Alexa Ilacad —ALEXA ILACAD FACEBOOK
As a child, actress-singer Alexa Ilacad used to envision herself becoming a mother at the age 26.
Now 24, she would very much like to have the target date she had innocently set for herself pushed back, preferably to “the far future,” she said, laughing.
Ironically, Alexa said, she ended up becoming someone who doesn’t quite know her way around kids.
While she has been appearing in commercials since the age of 2, and acting since she was 8, there are still a lot of goals she wants to fulfill. Working for them is difficult enough as it is, she said, so what more if she had a family to take care of?
“It’s not something I want at the moment. I want to build a career and that will be hard if you’re supporting a kid. I feel like being a mother takes so much selflessness,” she told Lifestyle in an interview. “But whatever happens, it will be my choice.”
As such, Alexa couldn’t help but sympathize with her character, Sunny, in the upcoming family drama, “Mujigae,” which opens in SM Cinemas on Oct. 9. Sunny is dead set on not having children and all the responsibilities that come with it. When her estranged sister in South Korea dies, however, she is left with no choice but to begrudgingly take in her 5-year-old niece, Mujigae (Ryrie Sophia).
While she isn’t fond of kids, Sunny eventually finds herself warming up to Mujigae (Korean for “rainbow”) and her cheerful presence. But just when she’s starting to feel that she finally has it in her to raise Mujigae as her own, the child’s biological and largely absent Korean father, Ji-seong (Kim Ji-soo), enters the picture.
Bonding
“I realized how hard it is to be a guardian, to become a mom all of a sudden. I can also relate with Sunny because I’m not naturally affectionate or playful around kids. I find them cute, but I don’t go all gooey. However, having my own nieces changed that in a way. I love them so much,” Alexa said.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons she didn’t have a hard time bonding and working with Ryrie. “I found myself thinking of my nieces on the set,” she said. “It was very easy working with her. She’s cute. Makulit, but she listens.”
Unlike her past projects—particularly the romantic dramas she did with her perennial screen partner, KD Estrada—“Mujigae” could very well be the “acting piece” she has been looking for. Director Randolph Longjas’ material and vision were challenging to execute, Alexa admitted, because she had to unlearn some of the acting habits she has developed through the years.
“It was hard at first. I’m the type of actress who wants everything polished, perfect. I plan ahead. I come to the set with a plan or strategy on how to approach the material. But the director had to break that because he wanted to see vulnerability. I had to tap something within me. I had to let myself be and show what I feel without worrying about the angles and other things,” she said.
At its core, Longjas said, “Mujigae,” is an exploration of motherhood—or parenthood, for that matter—as a choice and not as a societal expectation. “Not wanting to have a child doesn’t make you bad. I wanted to tackle that idea. A person can also choose not to have a child, but still have the capacity to love and raise one,” he said.
The decision to make Mujigae’s character Filipino Korean, meanwhile, adds a cross-cultural angle to the narrative. “We don’t see a lot of stories about mixed-race Filipinos … We want to show that despite cultural differences, we actually share a lot of things in common, like the value we put on the concept of family,” Longjas said.
After doing the film, Alexa emerged better acquainted with the potential joys of having kids and “the fulfillment that comes with “teaching them and taking care of them.”
But it also reinforced what she knew all along: People can choose not to have kids and that’s okay.
“I’m so grateful that, nowadays, we have more people who are open to the idea of women living the rest of their lives without children, or choosing a child that’s not biologically theirs. We don’t have to vilify them for that or make them feel like less of a woman,” she said.
She’s not closing her doors on motherhood. But for now, Alexa, who has two dogs and two cats, will focus on being a furmom. “It can be hard, too, you know!” she said.