Anne Curtis takes a punch in the face in ‘BuyBust’

Anne Curtis

Two years ago, the concept of “BuyBust,” an upcoming action thriller by the acclaimed filmmaker Erik Matti, was pitched to not a few production outfits. All of them had more or less the same impression: That it would be better if the lead character was male.

But Matti stuck to his guns. The script eventually found its way to Viva Entertainment. Before long, Vincent del Rosario, one of the film company’s bosses, was with Anne Curtis on the phone, asking her if she would consider taking on the project.

She didn’t need much convincing. Anne, who had not done a film in two years at the time due to the lack of “interesting” material being presented to her, wasn’t about to pass up the chance of portraying a drug enforcement agent on the big screen.

It was exactly the kind of role she was “hungry” for. And it was about time, the actress-TV host said, that the Filipino audience sees more women in action films—not merely as damsels in distress or romantic accessories, but as fully realized, “badass” characters.

“Most of our local action flicks were led by men, so I want to show and prove that women can do that, too,” she said at a recent press conference.

Anne observed that having action heroines is becoming a trend in Hollywood these days, citing such movies as “Atomic Blonde,” the rebooted “Tomb Raider” and “Red Sparrow.” “We see the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Gal Gadot and, of course, Angelina Jolie doing it,” she said. “Why can’t we do the same here?”

In “BuyBust,” which opens in cinemas on Aug. 1, the 33-year-old star plays Nina Manigan, a member of a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency special forces group, which finds itself trapped in a nefarious, labyrinthine drug den it was supposed to snuff out.

Unlike some of her newbie teammates, Nina is a hardened agent. She’s the only survivor of another team whose members got massacred on a previous mission. This time, Nina intends to make and trust her own decisions.

“BuyBust” was shot over two years, and it was, easily, the most “physically, mentally and emotionally taxing” movie she has ever done. Apart from martial arts and gun handling training, Anne also had to learn parkour. She had no double. Wounds and bruises were par for the course.

There was a particular scene—a cracking three-minute set-piece—that required a five-day rehearsal and took 57 takes over the course of three days to finish and perfect. Having recently completed the 42-km London Marathon, Anne is no slouch when it comes to tests of strength and endurance.

This scene, however, made her throw up. “I was running, climbing and jumping from roof to roof in between fights. It was raining,” she related. “It was done with one continuous shot, with four people passing the camera to each other. There were about 50 talents involved and everyone and everything needed to be in sync. Otherwise, we go back to the start.”

“We did it over and over again to the point where I started feeling dizzy,” she said. “And when I tried to drink water, it wouldn’t go down.”

But never once did she think of quitting. “I’m competitive and always up for a challenge. The most I did was groan out of frustration,” said Anne, who was thankful she wore a long-sleeved gown for her wedding with Erwan Heussaff last year, because her arms had fresh wounds.

It was also in this project, Anne said, that she experienced being punched right in the face—accidentally—by a man for the first time. “I heard something click; I thought I lost some teeth. My first instinct was to touch my mouth. But thankfully, they were still there,” she said, laughing.

At that point, Anne was on the verge of tears. “But I was surrounded by men. So, as much as I wanted to cry it out, I held it back,” she said. “I wanted to show them that I could take it.”