In a world where fame and fortune are most coveted and celebrity can be gained—and just as easily lost—through a starring role in a movie or on TV, or even a post on social media, it's easy for those who have attained a certain level of success to rest on their laurels. They can even choose to carry on with what made them a star in the first place, rather than take risks outside their comfort zone. For most, landing a big break and creating a name for themselves is more than enough.
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But not Bela Padilla.
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PHOTO: ROWBEN LANTION
The British-Filipino actress became a household name when she played Carmen—the wife of Cardo Dalisay's twin brother, Ador—in the blockbuster TV series Ang Probinsyano in 2015. She also portrayed the wife of another strong male character, this time on the silver screen, in Felix Manalo. The following year, she co-produced and starred in Camp Sawi. In 2017, she won and broke hearts with her title role in 100 Tula Para Kay Stella, opposite JC Santos; and as Jericho Rosales's good luck charm in Luck at First Sight, for which she wrote the screenplay.
She has several best actress nominations and a few trophies; including FAMAS Best Supporting Actress in 2014 for her role in 10,000 Hours, a political drama she co-wrote and which starred her uncle, Robin Padilla.
Despite belonging to a well-known showbiz clan, success didn't come easy for the young Padilla. True, she was a stunner from the start, having that star quality talent scouts so crave and which prompted one to offer a calling card after "discovering" her during a field trip in her senior year of high school. Her mother gave her consent to attend acting workshops only after she graduated high school.
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Like many wannabe celebrities, Padilla accepted bit roles early in her career. She started out as a teen actress with the screen name Krista Valle as part of Star Magic in 2008. She used her real name, Krista Sullivan, at some point; and then, finally, the name Bela Padilla, which she claims gave her more confidence. She did the rigodon around three television networks before settling on ABS-CBN as her home studio.
PHOTO: ROWBEN LANTION
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Padilla fell into scriptwriting almost by accident, when an ex-boyfriend who co-owned a production house asked her to work on a screenplay that the original writer abandoned. She ended up writing around 75 percent of the script. But it was only when 10,000 Hours won Best Original Story at the 39th Metro Manila Film Festival that she realized how much she loved telling stories and that she wanted to pursue scriptwriting professionally.
Padilla also wrote the screenplay for Apple of My Eye (2019) and Last Night (2017). The latter was the subject of controversy and ridicule for allegedly romanticizing suicide, but the writer maintains that among the screenplays she has ever written, Last Night remains one of her favorites--not solely out of personal preference but primarily because she learned that despite the negative publicity surrounding the film, it was still able to positively influence a portion of her target audience, including someone who withdrew a prior decision to end commit suicide after watching the film.
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Inching towards her 15th year in the business, Padilla is now a sought-after actress, scriptwriter, and producer. And as if these aren't more than enough, she also assumed director's duties for a full-length film. 366, her directorial debut, is slated for release in April. She wrote the screenplay for the film, which reunites her with JC Santos and Zanjoe Marudo.
Despite her string of accomplishments and this writer pointing out, in detail, almost every single one, the 30-year-old multi-hyphenate never—not even once— displayed a speck of arrogance throughout the course of a thoroughly engaging interview.
Shifting gears and still moving forward
It was 10 a.m. on her side of the world. She looked fresh-faced as ever, and appeared to be wearing very little makeup, if any at all. She wore what looked like a casual sweater and her hair was tied in a ponytail on top of her head. It looked like she could've put together her look in 10 minutes, but she still looked stunning, which was clear proof of how effortlessly beautiful she could be.
More than her physical beauty, however, was the passionate and creative soul that shone from underneath. Her eyes lit up every time she was asked about her craft. She candidly answered every question.
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A self-proclaimed free spirit, Padilla is always eager for the next adventure, but is never too high up in the clouds to detach herself from reality. That same spirited outlook has, in a way, fueled her decision to relocate to London in July 2021.
Her reality at the moment is less taxing compared to her pre-pandemic life in the Philippines. At one point her cramped schedule involved, among other things, shooting two movies and a TV show, all at the same time.
"Honestly, I was feeling lost," she said. "I was feeling overwhelmed with all the work." Having joined showbiz when she was only 16 years old, Padilla felt as if she had been living other people's lives for most of her adult life.
"I was, I guess, in character for other people from Monday to Sunday, so I didn't have a sense anymore."
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She was still a little girl the last time she saw her half-sisters and brother in the U.K., so in 2019, Padilla decided to pay them a visit. On one occasion, while passing through rows and rows of white houses in Collingham, she randomly told herself that on her next trip, she would live in one of those houses. Coincidentally, the neighborhood she now lives in London is lined with white houses, too.
