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Jasmine Curtis-Smith Is Happy Doing Her Own Thing, Thank You Very Much
The actress has come a long way, and to cast her in her aside without acknowledging her own merits would be a disservice to her critically-acclaimed talent.
by Em Enriquez
Published Mar 20, 2023
Updated Mar 20, 2023
To simply refer to Jasmine as Alex, Cara, Pathy, or even as "Anne's sister" is an injustice to her multifaceted star power. She's out to cement her name in the industry, and she's doing things her own way.
Some actors are best remembered for the roles they’ve taken on. Sarah Jessica Parker will always be Carrie Bradshaw, Son Ye Jin will always be Yoon Se-ri, and Angel Locsin will always be Darna. Over the past decade or so, Jasmine Curtis-Smith has taken on a slew of characters that each take up space in any movie goer's memory. She can be the gutsy Alex in Baka Bukas, the unsinkable Cara in Cara x Jagger, or the walking stereotype Pathy in I’m Drunk, I Love You.
And those are just the popular titles she’s starred in. Jas—as she’s affectionately referred to—takes pride in being an indie darling. “I think my heart is more on making films. My first film made it all so magical and made an impact on me. After that, I kind of made an intentional decision to keep making movies like that talaga,” she tells me, hunched over in a makeup chair as she prepared for her Preview photoshoot.
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Her debut on the big screen was for Transit, a 2013 family drama that competed at the Busan International Film Festival. Almost a decade later, the actress finds herself in a similar spot: She’s fresh from her stint at the Sundance Film Festival, where the transnational horror flick In My Mother’s Skin just premiered. Don’t count on any instant frights or scream queens with this one though, because, according to Jasmine, “the fear will jump at you when you least expect it.”
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Jasmine Curtis-Smith for Preview In Focus March 2023
The girl sees her filmography more as a collection of memories rather than just a resume that’ll bag her the next gig. While there are several actors that are legions her senior, her older sister Anne Curtis included, Jasmine not only chooses her own battles but sets up her own playing field. She’s aware that she may not be her generation’s optimum silver screen star yet, but that doesn’t stop her from telling the stories she knows are worth telling.
Every move she’s made so far has been 100% intentional, you see. You may know her as one thing or another, or you may not know her at all, but keep this in mind: Jasmine has always been in control.
The Name of the Game
Just like how the “H” is achingly vital to Pathy’s name in I’m Drunk, I Love You, the "Smith" is a non-negotiable for Jasmine. She’d honestly be okay if the “E” was missing from her first name in credits scenes, but the “Smith” must always be present. As we’re all aware, her ate Anne built her career going just by Curtis, but Jasmine chooses to go by both for a sentimental reason.
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“I want to complete my name kasi it's a way of [giving] honor doon sa ancestors na’min and those who came before us,” she says, clarifying that Anne, of course, still gives just as much importance. “I don’t know, I have a very big need to be in touch with my roots that a name matters to me.”
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ON JASMINE: Look No.44 Top and Skirt, FENDI S/S 2023; Rubber Slides, FENDI S/S 2023; Fendigraphy Bag in Green Tea, FENDI S/S 2023; Sphere Earrings, FENDI S/S 2023; Rings, SUKI JEWELRY
And so, after she quite literally made a name for herself, Jasmine sunk her teeth into a career that, at some point, felt like was already laid out for her. “Before, noong sumasama lang ako sa Showtime, TV5 found me and decided to sign me. I think the director would signal ‘Uy, focus niyo kay Jas. Focus niyo sila ni Anne.’”
Prior to those instances, she was just a teenager spending some time away from school and visiting her big sis at work. You can just imagine how surprised she was when a television contract landed on her lap when she returned Down Under. “Why do they want to pay me to act? I don’t act,” she recalls. “I’ve done nothing professional. I was just doing plays in school. I was doing print-ad modeling when I was in grade school but I stopped. Awkward feeling, you know.” Around that age, she was the half-Asian girl who tried a mullet-esque hairdo in an effort to fit in (Nope, you will not find any evidence of it online, or so she says).
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With one foot already in the door, she stepped in front of the camera and played side characters in a few teleseryes until her management saw the potential of projects like Transit. Tighter budgets and limited public access plague the indie scene, but its ace lies in their “freedom of story and speech,” as Jasmine puts it.
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“Doon mas inclined yung type of work that I [want to] put out. [It’s] the depth that I look for,” she adds. Working with fresh minds that “haven’t been subdued or saturated yet” beckons to her, since it opens doors that otherwise would have remained shut in favor of some “morality clause” or endorsement deal.
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The actress needed little to no time to seal her participation in In My Mother’s Skin. Set in the war-stricken Philippines during the 1940s, the hour-and-a-half-long film saw her as a sinister, blood-thirsty “fairy” who bestows a curse upon the character of Beauty Gonzalez and her family. Some previews give a sneak peek of Jasmine in a triangular cloak that resembles something like a Sto. Nino statue. It’s certainly nothing we’ve seen before, which is exactly why she took on the project.
“I haven’t seen any other actress do [this kind of role],” says the star. “The role was such a non-human character. Yung tipong ‘di siya kakapitan. You won’t sympathize with her. I just wanted that because I always play characters that are damsels-in-distress, or ako yung hina-haunt. For a change, I’m the one bringing that haunting energy.”
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While fronting eerie storylines isn’t new to Jas (One of her first projects after Transit was a self-titled thriller mystery), In My Mother’s Skin was something she just couldn’t pass up on. Aside from a cast and crew who were as dedicated to the craft as she was, the unique plot lent itself to shedding a ray of light unto its audiences. “It wasn’t going to end with any sense of hope initially but they were able to kind of inject it in there,” she shares.
