Actress Jo Berry is redefining representation and championing little people in the entertainment industry

“I never dreamt of being an actress, not even as a child or teenager,” says Berry. “When I told my father I wanted to audition for GMA, he was shocked.” 

Nevertheless, Berry went for it. At the audition, she discovered that everyone else had experience with acting, such as being extras in television shows. Berry’s own experience was limited to documentaries about little people, in which her family featured. “But documentaries don’t have scripts and you don’t have to follow the director,” she says. “The camera crew would follow me to school and watch me live my life normally.” 

Berry completed the audition. “I didn’t expect a callback. I was just proud of myself for giving it a shot,” she says. But a week later, she was notified that she got the role in Magpakailanman. 

“Are they sure about this?” she remembers asking herself. They were, and filming began. 

As Berry asserts, “[Magpakailanman] is no ordinary show.” Not only did the story she was part of involve a lot of crying and emoting on the part of Berry’s character, but she had to play a mother of children who were the same age as Berry in real life. 

Berry was relieved to have an acting coach on set. Still, she warned the director that she might struggle to cry. “For me, the idea of crying on command felt impossible. It’s a sign of great vulnerability, so I felt conscious trying to cry in front of so many people,” she says. 

With the encouragement of the team, she completed the filming successfully, with the episode airing in 2016. Before they parted ways, the director told Berry that she should pursue an acting career. While she was grateful for the praise, she felt she had given acting a go and set aside thoughts of future projects, returning to her BPO job.

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However, a year later, she received a call from a GMA executive, who said they’d written a teleserye (television series) just for her. The show was called Onanay (The Way to Your Heart), and it was about two daughters trying to care for their mother Onay, who has dwarfism, and how their approaches differ wildly.

After much thought, Berry signed a three-month contract for the teleserye. Time flew by and a total of 160 episodes aired between 2018 and 2019. 

“After the show, I thought I’d have to find something else to do,” says Berry. “I worried that people wouldn’t want to see a little person starring in another series…but here I am, still.” 

Berry went on to act in The Gift, a teleserye in which she plays the mother of the lead character and which comprised more than 100 episodes from 2019 to 2020; Little Princess in 2022 in which she plays the lead who one day discovers she is an heiress; and most recently Lilet Matias, Attorney-at-Law, where she plays the title character, a little person lawyer fighting for the rights of the marginalised. This show concluded in February after more than 250 episodes. 

Lilet Matias has been Berry’s favourite role to date, particularly as, she says, it helped her develop “a deeper appreciation for acting, because so much studying goes into it; playing a lawyer onscreen means I understand the law. To convince the audience, I have to be convinced first.”

So notable has the character of Lilet Matias become that Berry has appeared in other shows in that role, including last year’s Widows’ War alongside Bea Alonzo.  

Berry still looks back on that first role in Magpakailanman, and the lessons it taught her that would serve her acting through to today. 

“That first project was so heavy that I started to get nightmares. I developed a simple way of separating work from my personal life. At night, when I wash my face, I imagine the water washing away everything that happened that day. I also journal to remember who I am, that I’m not just the characters I play,” says Berry. “This helps me maintain a balance, ensuring that I still have a store of emotions to rely on when I need them. As an artist, I don’t close my emotional wounds completely. I have to leave them just open enough that I can infuse each role with the emotion it needs.”

“The support I receive from people is overwhelming,” says Berry. “I love what I do every day, and I feel inspired to go to work because I get to represent little people, especially women, in a media industry that still has a long way to go.” 

Berry is referring to an industry that often doesn’t cast little people in diverse roles. Make no mistake: she has no problem with little people choosing to take the comedian’s route in the entertainment industry. “If they make people happy, then they should continue to do so,” she says. “But we’re often just seen as sidekicks or for slapstick comedies. I’m grateful GMA continues to give me a wide range of roles, so people can see that little people are capable of many things, including more serious roles. I want younger generations to expand their perception of little people, too.”

Today, Berry is intentional when choosing her scripts and future projects. “If it’s aligned with what I want to do, which is to represent women and little people well, I’ll take it on,” she says. “I always ask: Is this a step towards a world where little people are respected, or is this a step backwards to us being degraded? The projects I choose also affect how other, differently-abled Filipinos are treated.”

Front & Female Changemakers celebrates the extraordinary journeys of inspiring women who have emerged as powerful changemakers in a range of fields, offering a glimpse into their lives and showcasing their courage, vision and relentless pursuit of change and progress. From social entrepreneurs and business leaders to educators, artists, activists and scientists, Front & Female changemakers exemplify the ability to challenge the status quo and demonstrate the power of women to effect change.

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