Anne Curtis Is in Her Element

Today’s shoot brief was “unconventional,” conceptually speaking. Butterflies, flower stalks, and a potpourri of fauna and flora frame Anne’s face, with droplets of water running through her skin. All things considered, there is a bit of a paradox in the thought of transforming while she channels a rawer beauty and elevates it in front of the camera. 

Anne, three decades into show business, would know a lot about this. The actress has slipped into a myriad of roles—be it for a fashion editorial—but there was a natural aspect to them that still carried traces of “Anne.”

Such a concept was evident even in her everyday routine. “Even if I’m in heavy glam, you’ll notice my foundation is always light,” she recalled. “I never go heavy on that, and I like to show the natural depth of my eyes and not conceal it.” 

Her routine, she says, is stripped down to its essentials: face wash in the morning, followed by moisturizer and sunscreen, which she wishes she had used “earlier in [her] life.” Through the years, her routine has developed holy grails and constants, down to removing her makeup at the end of the day “no matter what.”

Part and parcel of that is her longstanding partnership with Belo, which feels like an intrinsic aspect of her DNA in the spotlight, having been an ambassador for more than two decades. In a 2013 product launch, a then 28-year-old Anne recounted “growing up with Belo.” At 34, the actress recalled her connection with the brand once more, this time for a different service. “I started consulting with Dra. [Vicki] Belo back when my skin problem was still acne,” she said. “So it is but natural for me to go to her now that I am over 30.”

Of course, much has transpired since those days. Anne has made her way into a solidified status as a Philippine entertainment industry titan, if her accolades—and her ubiquitousness on the metro’s billboards—are anything to go by. She sits pretty with more than 21 million Instagram followers to her name, still the most for a Filipino celebrity. As a sought-after star in film and TV, she is almost always booked for promotional engagements and events. And of course, there’s the vital, personal side, as a mother to her six-year-old daughter, Dahlia. 

If her Belo journey started as a pubescent up-and-comer dealing with acne, the treatments Anne has as a busy mom in her 40s have evolved alongside her. “As soon as I have free time, I make my way to the Belo clinic to get the Belo Beauty Cocktail,” she tells Preview, citing the treatment. “It’s done wonders for my skin.” 

The Belo Beauty Cocktail works at the cellular level to restore skin quality and reveal rejuvenated skin from within. It’s the cherry on top of a 20-year path laden with her own discoveries about beauty and, conversely, herself. In a growing menu of treatments, Anne has a succinct answer on knowing what to stick to, which somehow reflects her growing ethos in life: “[Keep doing it] if you see it had an effect or if you enjoy the feeling it gives you,” she says, adding, “You’re worth it!”

Outside the realm of beauty, changes have appeared in the work itself.

She comes off a string of projects—leading the local adaptation of the K-drama It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, followed by The Loved One, a Valentine’s Day romance drama alongside Jericho Rosales, a blockbuster hit that reportedly earned P185 million in global gross within two weeks.

Not long after, she appeared at Milan Fashion Week, seated at Demna’s inaugural runway presentation for Gucci, watching the show unfold in real time. Between these projects and appearances, her schedule continues to move across film sets, promotions, and international commitments. The pace has long been familiar.

She pauses on how she responds to everything that comes with visibility, including intense public conversations that surround her name.

“I take my time to take it all in,” she says. “As I’ve aged, I’ve learned to take a breather if something is bothering me so I don’t make an irrational statement or decision. But sometimes, I’m only human. With each moment, there’s always a lesson learned somehow.” 

The conversation eventually returns to a familiar question that follows public figures who have stayed visible for decades, especially women—the way they are spoken about, and what people assume comes with that familiarity.

“[There’s] a very dated way of thinking,” she says. “But I can see times are changing. That’s why it’s important to educate your children, so we have a society where there is fairness between men and women, and mutual respect. It goes both ways.”

What follows her name has always been part of the terrain of being visible in the industry. Over the years, that visibility has shifted in form, but not in intensity. From television-era publicity to the present pace of online commentary, attention has remained constant, and so has the way conversation builds around her.

To her, the more constructive side of that visibility lies in how it can be used. 

“Social media has a bad side to it, but the good side is having these conversations publicly,” she says, noting how visibility allows discussions to reach wider audiences. “Reaching more minds can help shift the way people think, so we don’t repeat certain things.”

Even now, Anne is still on the move.

On the horizon is BuyBust: The Undesirables, a series follow-up to Erik Matti’s 2018 film BuyBust, where she reprises her role as Nina Manigan opposite Gerald Anderson. The original film earned her a Gawad Urian nomination in 2019, and the sequel picks up that same intensity, returning to a character shaped by physical and emotional strain.

Work on the series has stretched across years, with training running alongside filming. “I think we’ve been training for two years now,” she shared during a Netflix press conference. “Even today, we’re still training for fight scenes.” Preparation has become part of the process itself, carried through production days and extended shoot schedules.

“We’ve been filming for three years now,” she adds for Preview. “I can’t wait for everyone to see it. We are close to wrapping up, so we’re all very excited.”

At the center of it is Nina Manigan, a character who returns to the same world audiences first met in BuyBust, carrying the same weight forward.

“In this series, Nina starts off just as damaged as she was in the film. That’s the beauty of female rage—you keep fighting for what you believe in,” she says.

The story expands into a nine-episode arc, moving deeper into crime, corruption, and survival. Anne returns as the former cop drawn back into violence, moving through shifting alliances alongside a corporate outcast as the pursuit widens into layers of power and retribution. Filipino martial arts, particularly Sayoc, shape much of the series' physical language, with training built around precision, repetition, and control.

That physicality carries through every stage of the process. “She goes through a very emotional journey here,” Anne says of Nina during the press con. “She still fights for justice, and she’s out for revenge. Emotionally, it’s very draining—but even more so physically.”

When it comes to choosing roles, her approach remains unchanged. “This is what you call acting,” she says. “If the story is beautiful, I’ll always say yes. I love taking on any genre as long as the story moves me.” Over the years, the instinct has carried her across a wide range of on-screen work, from mainstream commercial films to projects that place her in more demanding or unconventional roles, depending on what the material calls for.

After years in the industry, she draws a clearer line around what belongs to the work and what she keeps away from it. “My super personal life,” she says, is kept firmly outside of it. 

Now, time moves through her in flights, sets, rehearsals, and press days, but there are points she returns to when she can step out of it.

“I super value the time I have to follow my passions,” she reflects, “but also the time where I do nothing but be with the people I love, because that is the root of all my inspiration.”

Care remains part of the routine she returns to outside of work. With a schedule that demands both physical endurance and constant visibility, maintaining her skin remains a steady investment—one she continues with Belo Medical Group. Years into the partnership, it sits easily within her day-to-day, where treatments like the Belo Beauty Cocktail fold into the same rhythm as training and time on set.

Even in between takes, in training rooms, in moments before the camera calls action, she settles into a familiar focus—hair pinned, skin with a glow lit from within, attention forward. The set resets around her, and she resets with it.