The artist and actress is working on a proper comeback after two years or so of domestic bliss, motherhood, and self-introspection. Consider this her warm-up.

PHOTOGRAPHY Patrick Diokno STYLING Loris Pe&ntilde;a

&ldquo;What do celebrities do now?&rdquo; Solenn Heussaff Bolzico, on me-time while vacationing with her young family in Zambales, asked over Zoom. &nbsp; It&rsquo;s interesting that the question was asked by someone who was minting cool celebrity moves long before they normalized: self-authored books, branded content, and merch collaborations. But the last two years or so must have had a way of blurring personal recollections of her robust career since a decade prior, what with having to endure the world&rsquo;s longest lockdown and becoming a first-time mother at the same time. &nbsp; Solenn has had quite the following on digital &mdash; which conveniently answers her aforementioned question &mdash; and yet the multidisciplinary creative and anointed It Girl admits to still working on getting back to 100%. &nbsp; &ldquo;I just need to have an end date because if you don&rsquo;t have a goal or a plan or an end date, things will never happen,&rdquo; she contemplates, considering a possible film comeback or a new art exhibit towards the middle of next year. Her timing couldn&rsquo;t be more ideal, with the rest of the world getting back on its feet again. &nbsp; In the meantime, she is making memories out of every opportunity to bolt out of the city, despite quarantine rules and an unstable internet connection, and mindfully charting her next steps.

Have you had time to take stock and contrast how you were living before the pandemic and now? Yes. Before this whole thing happened, I was very driven. Driven in a way that if I had one day off, I would panic and feel like I&rsquo;m not working enough and I&rsquo;m not relevant. I kept filling up my schedule and was hardly home, hardly spending time with my husband (Nico Bolzico) or my family. I was just so motivated and driven to be out of the house working even if it meant not sleeping or not connecting with friends and loved ones. &nbsp; When the pandemic happened, I was &mdash; well, we all were &mdash; kind of forced to rethink life and rethink the things we actually love or need to do, the people that we need in our life, the people that are toxic to us. It was a way for everyone to reconnect with themselves. &nbsp; &nbsp; How have the last two years or so changed you? I&rsquo;m really taking it day by day, not overplanning. My time is deserved. I know how to be more picky and choose work that is more worthy of my time and worthy of me not being with my husband and daughter. I&rsquo;m also 37 &mdash; I can&rsquo;t be on set anymore for 24 hours and just sleep for 2 hours and go to another set. It&rsquo;s not something I see myself doing anytime soon again. &nbsp; You gave birth to Thylane Katana &mdash; Tili for short &mdash; a little before the lockdown began. What is it like to be a first-time mother? Everyone that&rsquo;s become a mom says it&rsquo;s amazing and the love you&rsquo;re going to feel is the unconditional love you have never felt before. That I&rsquo;m going to love the baby for sure and you&rsquo;re like &ldquo;yeah, yeah, yeah.&rdquo; Well, it&rsquo;s all true! Being a mother is just an incredible feeling &mdash; you love that person more than anyone or anything you've ever loved. It&rsquo;s really got the best of me and has pushed me to limits that have shown me sides of myself I didn&rsquo;t even know existed. It&rsquo;s also made me more sensitive to situations. I&rsquo;ve also become more patient.

Jacket, trousers, and shoes, Balmain 

Are you the hands-on type? I&rsquo;ve been very much hands-on with Tili, and I can&rsquo;t see it any other way. Leaving her for this shoot felt long for me. It&rsquo;s like I&rsquo;m not used to the hours anymore, but I also know I can&rsquo;t live like this for long. I also need to get a life back out there. &nbsp; Your Instagram is enough evidence: if there is one thing that&rsquo;s never really left the Solenn brand, it&rsquo;s the abundance of humor. We suppose being in a relationship with Nico really helps.
That&rsquo;s a compliment for him! [laughs] &nbsp; How has it been cooped up with him? It&rsquo;s been fun. We really are friends, and we really respect each other&rsquo;s space. Before getting pregnant and before the lockdown, I was constantly out of the house and just literally spent a few hours of the week with Nico. Or those few hours, I'd be tired and sleeping at home. So going from that to seeing his face 24/7 for the last two years could have been a difficult task or could have challenged our marriage. But it worked the opposite!

