At 40, actress, businesswoman, entertainer, and mom Anne Curtis refelects on her three decades in showbiz, motherhood, and the beauty of a life lived fully.

It&rsquo;s almost surreal to see what Anne Curtis has accomplished in her life. She has captivated audiences on screen for nearly three decades, made waves with her unique singing career, become a familiar face as a brand ambassador, and shown a deep commitment to her humanitarian efforts. These, while balancing her most significant role yet&mdash;a mom. Her passion for everything she undertakes is evident, and she has certainly established her place in the constantly changing industries she is involved in.

THE ACTRESS AND ENTERTAINER
&ldquo;Even at the Tiffany event yesterday, they were calling me &lsquo;Dyosa!&rsquo;&rdquo; says Anne, recalling one of her most iconic roles. The list of her other unforgettable characters includes Dyesebel, Kampanerang Kuba, and her latest, the lead in the Filipino adaptation of the celebrated Korean Drama, It&rsquo;s Okay to Not Be Okay. We&rsquo;ve watchedAnne&rsquo;s career unfold since her early days as the young princess in Magic Kingdom: Ang Alamat ng Damortis, a movie she holds so dear that she named her daughter after her character, and as part of the teen-oriented show T.G.I.S. Her success was a slow and steady climb, but a journey that was well worth it. Anne believes the key to her long career is not thinking of what she does as a job and also when to take breaks. &ldquo;I believe that to keep the fire burning, you have to know when to take a rest and I feel that&rsquo;s what kept a passion for me in terms of acting or hosting. And at the same time, I believe that staying authentic to who you are is what helped me stay in this industry for so long. I grew up in the industry since I was 12,&rdquo; she shares. Is there still anything that Anne hasn&rsquo;t done in terms of roles on screen? Surprisingly, there still is. &ldquo;Maybe a psychotic thriller. I&rsquo;ve never done that,&rdquo; she admits. The actress is always up for a challenge when creating a character for whatever role she&rsquo;s willing to do but it was this recent role of hers as eccentric writer Mia Hernandez in It&rsquo;s Okay to Not Be Okay that took her some time to say yes to, a year to be exact.
&nbsp;&ldquo;There was a lot of self-doubt, especially for It&rsquo;s Okay, because I love the role&hellip; what&rsquo;s the bigger picture of this series? As much as I love the role, I&rsquo;m scared because it is an adaptation. The original is already so good,&rdquo; the award-winning actress admits. The bigger picture would be to destigmatize mental health issues in a wider audience in the Philippines, especially in rural areas wherein often, such conditions are misunderstood or dismissed. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just on Netflix, it&rsquo;s on free TV, which means you&rsquo;re hitting a wider market. The way we tell it in our version, emotions are more heightened. I would say more relatable to the Philippine audience. When they watch it, they can understand better and it&rsquo;s told in a way that it&rsquo;s like a fairy tale,&rdquo; Anne explains. In the series, she plays alongside a star-studded cast including actor Joshua Garcia and Carlo Aquino.
One of the most surprising evolutions in Anne&rsquo;s career was her foray into singing. No one can deny that it was such a pop culture moment but for Anne, it&rsquo;s not something to be taken seriously. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny when I think about it, they say there&rsquo;s like 99% of Filipinos who can sing and there&rsquo;s that 1% that cannot. And I represent that 1%,&rdquo; she admits. Her approach to singing is &ldquo;sing as if no one can hear you&rdquo; and that she did. Anne gave everyone a show in her sold out Annebisyosa: No Other Concert in Smart Araneta Coliseum and tour around the world. &ldquo;It brings me so much happiness seeing people delighted about it. But I probably won&rsquo;t do that again. Probably.&rdquo;

THE BUSINESSWOMAN
In addition to her career in the entertainment industry, Anne has several business ventures. With marketing veteran Jacqe Yuengtian-Gutierrez, she co-founded the makeup brand BLK, which was launched to provide Filipinos with uncomplicated, high-quality, and affordable beauty products. &ldquo;At the time when we did BLK, there wasn&rsquo;t a local brand that felt at par with global beauty brands but still affordable for every Filipina. And that was our goal for BLK. How can they attain amazing products, amazing quality, but at an affordable price? We wanted every Filipina to eventually own a piece,&rdquo; she explains. As someone who lives an active lifestyle, Anne launched an activewear brand called Recess with her friend, Isabelle Daza. Every athleisure piece is designed to cater to the needs and preferences of everyone. &ldquo;There was a gap between having really cool local athleisure. It&rsquo;s not fashion but if you wanted to wear it to the market or school run, you could wear it,&rdquo; Anne shares.
Having a business is totally different from being an actress, where the former, Anne admits, is far more complex. &ldquo;When it comes to building a business, the one thing I&rsquo;m still learning is the back end of it, which is way more complicated than acting. When it comes to creative direction, I guess you could do similarities in terms of the entertainment industry in that when you&rsquo;re building a character, you&rsquo;re reaching out to an audience or a customer profile. In that sense, maybe it&rsquo;s similar.&rdquo;