While she somewhat misses the comforts of having a personal assistant to attend to her needs and a driver to take her wherever she wishes in Manila and surrounding areas—referring to both of them as family—Padilla has adjusted well to her laidback lifestyle in the English capital and is enjoying her newfound freedom.
"This freedom of fixing my own schedule; of saying, 'No, I'm not going to work today, I'm going to go to the park. I'm not going to write today, I'll spend the day in a museum.' I have that big liberty now and I am relishing every minute of it," she said with a sense of pride.
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Living in the U.K. has also allowed her to be geographically closer to her Swiss-Italian boyfriend of two years, Norman Ben Bay, whom she met while filming Meet Me In St. Gallen in 2017 and is based in Zurich. The couple celebrated their second anniversary very recently.
The slower pace has allowed the young writer and actress to appreciate the simpler things in life. "Now I feel like I'm finally settling, and it's funny because the things I do here are not out of the ordinary." She now has favorite restaurants to go to, and places she frequents to while away the time. "It's really just the most mundane things that I enjoy, really: going to the grocery, walking around parks. It's so…it's super simple but I am living, I'm loving and living this slow life, really."
Slow doesn't mean unproductive, however. While in London, Padilla managed to finish a script for a new movie and continues to work as an endorser of brands back in the Philippines. She has also been in touch with British brands for more work. She is currently working on yet another script and is looking forward to directing her second full-length film later this year, all the while promoting the upcoming release of 366.
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Filming in the middle of a pandemic
366 was shot in 2020, in the middle of the global health crisis. And while taking a complete break from the industry did cross Padilla's mind, she was also conscious of the economic crisis, how it was affecting industry folk, and of how the production could generate income for the designated film crew, who had been out of work for almost a year. It was nearly Christmas, and the yiung filmmaker thought that these people could celebrate the yuletide season with more cheer if their financial woes were solved.
Her intention to help the production team was one thing that drove Padilla to create 366; the challenge of juggling three jobs at the same time—one of them as a first-time director—was another.
The plot of 366 is inspired by a real-life story the writer encountered while on holiday in a famous tourist destination in 2018. She was so deeply affected by the circumstances of a complete stranger during that trip that it haunted her even after she had returned to Manila.
"I wanted to explore grief, and how people who have centered their whole lives on one person, you know, wake up one day with (their) whole plan for the future, completely destroyed," she said. "How do you move on and how do you live with that grief?"
Aside from being the scriptwriter and director, Padilla also plays the female lead, June.
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Filming 366 was a struggle. The actors originally tapped to play the lead characters could no longer commit to the project. When it was decided that Padilla herself, as well as Santos and Marudo would star in the movie, new problems arose. Shooting was put on hold several times because of the pandemic. The actress herself got the virus and felt responsible for the welfare of the 45 people in her team. At some point, she thought about suspending filming indefinitely.
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"I felt so bad," she said. "I felt horrible that we got it, like it was my fault."
Around the same time, Padilla was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and had to take strong medication. But her illness didn't stop her from finishing the film, even if the producers had given her the leeway to put the project on hold and just focus on her health in the meantime. Eventually, things started falling into place. Padilla's team all tested negative for COVID, was released from quarantine facilities and were allowed to continue filming.
Padilla takes pride in saying that while filming, she made sure everyone in her team worked within reasonable hours and that every member of the crew and cast had a voice in the production—but not too loud in the literal sense. Even if she was the director, she never yelled at anyone on set and saw no reason for anyone else to shout at others, either. It was her one big rule: no bad vibes and no shouting at one another on the set. As an actress, she has witnessed her share of directors screaming and even cursing actors in front of other actors, and she had no desire to make that the norm in her own movie set.
366 marks Padilla's fourth team-up with Santos: the first three were in Stella, The Day After Valentine's,and On Vodka, Beers, and Regrets. The two are immensely careful about making each new portrayal distinct from the last. On the other hand, it's her second pairing with Marudo, whom she shared the screen with in the TV drama My Dear Heart.
Padilla has only good things to say about her co-actors.
"What's beautiful with working with JC is he's a very smart and instinctive actor. He did theatre and UP and trained in New York. He's worked with so many different kinds of groups as well. He even did acting coach jobs at the beginning of his career, since he's so intuitive and smart."
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She also has deep respect for Marudo and is likewise impressed by his methods. "If JC and I like to overthink what we're going to do for a project, Zanjoe comes in completely blank. He arrives on set and gets into a scene with no expectations. He knows the lines, he knows what we're gonna do. He knows the blocking, and then he erases everything. He allows everything on set. He allows the lines, he allows the prompts, the location, the inflection of my voice or JC's voice. He allows all of that to affect everything. So, every performance he gets or every scene he gives is always fresh and raw and real."
