Derek Ramsay on love, sex, lust and indecent proposals
Derek
walks into the Swatch store in Greenbelt 5 for this interview.
Mallgoers walking by whisper and giggle while looking at him. Derek
gives them a warm smile, and despite wearing shades, you can definitely
feel his famous smiling eyes beaming behind those lenses. By the time
the interview ends, a whole crowd is gathered outside the store, with
girls, guys, gays, both young and old, eagerly trying to catch his
attention and take his photo. As he moves closer and waves to the
people, you hear what can be described as screams and sighs at the exact
same time. Girls swoon. Derek has that effect. Take note, this is just
one store, in one mall, in one city. Derek has this effect everywhere.
Here are 10 things you might want to know about Derek Ramsay.
1. Derek has received so many indecent proposals since his blockbuster movie No Other Woman came along.
In
the movie, he plays a married man torn between his wife and his
mistress. When asked how many “offers” he’s gotten, he shakes his head
and says, “Ang dami, and I’ve even been attacked,” Derek reveals. He
recently just got home from a Frisbee tournament in Hong Kong, and his
cuts and bruises on this trip weren’t from the game, but instead from a
mob of Pinays who grabbed him (and some even went straight for his
you-know-what!). He gets all kinds of indecent proposals in person, some
jokingly, some through text. What do they say? “Pwede ka bang
matikman?” Derek shyly says. “It’s been a crazy five weeks,” he adds.
2. He has never been homophobic. In fact, he grew up surrounded by gay people.
In
other blockbuster movie out now, Praybeyt Benjamin, where he is the
leading man with Vice Ganda, there is a much-talked-about shower scene,
bed scene and other intimate scenes. When I asked Derek which of all
these was the most awkward, he answers: “None! I think it was Vice who
was more uncomfortable!”
He shares that his mom only
trusts gays to be their househelpers. His mom’s “sidekick,” Junday, was
the only one who knew the code to the family safe — not even his dad or
any of the kids. They also had a six-foot-tall cook, Poday, who would
run around and spank them. Today, Derek has countless gay friends and he
believes they “rule the entertainment industry.” He makes it clear,
though, that he may be close to gays but if ever the time comes that he
feels violated, he won’t hesitate to “put you up against a wall, and
say, ‘Hey, that’s not how I am.’” He has actually done this, in fact.
3.
He calls himself a “late bloomer,” and was actually already 19 years
old when he first kissed his girlfriend, and (believe it or not) it was
his first kiss!
In fact, his parents chaperoned
him and his date during his junior prom. For his senior prom he decided
to go stag, and went home early that night to be able to wake up early
the next day for a golf game with his dad. Back then, he would rather do
that than go out for a night of partying or out on dates. Up until when
he was 18, for him, girls had “cooties.”
4. His super-fit body was achieved and is maintained with pure discipline. He doesn’t diet.
“Ever
since I was a little boy, I’ve always been very active,” Derek shares.
He was into swimming, running and other sports that instilled in him the
discipline of keeping his body in shape. When he doesn’t get to do his
favorite sports, the key to maintaining his abs, arms, chest and
everything else is, simply, pushups. “Everyone thinks that pushups just
develop the arms, but it’s not just that! You contract your abs so that
your back is straight, and you concentrate more on form than the number
of pushups that you do,” he explains. He does 100 pushups almost daily,
and goes to the gym or a session of plyometrics when he needs it. A
quality 30-minute nonstop workout is better than being in the gym for
two hours, according to Derek.
5. On sex in a relationship: “It plays an important role but it’s not the most important.”
“I
think it is important. It’s when you give yourself to one person, it
shows how comfortable you are and how much you trust the person,” Derek
opens up. He also makes clear that there is a big difference between
lust and love. He says: “Lust will die. You can’t be with somebody just
out of lust. Lust and love are two totally different things.” He ends by
talking about his girlfriend Angelica Panganiban saying, “What I have
with Angel is love.”
5. Derek Ramsay in numbers:
31: His waistline in inches.
180: His weight in pounds. If he is in competing in a tournament, he can go as low as 165. He stands 5’10 1/2”.
10:
Pounds he can lose with one whole day of activities. “Everyone doesn’t
believe me but then I prove it to them. My body transforms,” Derek
shares.
10: Around the number of moles on his body, including what he calls the “mega mole” on his face.
