SOLENN Heussaff enjoys being on the road and is drawn to well-traveled guys.
GMA 7 star Solenn Heussaff knows for sure what she wants in a man. The French-Filipino beauty, a member of the Axe Gold Council, values quiet confidence above all.
Solenn, also one of the mentors in the male fragrance product’s search for the Axe Gold Man, told the Inquirer: “I am looking for a man who has poise, who knows how to treat a woman and how to socialize.”
Same qualities
These are the exact same qualities that she requires in a life partner. People tend to notice looks first, she said. “But physical assets fade. For me, a man should be self-assured but kind, someone with a strong personality and ambition but not cocky, not pig-headed, and not feeling guwapo.”
She seems to have found all these in boyfriend Nico Bolzico, an Argentine. They’ve been together for three years.
“We’re old history na,” she said, describing Nico as “nice and funny.” She added, “He gets along with my friends and family. He’s driven. He gives me space, so I can grow as a person. It’s important for couples to lead separate lives outside the relationship.”
Although most, if not all, her past boyfriends were either foreigners or half-Filipinos, nationality is never an issue for Solenn. (Actor Derek Ramsay is British-Filipino.) “Maybe this is just because I spend a lot of time abroad,” she explains. “I relate better with someone who has _ravelled a lot, like I have.”
Globetrotters
Clearly, a passion for globe-trotting is something that she shares with Nico. She’s been to Argentina, she said, and found the country breathtaking. “I think I’m now Argentinean, no longer French. I went to a winery, I went horseback riding with the gauchos (Argentine cowboys) in the mountains of Mendoza. I went to the glacier in Patagonia, the Iguazo Falls, near the Peruvian border.”
She hasn’t learned to speak Spanish. “But I get the flow. I need to master Filipino first.”
Solenn has also been to Vietnam with Nico, for a magazine pictorial. “As a joke, I said we wanted to stay at an Aman resort,” she recalled. “I really didn’t think it was possible.” However, the magazine did book them in an Aman hotel in Marang. “I’ve always loved Vietnam,” she said. “And the hotel was very relaxing. It’s pretty exclusive.”
That was how Nico and Solenn ended up on a magazine cover together. “I’d rather he didn’t become part of show biz, to respect his privacy and his job,” she pointed out.
Only once
The only time he attended a show biz event was when Solenn was nominated best supporting actress at the 2012 Gawad Urian (for Jun Robles Lana’s “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”).
She related, “I didn’t even know what Urian was … I asked my mom, ‘What’s the Yu-ri-an?’ My mom said, ‘Girl, it’s U-ri-an and it’s prestigious.’ So I invited Nico.”
Solenn’s Filipino mom is a former Bayanihan dancer, but the Kapuso star is not folk-dancing anytime soon. “It’s one of my biggest frustrations. I can do the tinikling, but not that well.”
Other than that, this multihyphenate artist is also a singer (she has a new album: “SOS: Sinner or Saint”), endorser, television host, fashion designer, makeup artist and painter-sculptor.
Actually, she envisioned herself hosting a travel show. She gets to fulfill this dream in GMA News TV’s lifestyle show “Taste Buddies.” Last summer, she worked in a special report, “Isla” (which will have repeats soon).
Sagada dreams
“For ‘Taste Buddies,’ we have been to Batanes. I wanted to see Fundacion, the place named after artist Pacita Abad, who was my mentor in sculpture when I was a kid,” she said.
She dreams of returning to Banaue and Sagada, which she first visited when she was 12.
The lure of the open road is irresistible for Solenn, “an outdoors-y girl.” Traveling is the ultimate luxury for her, she said. “It’s living the Gold Life. That would mean many things to different people. Gold Life could be fame and fortune, driving a cool car, living in a condo at the Fort or going to Las Vegas with friends, or the prizes in the Axe contest. For me, the Gold Life is freedom.” (bayanisandiegojr@gmail.com)