Why Anna Luna backed out of ongoing action-drama series

Anna Luna

Actress Anna Luna said her experience while being stuck at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in self-discovery. She has decided to lie low from acting for now because of health reasons, and to concentrate on helping out with the family business.

“I used to think that I’d be just an actress my whole life,” Anna told Inquirer Entertainment. “But my experience with the pandemic made me realize that I’m also capable of doing other things; that I only needed diskarte (strategy) in order to survive and eventually grow as a person.”

Anna is part of the cast of Dreamscape Entertainment’s weekly action-drama series “24/7,” along with Julia Montes, Arjo Atayde and JC Santos.

“I spoke with Star Magic about my decision to back out. It had been a personal thing in order to protect myself [from the virus],” declared Anna, who added that she has “weak lungs,” and would suffer from allergic rhinitis attacks every so often.

“I don’t know who else from the cast backed out, or whether or not the show would still push through. I also can’t leave the house for a long period of time because I help take care of my younger brother,” Anna pointed out.

The actress said the initial plan was to have all actors and production team locked in one location while taping. However, as of press time, only “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” is in production from among the Dreamscape-produced shows that were airing prelockdown period.

Anna is now involved in the operations of Padyak, a door-to-door courier business under the RML Courier Express company owned by her dad, Rommel Luna.

Anna was also kept busy by her online classes at the Southville International School and Colleges Manila, “because we have increased subject load for business management,” she explained.

She said that while all these were happening, she was contemplating on whether or not to return to acting. “Acting has always been my passion, but if I’m made to choose between pursuing it at the risk of getting sick or staying at home, I’d choose the latter because I’m also afraid. It’s not easy having allergic rhinitis attacks because you’d have this uncontrollable urge to sneeze. I will definitely scare a lot of people when that happens. It also doesn’t help that wearing a mask irritates my nose and makes me sneeze, too.”

This was why, Anna said, she has agreed to still do the stage musical “Bongga Ka Day,” which was supposed to run at the Resorts World Manila in June 2020, but has been rescheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

For Anna, her anxiety these days is no longer caused by the uncertainty of getting acting jobs, but because of the feeling that she’s “inexperienced and not good enough” to be part of her dad’s business team.

“I don’t have enough background in business, puro kasi ako arte. I kind of feel insecure whenever I deal with the members of the staff. I want to be able to earn their respect,” Anna admitted.