Acting jobs for southeast Asians in the United Kingdom (UK) are few and far between, so Filipino actors and actresses take what is offered when they come up.   

 

But when Jenny Cachero, a 20-year-old actress and university student, accepted a small acting assignment in the comedy show, she had no inkling that her role would spark a global outcry and diplomatic protests from the Philippines. 

 

“I thought it was just another job, just like everything else really,” said Cachero. 

 

Jenny accepts that the producers should not have singled out a Filipina maid, but she felt that the show was not meant to hit ethnic minorities in the way that it has. 

 

“I think they are reaching out to a very British audience as opposed to a very…the Filipino audience.  It’s just by chance that they had reached out to the wrong minority, if you like…kind of hard situation really,” she said. 

 

The actress feels that the whole show needed to be seen in order to put the Filipina maid sketch, a tiny portion of the whole, into context. 

 

“The joke was not the Philippines, the joke was not the maid, the joke was not an offence to the minorities, to the Philippines. It was actually a joke towards the northern hemisphere, the northern part of Britain. The sketch was actually called The Bad Northerner,” Cachero explained. 

 

Jenny is very much aware of her Filipino heritage and would never offend that side of herself, but having grown up in the UK, she is equally aware of her British side as well. 

 

“I know my British side if you like. But at the same time, I also grew up a Filipino, my parents are Filipino so I neither wanted to offend either side. As a professional, I took it on and I did my thing really,” she said.  

 

Now that the summer is gone and the new school year has begun, Jenny will be concentrating first on her film studies and her cheering squad, and then work on her career again after that. 

 

The “Harry & Paul” controversy has been a major learning point for Jenny, but she hopes that the controversy will soon fade away. 

 

 “I'd be more careful I guess, if you like. Yeah, just to make sure not to offend my fellow Filipinos,” Cachero said. – with ROSE ECLARINAL, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, London