THE HOMEMAKER AND PHILANTHROPIST
Every woman will say that having her own family will change her. For Anne, being Mrs. Heussaff for nearly eight years taught her to be more comfortable and secure. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need to always be on the go. It&rsquo;s okay to settle down, calm down. You&rsquo;re not competing with anyone,&rdquo; she says. After meeting in 2010, Anne and Erwan married in Queenstown, New Zealand, in 2017. Their daughter, Dahlia Amelie, who is now five, is the love of their lives. Anne&rsquo;s life is a careful dance between her professional commitments and the demands of being a hands-on mother. &ldquo;That kind of love you have for your child, that is a kind of love I&rsquo;ve never ever felt before. I can&rsquo;t explain it. It taught me that true unconditional kind of love and how to practice time management,&rdquo; she shares.
It was Anne&rsquo;s dream of becoming a preschool teacher that first sparked her love and desire to work with children. While her career took a different turn, her passion for helping children in need remained a constant in her life. Her advocacy work with UNICEF intensified after she had her own child. A champion for children&rsquo;s rights since 2015, she has been a key figure with UNICEF Philippines, raising awareness about the significance of education, issues of malnutrition, and the importance of a child&rsquo;s first 1,000 days. She has also organized and joined marathons to raise funds for children with disabilities. To celebrate her daughter Dahlia&rsquo;s first birthday, Anne held a fundraiser, asking for donations to UNICEF in lieu of gifts. Her family then matched the funds raised. When asked what would be her memorable experiences with the organization, she said that it would always have to be doing field work. &ldquo;Meeting the children, mothers-to-be, and hearing their stories. Each story has been so important to me and that&rsquo;s why whenever I run the marathons, whenever I&rsquo;m dying, I think of what I&rsquo;m running for and that helps me get through it. I feel like the interest is there for people to help out but sometimes you just need to ignite the movement in them because it&rsquo;s not always their top-of-mind,&rdquo; she shares.

THE FRIEND OF THE HOUSE OF TIFFANY &amp; CO.
The Legendary Legacy: A Tiffany &amp; Co. Exhibition was debuted by Tiffany &amp; Co. in Thailand in late August of this year. The fiveroom exhibit provided an immersive journey into the House&rsquo;s design DNA, showcasing the vision of Jean Schlumberger and select treasures from The Tiffany Archives. For the first time in the region, the exhibition concluded with the 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond, presented in its newest&mdash;and fifth&mdash;setting. As friend of the House, Anne was in attendance together with brand ambassadors Win Metawin, Baifern Pimchanok, Sririta Jensen, and Aff Taksaorn. While talking about the brand, she reminisced about her first Tiffany and Co. piece. &ldquo;My very first Tiffany &amp; Co. piece was their Return to Tiffany silver bracelet. And I still have it. I got that when I was 16 or 17. I also got the necklace. Those were probably some of my first purchases with my own paycheck. And until now, I still wear them. When I ran the New York Marathon, you could get a charm that had your marathon time on it. That&rsquo;s from Tiffany &amp; Co. as well. It holds a lot of memories,&rdquo; shares Anne. To commemorate her turning 40 this year, she decided to purchase something grand and what she thought was destined to be for her. &ldquo;My Bird on a Rock. It&rsquo;s my gift to myself for this year in my life. I felt like it was just by chance. It&rsquo;s my birthstone. It was never in my bingo card to buy that piece&hellip; It&rsquo;s a very important year,&rdquo; she says. It&rsquo;s such an iconic piece that she knew she deserves. &ldquo;And now I live by that. If I feel a connection to something, I don&rsquo;t let it pass because I hate to have the what ifs.&rdquo;

THE ADAPTIVE AND RESILIENT SPIRIT
Her approach to criticism has transformed over the years, much like her evolution on how she lives her life, particularly after becoming a wife and mother. She has gotten used to practicing the art of deadma, knowing that whatever you do, people still have something to say about you and for Anne, that&rsquo;s okay. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s your opinion. That&rsquo;s fine with me.&rdquo; She had a lot of uncertainty before her return to acting with It&rsquo;s Okay to Not Be Okay after her maternity leave and the pandemic. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know if I could act again,&rdquo; she admits. Noticing that things have changed within her, she took it upon herself to do an acting refresher and adapt the Meisner technique of acting, wherein the actor respond truthfully and instinctively to their scene partners and circumstances and not relying on personal emotion and memories. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t do method anymore because I&rsquo;m a mom and you don&rsquo;t want to bring the character that you&rsquo;re building home. When you&rsquo;re doing method, you&rsquo;re living, being, breathing the character. So, I had to learn Meisner and that really helped me. You build a character on set, action, you&rsquo;re the character, cut, you&rsquo;re done&hellip; It took a lot for me to start again because I was scared,&rdquo; Anne confesses.
&nbsp;She sees being 40 both a celebration and just a number. It&rsquo;s something that she embraces; something that she&rsquo;s proud of. &ldquo;You go to sleep, you wake up, you&rsquo;re 40, and the next day you realize nothing changes. Don&rsquo;t let it get into your head,&rdquo; she laughs as she says this. While on the topic of reflection, she takes time to contemplate on the things that she wishes she could have done like taking more photos when she was younger and finishing her studies. For someone who seems like she has it all&mdash;a flourishing career, a loving family, finding her passion by helping children, Anne still dreams of walking on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival&mdash;&rdquo;to get invited to screen a film that I&rsquo;m part of.&rdquo; A goal that is never too far to attain because for one, Anne Curtis is far from finished surprising us.

PHOTOGRAPHY &nbsp;Sutthiwat Sangkong CREATIVE DIRECTION AND STYLING Loris Pe&ntilde;a WORDS Denise Mallabo MAKEUP&nbsp;Robbie Pinera HAIR&nbsp;Raymond Santiago PRODUCER Parichat panjeing VIDEO KIM Wee Bol ASSISTANT STYLIST Maura Rodriguez ASSISTANT PRODUCER&nbsp;Anchisa Pattanapitarn ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHER Amnaj Waimalee, Chotitud Jainkiatfu, Numpon Timsri, Sittipon Chapakdee

Digital Cover: Anne Curtis looks back and ahead feat. Tiffany & Co.

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