top and skirt, Balmain

top, skirt, bag, and boots, Balmain

How has married life been like five years in? Nico is so great, and I&rsquo;m just so happy to have him as a partner &mdash; not just a husband. Just seeing him as a dad would make me love him all over again. &nbsp; He&rsquo;s also the one who encouraged me to start a children&rsquo;s clothing line (Tili Dahli) with (sister-in-law) Anne (Curtis) and mount an art exhibit even in the midst of the pandemic. That&rsquo;s Nico pushing me to do those things even when he sees I&rsquo;m so focused on Tili. I&rsquo;m lucky. &nbsp; You mentioned &ldquo;getting a life back out there.&rdquo; Before the pandemic and before becoming a mother, your career ran at breakneck speed, and you were doing a lot of things, sometimes at once. How are you easing back into work? That's a good question. It's true that when you are in &ldquo;mommy mode,&rdquo; you eventually forget about yourself. That can be unhealthy because you used to know your [other pursuits] but you get so focused on your child that you let the things you like slide and say, &ldquo;I'll do it later on.&rdquo; &nbsp;But you need to remember yourself if you want to have a healthy relationship with your child, even more with your husband. I wouldn&rsquo;t say that one must get out of &ldquo;mommy mode&rdquo; but just give yourself the time you deserve and not feel guilty about it. &nbsp; Tili is just about to turn two (in January) so I&rsquo;ll still be very much hands-on, but I think I&rsquo;ll slowly get back into the grind next year. Also, I&rsquo;m only just feeling 100% myself now. It took me a year and a half to get back to my body before, the way I think, and the exercise I used to love. It takes time to feel yourself again, and so I just want to enjoy the moment.

Blazer and dress, Balmain

Do you see also a certain evolution from the way you dressed up or viewed style from then to now?&nbsp; Yeah, I might call it a devolution just because I&rsquo;ve never been like a style or fashion icon. I&rsquo;m not like my other friends who are known for their fashion sense; I&rsquo;m not that. I&rsquo;m very your basic bitch. [laughs]&nbsp; &nbsp; I&rsquo;m in jeans and t-shirts if I&rsquo;m not on stage or going to an event. If you see me at the mall, I&rsquo;m in my tsinelas or sneakers with no makeup. Of course, if I go to an event, I will do the effort of dressing up. But I do love fashion and studied fashion design in Paris. I&rsquo;m very aware of all the brands out there and would love to have a huge closet. But at the moment, especially as a result of the pandemic and just staying home, I just want to edit what&rsquo;s in my closet.

Dress, shoes, and bag, Balmain

Dress, shoe, and bag, Balmain

Looking at behind-the-scenes photos of your shoot from a couple of days before, seeing you play, and having fun with fashion must have felt like the old days. I was so delighted to go to the shoot, having forgotten how to dress because of the lockdown. Being able to shoot with Balmain was exciting as it was a label I looked up to for inspiration when I was still designing my own collections. I was excited to feel like a human again, get glammed up, and wear beautiful clothes. &nbsp; Your parting shot on fashion? Fashion and I, we have our ups and downs, but I will always love it. I just have to relearn it.

Blazer dress, sneaker, and bag, Balmain

Blazer dress, Balmain

PRODUCERS Chica Villarta and Loris Pe&ntilde;a CREATIVE DIRECTION Loris Pe&ntilde;a ART DIRECTION Eugene David MAKEUP Robbie Pinera HAIR John Valle VIDEO MV ISIP FASHION &nbsp;Balmain&nbsp;

How Solenn Heussaff Bolzico Is Getting Her Groove Back

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