KYLIE Versoza won the Miss International crown in Japan in 2016. She’s from Baguio and finished high school at St. Louis University and got a degree in business from the Ateneo. Her advocacy is mental health and she has a support group online that gives assistance to people undergoing depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness.

She quickly joined showbiz in 2017 and played a fairy in Coco Martin’s version of “Ang Panday”. It was a non-acting role but in her second screen outing, “Kasal”, she showed she has so much fire and intensity as an actress in her contravida role as Paulo Avelino’s ex-girlfriend who outed that he is gay.

We were so impressed. And she shone once again in the series “Los Bastardos” where she got carried away and spat on another beauty queen turned actress, Maxine Medina, in their confrontation scene even if it was not indicated on the script.

She then moved to Viva and did several films with them like “Abay Babes”, “Sons of Nanay Sabel”, “Ulan” and “Love the Way You Like”.

Now, Viva is launching her to full stardom in “The Housemaid”, an adaptation of an acclaimed 2010 Korean film, “The Handmaiden”, a psychological thriller that was earlier filmed in the 60’s entitled as “Hanyo”.

Said to be an erotic thriller, Kylie is Daisy, the maid in the household of Albert Martinez as William, a billionaire. Her primary duty is to take care of Nami, daughter of William and Roxanne, played by Louise de los Reyes. The seductive Daisy eventually has an affair with William, with Roxanne not at all suspecting that her husband and their nanny are having an illicit relationship. How is it playing Daisy?

“It’s hard kasi si Daisy is sobrang hindi ako in real life,” she says. “Not one of her characteristics is mine, kaya sobrang layo talaga sa personality ko. Hindi siya matalino, not educated, she just follows her heart. Yaya lang talaga siya, a wall flower na walang confidence sa sarili, at ‘yun ang challenge, ‘yung magmukha talaga akong yaya.”

How did she handle the love scenes with Albert and how did her boyfriend Jake Cuenca react to it? “Kapag love scene, dapat pinag-uusapan beforehand, so matagal na usapan ‘yan with Kuya Albert and Direk Roman. We made the scene very true to the adaptation kasi kailangan talaga ‘yung scene na ‘yun sa movie. As for Jake, I consider him my mentor. I ask him for advice and he’s my acting coach. He was the one who convinced me na gawin mo ‘yan, magandang project yan. Very supportive siya sa career ko.”

She’s so thankful Viva gave her a great supporting cast.

“Thank you talaga to my co-stars kasi very supportive sila. I can’t even explain how great it is to have great co-stars like Kuya Albert and Ms. Jaclyn. I really have to prepare myself kasi alam ko it’s an honor to be acting alongside with them, specially Ms. Jaclyn. Si Kuya Albert naman, very supportive, lalo na kapag after doing big scenes, he tells me, good job, and I really appreciate that. It’s really a different experience doing this movie kasi we were shooting this sa lock-in set, so very careful kami. We didn’t have much of an interaction other than sa harap lang ng kamera. Sobrang kakaiba ang experience for me but I enjoyed it. It’s a heavy role for me so I have to unload my emotions after shooting each scene.”

She also wants to thank their director, Roman Perez Jr. “It really helped that Direk Roman is a very hands-on sa actors niya and I really appreciate that. He’s really an actors’ director. Available siya 24/7 for my questions. Kung minsan 1 am na, kinakausap ko pa siya kasi there are times when I doubt myself and he’s there to assure me, kaya mo ‘yan.”

Daisy and William’s infidelity will surely rock your world. The events portrayed in the movie will surely intrigue and shock you. It will start streaming on Vivamax, iWant, KTX and TFC starting September 10.

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Mario Bautista