Did You Know? Maris Racal Did One Year of Gymnastics Training for "Sunshine"

“I was not flexible," admitted the actress.

Published on Aug 2, 2025

Sunshine is sweeping cinemas nationwide. The sports drama offers a profound commentary on reproductive rights and female agency in the Philippines, starring Maris Racal as a prodigious gymnast whose last shot at the Olympics is threatened when she finds out she’s pregnant. The titular character, Sunshine, spends the film desperately running around the streets of Manila furtively trying to find a solution to her predicament.

Maris dazzles as Sunshine, and she’s especially convincing as a budding Olympian meant for greatness. All that twirling and back bending make it hard to believe that she’s not naturally flexible, and yet the truth is the actress had to dedicate a whole year to train her body and build up her skills just for the role.

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Maris Racal trained one year for “Sunshine”

In an interview last September 2024, Maris revealed that preparing for Sunshine was one of the busiest times in her life. She would juggle filming both Can’t Buy Me Love and the Antoinette Jadaone project with three hours of gymnastics training in a day in order to make it all work.

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“I was not flexible. I'm not the most flexible. So challenging sakin. I really pushed my limits and trained for it. Kahit mahirap, pinilit ko,” said Maris. “It was made through blood, sweat, and tears. Talagang pinaghirapan namin.”

A month before the film launched in the Philippines, Maris even gave fans a glimpse at her practice sessions with a compilation video of her learning the sport. “I cant believe its been two years since I started training for SUNSHINE,” she captioned.

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Maris’s experience led her to foster a new sense of admiration and respect for athletes who train eight hours a day or more. She also acknowledged the mental rigor needed to survive the sport. “I was also there to observe athletes and gymnasts. Grabe yung dedication nila…Kailangan talaga dedication and burning passion. Hanga ako sa athletes kahit anong sport yan. Lalo na gymnastics. Medyo life threatening. Kailangan mentally strong ka.”

At the time of the interview, Maris revealed that she still does gymnastics even though they already finished filming. According to the actress, she’s able to use the skills she learned for her other projects, like in the action drama series Incognito, which came out early this year.

Sunshine is currently playing exclusively in SM Cinemas nationwide.