Award-winning actress and singer, Lovi Poe, isn&rsquo;t one to hesitate on making big moves in her career. Currently working on her latest project, Flower of Evil &ndash; she brings us up to speed on her decision to leave her previous network that&rsquo;s been her home for 15 years to take a chance on something new and unexplored.

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Andrea Beldua STYLING&nbsp;Loris Pe&ntilde;a

Actress Lovi Poe, who&rsquo;s still locked in from her shoot for the adaptation of the award-winning K-Drama series, Flower of Evil, takes a break to answer our Zoom call, sporting a neat ponytail with barely any makeup on. If you&rsquo;re familiar with her past roles, it&rsquo;s easy to assume that she might be cold and intimidating in real life. Surprisingly, she&rsquo;s nothing of the sort.
&ldquo;We've been taping the past few weeks for Flower of Evil. Our bosses gave us some time and hung out with us as we watched a few scenes. It&rsquo;s our time to connect and relax today with the whole cast and crew,&rdquo; says the 33-year-old performer. It&rsquo;s not her first rodeo when it comes to the whole locked-in set-up. She starred in several shows for GMA (I Can See You, Owe My Love) and IWantTFC (Sleep with Me) while in the middle of the pandemic.
Some may find the isolation an inconvenience but Lovi loves it. &ldquo;This time, we're focused on one project per month. What I've gotten used to was jumping from one role to another&hellip;[With this set-up] now, we have time to focus to be our roles that very moment.&rdquo;

Dress, bags, and hairpins, VERSACE

Dress and hairpins, VERSACE

Dress, hairpins, and bag, VERSACE

The King&rsquo;s daughter
&ldquo;It was more of a challenge for me than an easy way in,&rdquo; says Lovi when asked how it was like being the daughter of her father, King of Philippine Movies, the late Fernando Poe Jr. She wanted to become a singer, which she has accomplished by releasing two albums under Sony BMG namely The Best of My Heart in 2006 and Bloom in 2008.
But in the years to come, she was eventually herded to acting, and in 2006, starred in a Carlo J. Caparas adaptation of Bakekang, a TV series that gave her a PMPC Star Award for Best New TV Personality. In the show, co-star Sunshine Dizon mentored the neophyte to achieve her full potential. &ldquo;When I got an award from that show, siya talaga &lsquo;yong sinama ko sa speech ko because she's the reason behind it,&rdquo; she says.
Even though no one officially told her, she&rsquo;s aware that certain expectations had to be met by being the daughter of FPJ especially when she got into acting. Acting was something that she didn&rsquo;t expect to enjoy but it grew on her; it even became therapeutic every time she did it. Though she admires her father&rsquo;s influence, she&rsquo;s determined not to hide under his shadow. Lovi knew she had to create her own path.

Dress and bag, VERSACE

Dress, bag, sandals, VERSACE

&ldquo;It was hard in the beginning but I chose to be myself. It became easier. I didn't have to pretend or do my best just to be this goody two-shoes girl because they have a certain expectation of how a daughter of a king should be&hellip;I think you gain more from being authentic with yourself instead of trying to be someone else,&rdquo; she explains.
When asked about her siblings &ndash; politician Grace Poe and DJ Ronnian Poe &ndash; she shares that she&rsquo;s happy with the relationship they have. &ldquo;We've built this relationship wherein we're very supportive of each other's career choices. We keep in touch a lot. It's nice to have people you can run to. It's not something that happened overnight for sure,&rdquo; says Lovi.

bralette, skirt, hairpins, and shoes, VERSACE

Bralette, buttondown, skirt, and hairpins, VERSACE

Hairpins, earrings, bralette, longsleeves, and skirt, VERSACE

The leap was worth it
When everything was pushed to a standstill during the pandemic, Lovi kept on moving forward. She went back to her first love and made music abroad. Releasing singles like &ldquo;Lost,&rdquo; &ldquo;Under,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Candy&rdquo; last year, Lovi relishes the fact that she met good people who support her dreams when it comes to making music. But having a career in the US is not in her priorities at the moment. &ldquo;If it happens, it happens,&rdquo; she says.
Here in the Philippines, however, she made a bold move last year to leave GMA, her network for 15 years for ABS-CBN, which failed to renew its franchise rights in order to operate on national TV. It&rsquo;s a radical leap that probably raised a few eyebrows, but for Lovi, it&rsquo;s part of her growth. &ldquo;You reach a certain stage in your life when you just feel like you have to jump and do something new. I've already worked with the best of the best from my network in the past; I wanted to expand and stretch myself more and to learn more now from the best of the best from ABS-CBN...Other people may see that it's such a low point for ABS-CBN because of what the network is going through, but it really isn't. The fact is that ABS-CBN has been rising above every situation and still putting out quality movies and quality TV shows; you want to be part of that too. If you're going through a tough time, it's nice to be part of a family wherein you help and uplift each other,&rdquo; explains Lovi.
After shooting a soon-to-be-released GL (girl love) series on iWantTFC called, Sleep With Me, together with Janine Gutierrez, also a GMA alumna, she&rsquo;s now hard at work on an adaptation of the K-Drama thriller, Flower of Evil, for which she co-stars with Piolo Pascual. He plays a man with a hidden past, and Lovi plays a detective who also happens to be his wife. Flower of Evil is among the top-five K-Drama series that she watched during the beginning of the pandemic, her gateway being Crash Landing on You.

