Now he can really be called “Mr. Popular”.
Since making his showbiz debut on TV5’s “Artista Academy” two years ago, Mark Neumann has been taking on one challenging project after another in his bid to prove to everyone that there’s more to him than just his pretty boy features.
After “graduating” from the reality talent search, the 19-year-old Filipino-Croatian lad who grew up in Germany immediately played against type when he took on the role of Fuego, one of the villainous superpowered characters in the 2013 fantaserye “Kidlat”.
He followed that up with the May-December TV movie “The Lady Next Door” where he played a troubled teen who fell in love with an older woman portrayed by Alice Dixson.
Mark was then included in the cast of the comedy soap “Confessions of a Torpe” where he first rekindled the “Shark” love team he started with Shaira Mae dela Cruz on “Artista Academy”. Despite the fact that Shaira went public with her relationship with Edgar Allan Guzman, fans continue to accept their onscreen team-up.
So it comes as no surprise that when the two headlined the “Wattpad Presents” mini-series “Mr. Popular Meets Ms. Nobody”, it turned out to be the biggest hit of the eight Wattpad stories adapted by TV5 to date as well as the only one to merit a sequel.
“We didn’t expect our story to rate that well. I was both surprised and happy with the good feedback but Shaira and I could not have done it without Direk Jay Altarejos, the rest of the cast and everyone who worked behind the scenes,” Mark told InterAksyon during the recent story conference for the latest batch of “Wattpad Presents”.
Aside from his chemistry with Shaira, which was pretty much a given, a big part of what made “Mr. Popular Meets Ms. Nobody” was Mark’s performance as Kyle, the most popular guy in school who made life very difficult for Chelsea, a little known girl who made the mistake of standing up to him. The young actor said it was not easy playing a character who is the exact opposite of who he is in real life.
“Ako yung binu-bully sa school noon,” he recalled. “Hindi rin ako mayabang kaya maraming nagsabi na hindi ako bagay sa role ni Kyle. So I really had to push myself and I kept thinking, ‘Mark, ang puso, laban dapat!” and I’m glad people I performed convincingly in this role.”
It was so convincing that Mark is now doing a double take on the same character. Although it seems that Kyle is now humbled by his love for Chelsea, their relationship is not without its share of challenges.
In “Mr. Popular Meets Ms. Nobody 2: Still in Love”, one of those challenges come in the form and shape of Mandy, Kyle’s ex-girlfriend portrayed by Yassi Pressman. As if that does not complicate matters enough, there’s also Kyle’s father (Lander Vera Perez) who wants him in an arranged marriage.
And then there’s also Adrian (Diego Loyzaga), the best friend of Kyle who still has the hots for Chelsea. He is still around and ready to take his place if the two young lovers don’t pan out.
“Unlike the first series na medyo pa-tweetums pa kami, dito mas mature na ang characters. Marami pa ring kilig moments pero I think mas medyo drama na siya compared to the first book,” Mark pointed out.
This also means that Mark once again finds himself in familiar territory of facing new challenges. But that is something that’s no longer news for him. Even as he already improved on his Tagalog, he continues to accept projects that will allow him to continue his mastery of the national language.
Recently, Mark was invited to be reader in the Inquirer Read-Along series along with Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Gilas Pilipinas and Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters forward Ranidel De Ocampo. As a first-time reader, he said the experience was very memorable to him in more ways than one.
“I’m happy and thankful to be reading for kids. But when they showed me the book, I found it to be malalim, Tagalog na Tagalog, so I practiced it repeatedly before I faced the kids and I’m glad that it went well with them,” he admitted. “Yes, I was nervous but since I’m always looking forward to experiencing new things, I’m glad I was able to do this.”
Again written by Pinkyjhewelii, “Wattpad Presents: Mr. Popular Meets Ms. Nobody 2: Still in Love” airs on TV5 every weekday this week at 9:30PM.
source: interaksyon.com