Love for cinema and eventually, filmmaking
Based on her recent projects, it may appear that Padilla has a penchant for sad love stories, but it wasn't a conscious choice on her part. It may just be because she emerged in an era when mumblecore became popular and mixing it with drama appealed to viewers. She points out that as a film buff, drama isn't her immediate preference, and actually enjoys suspense thrillers and quirky indie films more than anything.
Aside from her mentor, friend, and co-collaborator Irene Villamor, Padilla also spoke highly of Joyce Bernal, who worked with her on Last Night. She says she also adores the work of American director Wes Anderson.
"My love for Wes Anderson started with The Royal Tenenbaums. I love Rushmore and the story of how Rushmore happened," she begins, then proceeds to tell the story of how Jason Schwartzman dressed up as a preppy schoolboy to meet Anderson at a party upon hearing that the director would be making a film about—guess what—a preppy schoolboy.
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Padilla claims that she has a tendency to get "obsessed," whether with a filmmaker or actor, and this obsession would drive her to consume the entirety of that artist's filmography. Other than Anderson, past objects of her obsession include Dustin Hoffman and Johnny Depp. She also followed Greta Gerwig early in her career, when she was still known as an indie actress. She was even more impressed when Gerwig started writing, and eventually directed the coming-of-age film Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan, who is another actress Padilla says she is obsessed with.
Another inspiration is director Sofia Coppola. "How stylized her films are! How sometimes they are an extravagant thing and you know this doesn't happen in real life!" Padilla says she used to be a fan of Woody Allen, but lost her admiration for the veteran filmmaker upon learning of his involvement in sexual controversies.
Filmmaking is serious business
Padilla also confessed her appreciation for French films and K-dramas, and lamented how, in comparison, Philippine cinema remains underrepresented internationally.
"The sad part for me is I know so many Filipino actors who go above and beyond; like, we work harder than probably any other race. We're literally required to be on set for more than 24 hours—I went through all of that. And yet, we are underrepresented on the global stage, and that is because we don't have a sense of ourselves. We don't have a culture that represents us. We're not proud of the culture that we have. And we don't represent well in our films because every budget, I feel, for now at least, is just something to tide you over until the next one. But it shouldn't be viewed that way."
Padilla feels that film projects should be taken more seriously. "I feel like that is taken so lightly nowadays. Something that people take for granted. They're just happy to attach their name to something or they don't care if the project came out well or if the project actually is nice. So maybe it's time. We've all gone through a global pandemic. Maybe it's time now to really take things seriously again and to really think about what we put out there."
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Everything pays off
If given the chance to go back in time, this is what Padilla would tell her 20-year-old self: "All the long nights of pep talks but also long nights of self-doubt; the long nights of crying yourself to sleep because you didn't get that audition—it will all pay off," she added.
Even as a young girl, Padilla was an outspoken non-conformist who was vocal about her personal choices. She was happy to be stuck in t-shirts, jeans, and Chuck Taylors at a time when aspiring young actresses were dressing provocatively to get noticed. She followed her own way and didn't give in to peer pressure. However, this reluctance to join the bandwagon led to her being excluded from certain opportunities, and to bouts of insecurity, which she eventually recovered from.
"At the end of the day, I stayed so true to myself. And the person that I am, intrinsically, I guess, is also interesting pala to other people—I just had to wait it out."
"All of us have that within us," she said earnestly. "You know, you don't need to become another person to be interesting. The people or the world is just not ready yet. But there will come a time when the world is ready to meet you, and then you realize, everything has paid off."
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In another 10 years, Padilla would love to realize, once again, that everything does pay off. In a wistful tone and with that dreamy expression on her face, she shared how she envisions her 40-year-old self.
"When I'm 40, I wish you'll still be writing and still working as well. And we can have this kind of call like 10 years from now. And we'd be talking about the Zoom call I had with Saoirse Ronan and how I pitched the project to her and she said yes!" She lets out a chuckle. "I would love now to see what I can do— not just in my comfort zone."
She is, however, quick to clarify that she isn't in a hurry. "I'm really just enjoying my time right now. I'm enjoying the slow life. I don't want to get ahead of myself and say like I want to work here as an actress or a writer or a director."
"Obviously, everyone has big dreams, but I don't want to think about it, yet. Maybe in 10 years, I would have achieved something already, toward that direction. Or maybe not. Maybe I have a family and I just settled down and I'm done with all of it. We don't know."
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