Bralette, buttondown, skirt, and sandals, VERSACE

Bralette, buttondown, and skirt, VERSACE

bralette, buttondown, skirt, and sandals, VERSACE

Bralette and buttondown, VERSACE

I want to do one of my dad's movies. I keep saying it, I want to do Panday. I'm putting it out there. Me as Panday. Ever since, it's always been a man playing Panday. It&rsquo;s about time that it should be played by a woman.

It&rsquo;s hitting two birds with one stone when she found out that she&rsquo;s doing one of her favorite series with an all-star cast including Joem Bascon, Epy Quizon, Jett Pangan, Denise Laurel, Edu Manzano, and Agot Isidro. On Piolo Pascual, she mentions, &ldquo;He's amazing. I can't even describe how genuine this person is, not just with me, but with everyone. He's always there to chat with you, but when you're on set, suddenly there's this switch, he becomes that person. With Piolo running shirtless every morning, Lovi jokingly said that she no longer just likes Piolo because of his body of work, but because of his body too. After all, a strong physique is a must for their roles. Since it&rsquo;s Lovi&rsquo;s first time doing action sequences, she just learned to trust and enjoy the process even if it&rsquo;s physically taxing. &ldquo;Ang sarap ng feeling na napapagod ka physically because on set, it's usually emotional, but this time &lsquo;yong fulfillment mo naman is because you did an action scene,&rdquo; she says.
Asked about her preparation for her role, she said that aside from participating in an acting workshop with Piolo, the cast would rewatch complicated scenes of the original series just to make sure that they&rsquo;ll get it right and at the same time have their own take on their characters.
As Lovi grows personally and professionally, she looks back on how it all happened. What did it take to mature and refine her craft? It doesn&rsquo;t take long for her to figure it out. When it comes to getting projects, she&rsquo;s always been the &ldquo;I want to dive into this&rdquo; kind of person. She&rsquo;s impulsive but in a good way. &ldquo;I just want to challenge myself. Joke ko nga sa sarili ko &lsquo;yong lagi ko na lang pinapahirapan ang sarili ko. I can sit down and relax and choose roles that are easy like how I did it before but I really want to do things that would give me a hard time. I'm addicted to the fulfillment. Going home from a set where everyone's happy with your performance is one of the best feelings ever,&rdquo; Lovi shares.&nbsp;
She also went through her own share of turmoil during the pandemic&rsquo;s most precarious moments but being in this transition motivated her to make the most out of her potential. She can&rsquo;t think of a role that she won&rsquo;t do; she wants to do it all. In fact, when asked what she still wants to accomplish, she has this to say, &ldquo;I want to do one of my dad's movies. I keep saying it, I want to do Panday. I'm putting it out there. Me as Panday. Ever since, it's always been a man playing Panday. It&rsquo;s about time that it should be played by a woman,&rdquo; claims Lovi. With her stubborn persistence to explore uncharted territories, perhaps it won&rsquo;t be long until we see her reprise her father&rsquo;s iconic role.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I can sit down and relax and choose roles that are easy like how I did it before but I really want to do things that would give me a hard time. I'm addicted to the fulfillment.&nbsp;

PRODUCERS Heidi Golangco&nbsp;and Loris Pe&ntilde;a CREATIVE DIRECTION&nbsp;Loris Pe&ntilde;a MAKEUP Anthea Bueno HAIR Mark Familara VIDEO DIRECTOR&nbsp;Aijalonica Lei &nbsp;VIDEO ASSISTANT Angelo Alpasan PHOTO ASSISTANT Mario Pepito and Antonio Baylon Jr.&nbsp; PRODUCTION DESIGN Studio Mara&nbsp;

Risky Business: Lovi Poe

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