Nadine Lustre/ARMIN P. ADINA
MANILA, Philippines—From being one of the busiest young stars in the industry whose face is seen all the time, and making an appearance almost everywhere, two-time FAMAS Best Actress Nadine Lustre has now taken a lighter work load and has called Siargao her second home.
“I’m super happy now when I get a day to just sit down on my couch and watch TV all day. You know, it’s always the little things for me. I’m also very lucky because I can always fly to Siargao when I have like a week off,” the “Deleter” actress said at the “G Creator Con” Talks held at the Globe Tower at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City on Sept. 17.
READ: Nadine Lustre living the island life in Siargao
Lustre confessed that she made the conscious decision to slow down herself. “I just stopped communicating so much with work, I mean, with everything. So I tried to breathe. That’s where I can breathe. For some reason, when I’m here in Manila, I really feel that poor energy. And even if I try to relax, you know there’s always something happening on my phone. The deadlines are also very taxing,” shared Lustre.
She said this experience taught her to just stop being a “yes man” when something does not sit well with her. “If it’s something that’s not really in line with your values and your vision, don’t do it. And if your body tells you that you can’t do it anymore, don’t do it. Because your body knows best. And the thing is, you really have to put a boundary on the things that we do,” Lustre said.
“I’m still uneasy when I’m here. But when I fly out, when I travel, that’s when I can really breathe. It’s really different, Manila kasi is more of a workplace for me, it’s home, but you get it,” she continued, also admitting that she is not good at handling deadlines as well as multitasking.
Lustre also shared that there came a point when she lost her passion for her craft. “I was so, so, so exhausted that I didn’t want to do it anymore,” she confessed. But all it took was for her to take a break. “Then when I got back into it, I kind of found my passion again for acting. So don’t push yourself. Push yourself a lot, but don’t push yourself too much where you feel like you’re gonna die,” she added.
The noise around her, as a celebrity, also contributed to her brief moment of despair. “It became very intrusive, with everything that people would say online or even in person, it kind of makes you question yourself as well, and your identity,” Lustre explained, but said she ignored all the nonsense and just focused on the ones that are constructive. “At the end of the day, what’s important is that I know myself and that I’m really not hurting anyone. I’m just doing my own thing, you know?” she continued.
And because of her personal experience with unfavorable statements online, the singer-actress said she is making a conscious effort to make the digital space more uplifting. “Social media is, like, everyone has access to it. And we kind of have that responsibility to be role models, you know. We don’t know who has access to our content. It could be like someone who’s, you know, very, very young. And the thing is, it kind of affects them in a way if it’s content that’s not … really good,” Lustre said.
She may have slowed down a bit in her work, but Lustre said there are still so many things that she wants to do in her life. “I think everyone will agree when I say that there’s so much stuff to do, but there’s so little time,” she said.
“What I do is, I just really focus on what I have on my plate at the moment. And as soon as I’m done with that, I put all of my effort, of my time, and my heart into what I have now. And as soon as I finish it, I try to do something else. So that’s pretty much what I do. I just finish what I have first, and then I move on to the next one,” Lustre said.
She hopes people will find inspiration in her story when they take their own journeys in life. “Don’t give up on your dreams because it’s all about timing. You know, I almost gave up on mine until a couple of years later, you know, when things started to turn and my dream started coming true,” she shared.
Lustre told people to trust in “divine timing” because “if it’s not the time for you, that only means that you’re not ready for what you’re about to receive. Just hold on tight to your dreams and don’t give up.” /ra