Inside this issue, the multifaceted artist also talks about the meaning behind her tattoos, details of her Siargao home, and her new movie
This is an excerpt from MEGA Entertainment’s December 2022 cover story.
Unabashed and unapologetic, Nadine Lustre—who is, some might consider, her generation’s resident cool girl—fires up a statement that’s uncommon for celebrity-slash-artists of her stature: “I’m a human being, and I feel. And I am not going to let my being a public figure stop me from speaking my mind.”
“Before, walang room to breathe,” she recalls. “Medyo blurry na siya. But, I like my life now. I am in control.” She then discusses the evolution of her relationship with longtime talent management agency, Viva Artists Agency: “My relationship with Viva now, iba na siya. They’re very understanding. If there’s something I don’t want to do, they don’t force me.”
The 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry Deleter, for instance, is a collaborative project. Here, Nadine plays the character of Lyra, a content moderator, a.k.a. “deleter,” whose job is to sift through countless gruesome images and videos, and make sure they don’t get released on social media platforms. Doing this for quite some time already, Lyra appears to be “desensitized,” as Nadine describes her character. But, after watching a suicide video of a colleague, a past trauma resurfaces. Deleter is the only horror movie in the 2022 MMFF line-up. It is the first movie collaboration among Viva Films, Nadine, and internationally acclaimed director Mikhail Red, who is known for his films Birdshot (Best Picture in the Asian Future category at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival) and Dead Kids (the first Filipino Netflix original film).
Nadine says she did the film not knowing that it would be competing at the MMFF, although she had a premonition that she would be working with Mikhail. “Sinabi ko rin ito kay Direk Mik,” she reveals. “Sabi ko, ‘Alam mo ba napanaginipan ko na makaka-work kita?’ But that was around either early 2019 or late 2018.”
After her busy December, Nadine will also have a busy 2023, thanks to her consistent search for personal growth: “I think having that passion keeps me going. Parang lagi akong may apoy… there’s fire up my ass palagi, like I have to do this. There were so many chances where I could’ve stopped, with the pandemic and the quarantine period. But what was I doing? I was working on my album! Ako rin siguro ’yong tao na hindi ko kayang tumigil. I want to keep creating.” Nadine shares that she wants to dabble in floral design and continue to do her artworks—and a solo show may be on the horizon: “I don’t like to plan and expect. I just want to let things flow.”
Life as it happens
When we ask her about her music and her partnership with Careless, a.k.a. the record label of her ex-boyfriend James Reid, Nadine clarifies that she is now going in a separate direction and will not be working with them anymore.
She explains, “A couple of months ago, I wanted to slow down with showbiz life. Hindi ko alam, I realized, eventually, na parang hindi kaya. We’ll see. I have no plans yet of working on my music. Parang ang daming signs din kasi na I should.” The fans have to chill, though, she says, because the decision to leave Careless was mutual.
“Yeah, of course it was amicable,” she says. “We really talked it out. Their trajectory is different from mine. I’m the kind of person who wants na ’yong path ko, ’yon ang masusunod. Theirs is a bit of a different path. Feel ko hindi ko rin siya masusunod. Okay na rin ’yon, at least I have my own thing.”
These days, too, Nadine is also contemplating turning 30 and what she wants to invest her time in the most: “I realized, na now that I’m almost 30, the stakes are much higher…the responsibility is mas mabigat na this time around.”
With this, Nadine reveals her thoughts on having children: “I’m securing myself na. With the things I’m investing in now, and the things that I’m doing, I ask myself, ‘Is this going to sustain me for the rest of my life?’ Nandoon na siya. I’m 30 next year. I don’t want kids yet. I don’t even know if I want kids. Let’s see. If it happens, it happens. Ngayon kasi, nandoon na headspace ko: if I have kids, paano ko sila bubuhayin? Adulting na talaga!” And speaking of adulting, Nadine says that one of her biggest moves in life was when she bought a house in Siargao island, with French businessman boyfriend Christopher Bariou: “It’s very Balinese…”
Find out what Nadine Lustre has in store for herself in MEGA Entertainment’s December 2022 issue, now available on Readly and Magzter.
Photography ANDREA BELDUA
Creative Direction NICOLE ALMERO
Fashion Direction RYUJI SHIOMITSU
Beauty Direction MIA CASTRO
Styling LYN ALUMNO, assisted by RAF VILLAS and RAYA AÑASCO
Makeup JELLY EUGENIO
Hair PAUL NEBRES
Nails ELINAILS
Videography RAVPROD
Video Production AUDREY SISON
Shoot Coordination KZ FRANCISCO and MJ ALMERO
Shot on location THE BLACKBOX STUDIO
Special thanks to THE BLACKBOX STUDIO