently one of the few Asian actors on the soap canvas
with a contract role and a front-burner storyline.
She first heard about the part of high-powered attorney Lien
Hughes through her agent. After meeting with executive producer
Chris Goutman and screen testing, Salonga was offered the role.
Lien, an Amerasian member of one of the soap’s core families,
was first portrayed by Ming-Na ““ the actress behind
Mulan’s speaking voice. Salonga had no idea that her
“Mulan” colleague originated the role until her
co-workers informed her of the character’s history.
Despite the coincidences between their career choices, Salonga
has only met the “ER” regular once.
“We met at a press junket and that was it,” Salonga
said. “She knows that I’m doing this and I think
she’s quite amused.”
 Illustration by KRISTEN GILLETTE/Daily Bruin Both women
are also among the handful of Asian actors who have appeared on
soap operas since the genre’s creation. With all the buzz
about the absence of minorities ““ Asians in particular
““ in prime time programming, daytime serials seem even
further behind. The Pilipino entertainer is very much unsettled by
the dearth of Asians playing either ethnic or non-ethnic
characters.
“There are so many Asian actors that would be perfect for
parts on soap operas and maybe there will be more cast at some
point,” Salonga said. “It can’t just be with one
token Asian character or one token Asian person. There have to be
more characters.”
Still, Salonga has no idea whether the ethnic drought stems from
behind-the-scenes control of casting directors and producers or an
underlying reticence from aspiring actors toward the soaps.
“I think an Asian actor will try for anything that is
submitted to their agent. I certainly would,” Salonga said.
“A soap is television; it is acting and it is a great way to
keep practicing and improving at one’s craft. So I
don’t know if it’s a casting director thing, if
it’s a producer thing or a writing thing. It could be a
combination of a lot of things.”
Although Salonga has plenty of experience performing in front of
live audiences ““ from Queen Elizabeth II to the Clintons
““ performing in front of three cameras on a closed set
everyday brought a whole new world of challenges.
Besides working 10- to 12-hour days and memorizing 20 pages of
new script ““ sometimes as late as the day before the episode
tapes ““ she must prep herself into her character’s
immediate state of mind.
“The challenge is being “˜on’ immediately, as
in the minute you get on the floor, you’re in work
mode,” Salonga said. “Acting in theater, you can pretty
much prepare emotionally before the show begins and then
you’re on a journey once you start. … Everything happens
chronologically and everything happens in those two
hours.”
 PGP Lea Salonga (second from right)
plays Lien Hughes, an Amerasian attorney, in the soap opera "As The
World Turns." She is one of the few Asian actors in the genre.
Before “As the World Turns” came along, the past
year had already been a red-letter one for Salonga. Last May the
stage heroine returned to her stomping grounds in Manila to perform
the lead in the musical, “They’re Playing Our
Song,” for an eight-week run.
But six weeks in, her male co-star had to leave. At first,
Salonga worried that his replacement would not be prepared to meet
the demands of the role so quickly, but Michael Lee, a seasoned
Korean American actor, won Salonga over onstage and off.
“As we got into the rehearsal and then into the first week
of the run, that’s when we really used it to get the rhythms
right,” Salonga said. “By our last show, we
didn’t want it to end and a few days later, we decided to
start a relationship.”
But, by December, Salonga was back in the Big Apple ““ her
adopted home over the past 10 years ““ to reprise Kim in
“Miss Saigon.” After more than 4,000 performances, the
show that first catapulted Salonga to international stardom was
ending its 10-year run on the Great White Way.
While revisiting the ill-fated love story for four weeks until
its Jan. 28 closing, Salonga was able to play Kim to Lee’s
Thuy. Having her boyfriend there turned out to be helpful,
especially when throngs of die-hard fans waited outside by the
stage door to get autographs.
Between taping at the soap’s Brooklyn studio and catching
up on her sleep, Salonga moves at the pace of a New York minute.
Yet, she still wants to finish school. At 20, she ultimately put
aside her college pre-med studies in Manila in order to star in
“Miss Saigon” in London’s West End.
Although she was able to enroll in Fordham University for a
semester last year and study philosophy and history, Salonga must
now wait until she has the time to attend another semester.
“I am going at my own pace,” she said. “It was
really nice to delve into books and novels and read things that
were written in the context of what we were studying in
history.”
From Kim to Eponine in “Les Miserables,” Salonga has
made a career out of portraying brave but vulnerable heroines.
There are, however, still some musical roles that she wants to
tackle, such as the title character in “Annie Get Your
Gun” and Belle in “Beauty and the Beast.”
Just as “Les Miz” fans embraced her as Eponine,
Salonga hopes to encourage people to accept her, as well as other
Asian actors, in all kinds of roles.
“For me to be able to do something that people would not
normally envision me doing is stuff that attracts me,”
Salonga said.
“Because it tells people, “˜You know what? She can do
it. She can get away with it and it’s not so much that
it’s a novelty of casting an Asian in a role that would
normally be reserved for another ethnic group. She’s got the
talent for it, she’s got the chops for it, she’s got
the look for it, she should do it.’ And that’s
ultimately what it should be about,” she said.
TELEVISION: “As The World Turns”
airs weekdays at 1 p.m. on CBS.