4: Number of cars in his collection (including a 1964 Volkswagen Kombi, Volvo V60, 1967 Mini Cooper, and a Porsche).
6. At 22, Derek ran away from home, and woke up every day not knowing what he wanted to do with his life.
He
found himself in the Philippines in 2002 as a favor to his dad who
wanted him to join (and eventually run) the family business, Electronic
Security. They disagreed on a lot of things in terms of direction for
the company; they fought, and so he ran away from their family home in
Alabang. In what he calls the most interesting part of his life, he then
moved into a run-down, rodent-filled apartment in Quezon City with his
now good friend Martin Castro, and became a kanto boy. From pronouncing
Caloocan as “Ca-lu-can” to now effortlessly saying the word
“nakakapagpabagabag,” Derek learned Tagalog, the ways on the street, and
became more wais.
7. It was when he fell sick
after eating ocho pares that his reconciliation with his family started,
which also led him to find direction in his life.
After
eating that particular street food, Derek fell sick and started
vomiting blood. His friends rushed him to the hospital where his hand
turned blue because of the incorrect way the medical staff had stuck a
needle in his vein. His mom visited him in the hospital and, in Derek’s
words, “The rest was history.”
That was also when Derek
hit a turning point. “I’m going to start doing things on my own, I can’t
go back to my dad’s business,” Derek realized. His start in modeling
was a lead role in a Close-Up commercial, then projects kept coming and
he eventually became a very successful model. He also joined the cast of
Eat Bulaga where, he says, “Martin (Castro) would drive me to work!”
For a time he played for the Toyota Otis team of the Philippine
Basketball League or PBL. He also became a VJ for MTV and a host for
entertainment talk show ETK. He has always turned down inquiries for him
to act, but he couldn’t refuse the offer of the teleserye Panday, which
required him to shoot in Bohol (he loves to travel) and do fight scenes
(he loves being active).
From playing a warrior in
Panday, to playing Machete in Super Inggo, to getting his big break in a
role alongside Judy Ann Santos in Ysabella, Derek never had qualms
about playing a supporting role or playing characters that eventually
die, and today he is a bankable leading man in both television and film.
8.
According to Angelica, his being muscular seems like a front. He likes
showing he’s strong but, in reality, he’s a baby you need to take care
of 24/7. And though he may seem like a tough guy, he has his fair share
of vanity concerns.
After a few seconds of
disbelief that he was just “sold out” and a few seconds of laughter,
Derek confirms this, saying, “I am a baby.” He smiles with his head down
and adds, “I don’t like being alone.” He says that after his games, he
says that all he asks for is lambing. Angel takes good care of Derek but
he also understands how this trait of his can annoy his girlfriend,
since she always warns him about his injuries and aches and pains and
bugs him to have them checked, but in the end still allows him to play
because it is what he loves doing.
Also according to
Angel, Derek couldn’t care less about injuries and scars, but when he
has a pimple, “sira araw niya.” To which Derek bursts into laughter. He
is quick to retort that Angel reacts exactly the same way when she has a
pimple, and even shares that she has a “pimple popping kit.” He shaves
his head (razor: Uno) once a week, and makes sure he takes a shower and
most importantly washes his face before he goes to bed.
10. On marriage: “If Angel wants that, I will give her that.”
He
shares that he has the perfect marriage to as a role model, because his
parents have been married for 30 years. “I don’t think I have to rush
into it though because Angel still has a lot to do in this industry and I
don’t want to hinder that,” Derek adds.
He declares that
he has never cheated on Angelica, and thinks that he is constantly
labeled a babaero because athletes are labeled such. “I’ve been an
athlete all my life and even when I was in college they would say that
if you’re in the rugby team you’ll get the girls, or if you’re in the
basketball team you’ll get the girls,” Derek explains. He says that the
great thing about their relationship is that they let each other grow
and they don’t set rules or restrictions for one another.
He ends by saying this: “With all the intrigues that have been thrown at us, we have been blessed in so many ways.”
Things
didn’t happen overnight for Derek. His enduring relationship with
Angelica was worked on through time, his closer-than-ever ties with his
family took years to happen, and he didn’t reach his matinee idol status
overnight. And in a generation where impatience is common and
everything is “instant” — instant coffee, instant messaging, instant
stardom — you can’t help but feel that those who genuinely worked hard
for what they have in life truly deserve it. Derek Ramsay is an example
of that.
