Family comes first for Yasmien Kurdi

KURDI. Goes from acting to nursing—and back.

What drove Yasmien Kurdi to temporarily leave the spotlight two years ago? She had been consistently in great demand as a singer-actress since making it to the Final Four of “StarStruck” in 2003.

“I know my priorities. Family always comes first for me,” Yasmien told us. “When my mom was diagnosed with a kidney problem, I knew I had to finish school and shift courses, from Foreign Service to Nursing—kaya ang tagal kong nag-aral!

“I didn’t want to be in the dark about medical conditions. I told myself, ‘Kapag tumanda ang mom ko, I want to take care of her.’ We have to learn to listen to our bodies—don’t ignore the pain in your lower back, monitor your blood pressure regularly. They’re telltale signs we shouldn’t ignore.

“When I was done with my studies, however, I couldn’t go back to show biz immediately, because I ended up getting married (my husband was my boyfriend since I was 17), then pregnant. By then, I already knew how to breastfeed properly. I now know the different stages of labor, how to deliver a baby, inject and insert IVs, etc.”

Yasmien looks considerably slimmer these days. She beams, “From 184 to 120 lbs, that’s how much slimmer I am! I exercise, I run and select what I eat.”

Mark Anthony Fernandez, Yasmien’s costar in her current drama series, “Rhodora X,” also keeps himself fit to endure the physical demands of taping the telenovela’s many sequences.

FERNANDEZ. A good story is better than explosions.

His parents’ son

The son of Rudy Fernandez and Alma Moreno thrives in the variety of roles he’s assigned to breathe life into—truly his parents’ son.

He explains, “The series offers something new to me, because it combines drama and suspense—it’s about the events that result in Rhodora’s dual personality disorder.”

His famous dad, who made more than 150 movies and succumbed to cancer in 2008, was one of Tinseltown’s biggest action-film icons, so we asked for the 35-year-old actor’s thoughts about the “demise” of local action films.

Mark opines, “I think what happened was, Joe Carreon and the action genre’s better writer-directors got older, and the industry became preoccupied with explosions. They focused more on gimmicks and forgot to tell stories that viewers could relate to.

“The early movies of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro also had a lot of graphic action scenes, but they weren’t tiring to watch because they felt real. If we tell good stories, we can still bring back viewers’ interest in our actioners!”