Dawn Zulueta admits being impressed with Bea Alonzo: ‘She's such a dedicated actress’

As part of the romantic drama The Love Affair, Dawn Zulueta said her official reunion movie with perennial love team partner Richard Gomez is special because she has a deeper understanding of her character now using her own life experiences. “Kasi we play a husband and wife so parang I had to dig deep into my life also as a wife and then also some of it in the past. So para tayong chemist because we're also like mixing different kinds of motivations, both experiences in the present and some in the past. So yung dynamics kasi ng married couple ngayon naiiintindihan ko na eh. I can't say I understand it completely, but I understand a lot about it so parang I was able to use it in the portrayal of my character,” she shared.

Dawn said that even after deciding to lie low from showbiz to settle down and have kids, she still has a lot to learn in life. “Ang experiences kasi natin throughout our life parang it keeps changing ‘di ba? What you know today you did not know back then. But still you’re learning. So you can't say just because it's today I know everything already because there are still things you are learning now. However when you look back in the past sometimes you think, 'Ay if I had only known what I know today, I could have done much better before.' But then again there's no point also in regret ‘di ba? So what you try to do is in the present, you make the best of every lesson that you've learned and try to identify that when there are new problems that come along, you try to identify ‘what can I learn from this’ and ‘how do I want to come out of this later on? Am I going to be a better person or am I just going to be worse?’ So parang yan rin ata yung krus na dala din nating lahat. So throughout our lives we're always learning and hopefully getting better,” she explained.
As one of the country's most beautiful actresses during the ‘90s, Dawn said the secret to her ageless beauty is simple but not easy. “Hindi niyo lang alam pero hirap na hirap ako mag-maintain (laughs). Healthy living and then I think it helps na meron pa akong mga bagets na anak. I have a boy that's turning ten and then I have a girl that just turned six. I feel like hindi naman ako puwedeng umugod-ugod pa. Parag kailangan energetic pa rin ako for them. So kahit na 46 ako, I try to find activities na I can spend time with them na nakakasabay ko pa rin sila. Maski pagdating sa music, sinasakyan ko yung mga gusto nila kasi hindi naman puwedeng magkaroon kami ng generation gap. Maybe all these things and the effort I put into it helps siguro sa countenance ko. Kasi may crow’s feet na naman na talaga tayo eh (laughs). At saka may mga [edad] na rin eh. Pero siguro nasa outlook na lang natin sa buhay. I need to stay positive because I'm raising children pa,” she admitted.

As she works with Bea Alonzo for the first time in The Love Affair, Dawn said she was impressed with her co-star's professionalism. “Well I only had one scene with Bea unfortunately but the one whole night na shinoot namin yung one scene na yun together, natuwa naman ako sa kanya kasi she's such a dedicated actress. I can understand what it feels like to be in her shoes kasi once upon a time ako rin yung younger one who was working with the senior stars di ba? So ako kasi, well I'm very generous really as an actress and I like to help the younger ones get involved and get comfortable because I'm working at getting the scene real, eh napaka-intense nung eksenang sino-shoot namin so nung bino-block na lang namin I just wanted her to feel lang na I want to do this together. Sabi ko, 'Bea tara na, let's do this!' Talagang ginanun ko (laughs) Siya naman game so I like that. I like that about her and I hope this is not the last time that I work with her because she's really a very competent actress and I think she's going to reach much farther then where she is now. So I hope I will still be there along the way and work in more projects with her,” she said.

Watch Dawn Zulueta, Richard Gomez, and Bea Alonzo in Star Cinema's The Love Affair starting August 12 in theaters nationwide.