Jasmine echoes direk Kenneth Dagatan’s words during their press runs at Sundance: “I chose to give hope in the end because if I can’t give myself hope, who will? As a director, that’s part of your responsibility when you’re telling stories. Even if the journey seemed hopeless, at least in the end, there could still be some.”
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In Her Own Lane
This inclination to the niche side of cinema was an “obvious” way for Jasmine to differentiate herself from her sister’s brand. When her face started appearing on set, there would be murmurs referring to her as “kapatid ni Anne.” She admits that as an ingenue, it bothered her, even just a little bit. Sometimes, she ended up asking herself, “Wait, ‘di ba I came in as Jasmine?’”
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ON JASMINE: Look No.3 Dress, FENDI S/S 2023; Rubber Slides, FENDI S/S 2023; Fendi First Bag in Pink Dalia, FENDI S/S 2023; Earrings and Rings, SUKI JEWELRY
“I didn’t have the mature capacity yet to understand why [they were referring to me as that]. It was just a term of reference. It wasn’t to disrespect me, it was just the easiest way to remember me at that time,” she candidly recalls. At home, there’s never been any sense of competition between them, primarily due to their vast age gap. To illustrate, Jasmine was only three years old when Anne debuted in 1997’s Magic Kingdom.
She expresses that she’s thankful for the age difference since it eliminated any possibility of a sibling rivalry. Jasmine adds that Anne “never tried to be pakialamera” with her career and just cheers for her and her projects and endorsements.
“People think like ‘Di ka ba na-aano na sobrang sikat ng ate mo?’ Like, oh? And then? I’ve known that growing up. It doesn’t change now that I’m in the industry. It just becomes more important for me now to take that into consideration because I’m not only taking care of my name [but also her] name, too.”
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Come 2020, Jasmine actually took on a pretty huge role passed onto her by Anne: becoming Dahlia-Amelie’s doting tita. Her pupils widen and a smile runs across her face when I mention the little one’s name. “I love being a tita to her. If it could be a full-time job, I would [take it],” she quips.
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That year was a change of seasons for many. Jasmine’s two-year contract with GMA was just nearing its tail-end when COVID-19 locked everyone in. Despite limited resources and heightened precautions though, the actress was still able to shoot a TV series plus a feature film. She also took part in founding AKTOR La Liga Filipina, a community of thespians providing support for one another and uplifting their rights as laborers. To do those things despite the limitations at the time, Jasmine was one of the few lucky ones, and she knows it.
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A year or so later, it was high time for her to turn the page and enter a new chapter of her career. In June 2021, she transferred to Crown Management Inc., a talent agency spearheaded by fellow actress Maja Salvador. The two were key characters in I’m Drunk, I Love You, where Maja played a lovestruck Carson, and Jasmine played, you guessed it, Pathy with the wretched H. They were sort of romantic rivals in the rom-com, but years later and sans any set or script, Jasmine is glad to get to unravel a different side to Maja.
“I think it’s always surreal when you end up being in the same vicinity [na hindi] set for a movie or TV. It changes the dynamic pero it creates room for [the] development of [our] relationship. For me, it’s getting to know how she is as a person and how she [works], and you know, that’s something that I wouldn’t have known prior.”
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Nothing in Vain
When you surpass the 10-year mark as an actress like Jasmine has, you’re always battered with questions about what your next big move is and when you’ll be on screen next. With In My Mother’s Skin having just concluded its run, Jas actually does have a clearer vision of what to do next.
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Producing has always been on her bucketlist since she entered the industry. “You get to choose the story when you’re the producer,” she says. “You have a little bit more control over what goes on with the set. I notice myself when I’m on the set. Lahat pinapansin ko.”
With the age-old dictum of finding a job you love and never working a day in your life in mind, Jasmine’s as eager as can be with the thought of arranging a production and bringing it to fruition. “I love acting but I love organizing too,” she adds. “When you’re a producer, you organize and do Excel sheets with computations and everything.”
Jasmine practiced this whole ordeal with Microsoft Excel during her Sundance junket. After meticulously crafting a spreadsheet for her daily itineraries, she took the liberty of creating another one just for her outfits. You got to give the girl credit, you know. Not everyone is into these dizzying cells.
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Besides satisfying her affinity for the art of organization, the story is always what matters most to Jasmine. “I want to be able to choose the stories that I will be a part of. I want to experience that [feeling of] fulfillment [after] putting all of this together, [of] fulfilling this director’s dream and this actor’s dream. And then [for yourself], you’re like ‘I got to tell the story that I wanted!’”
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As she waxes about her plans for the future, or even just her routine whenever she picks Dahlia up from school, you notice a certain inflection in her voice. It’s a positive twang that makes any listener tune in. Before you know it, a grin is painted on your face. The way she speaks only comes about when someone is genuinely content with their life. In the home stretch of her 20s, the glimmer in her eyes still hasn’t faded.
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Jas has exhumed the lives of many people through her characters, some more than others, but she’s remained herself above it all. She’s not just Alex, Cara, Pathy, or Fairy. More importantly, she's not merely Anne’s sister. She’s all of them, all at once, and she’ll keep imbibing more narratives as her career continues uphill.
No matter what image of Jasmine you have in mind, just know this: She’s doing her own thing, and is doing it exceptionally well.
Produced and written by Em Enriquez
Co-Produced by Katrina Maisie Cabral
Photographed by Borgy Angeles
Photographer's Assistant: Pao Mendoza
Art Direction by Bacs Arcebal
Fashion Direction and Styling by Marj Ramos-Clemente
Stylist’s Assistant: Reg Rodriguez
Makeup by Jake Galvez
Hair by Mong Amado
Furniture from Mr. Chair PH and UNDO HOME
Special thanks to Crown Artist Management Inc.
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