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Nadine Lustre Is Finding Her Balance
Carving her own path and taking her space, Nadine Lustre breathes life into the adage: less is more.
by Ida Aldana
Published Mar 1, 2024
The laidback actress is taking her space and moving in silence.
Brown sand covered the entire floor of the black-walled room. Fluorescent lighting hung overhead, but slivers of natural light still peeked through the translucent white curtains. It was the last layout of the day. Nadine Lustre tiptoed her way to the circle drawn in the middle—clad in white, careful not to disturb the drawn lines.
“It ties in with where my mind is at the moment,” she says of that final set-up. “[My mind’s] not 100% zen, but it's something that I'm working on. It's in line with who I am right now just because I'm really working my way towards that.”
That includes being more intentional with what she does these days. “I'm trying to figure out what that change is or who Nadine in her 30s really is.” It may have only been a year, but, she says, “The 29-year-old Nadine doesn't resonate with the 30-year-old Nadine anymore.”
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She was on the car ride home after a hectic day at work. The context of the video call gave a different, busier energy from what you’d usually feel when you saw her on Instagram—relaxed, laidback, casually cool. But while the roads zoomed past her, she took the time to think over her answers, almost as if she held them before speaking them out loud.
JOSH TOLENTINO
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Nadine Lustre for Preview March 2024
In Alignment
It had been more than a week since the shoot, which was purposely leather-free. “When I see leather, it's like I see a dead body. As soon as I found out how leather was made, it didn't sit well with me,” she explains. The actress first started talking about her vegan lifestyle in 2021. “I never thought I’d love vegan food this much,” she said. But it’s really more than just food for her.
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The use of leather just doesn’t align with how much Nadine loves animals. “Since there are a lot of different leather materials that are now available that's not [made from an] animal, why not shift? It doesn't make any sense if I tell you that I'm an animal lover and I contribute to this.”
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She’s yet to be fully immersed in it, but she knows she’s making progress. “I will be honest—I'm not totally out of the woods yet just because it is a transition. I know that I’ll make mistakes. I'm not yet perfect. But I'm very happy because I know that I've done so much already.”
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Those core values mold her lifestyle and the everyday decisions that she makes. “When it's a diet, you’re just plant-based. When you say you're vegan, it includes everything—the products that you use, the clothes, the shoes that you wear, things that you eat, the brands that you support.” The last is especially relevant to her as a celebrity.
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Nadine is one of those big names who has an ongoing brand deal at any given moment. It might be an artfully taken spread on her feed or a sultry pin-up for your wall. With the number of brands who want to work with her, she zones in on what matters. “Important sa akin yung same yung values [ko] with the brand.”
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While Nadine remains as collaborative as possible with her partner brands, she still sets her boundaries. “I really try to select the brands that I work with. But so far, so good,” she says with a smile. They’ve been more than willing to work with her to bring their shared vision to life. They initiate making it as on-brand as possible. “‘Yung peg pa nila were some of the photos that we've shot before,” she recalls. “Everyone has been very understanding also of me trying to have a fully vegan lifestyle.”
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Part of it has to do with how strong she’s built her personal brand over the years. “They’re probably like, ‘Feeling ko hindi magpapatalo ‘to eh, so gawin na lang natin yung gusto niya.’” she says with a laugh.
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Going with the Flow
That’s what she’s been doing lately—just doing what she wants, minding herself, and staying in her lane. “Yes, I'm very unapologetic. I say what I want to say but at the same time…there's no intention of hurting anyone or stepping on other people's toes.” I remember her delicately walking on the sand, Bulgari necklace firmly on her décolletage, bracelets catching the light against the black panels surrounding her.
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“I'm going to speak my mind and as long as it's not hurting anyone, then it's totally fine.” Of course, there’s still some obscurity. There are still some parts she wants to keep to herself. “Right now, I'm not in a good relationship with my socials,” she opens up. “I think I've gotten to that point where I'm not very showy to the public with the things that I do. That's really a struggle for me right now,” she says candidly.
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Anyone who’s ever opened Instagram to post, only to save it as a draft—or close the app altogether—knows the pressure. The internet-crowned aesthetic queen feels it, too. “I don't think my Instagram feed has been very minimalist lately and that is because I'm trying to figure out where I'm at with that. I'm currently going through—” she holds her thought. “You could say I’m rewiring my brain, if that makes sense.”
“I'm going to speak my mind and as long as it's not hurting anyone, then it's totally fine.”
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Just like how an artist has a blank canvas as their chosen medium, Nadine’s feed is a reflection and expression of her headspace. She maintains that minimalist style because it helps clear her mind. “It's just more natural for me because personally, I do love maximalism as well. I do love prints, and all these crazy accessories. But I guess it's really just because as a person, I like being organized. I like when everything is clear.”
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It extends beyond the frames, the dimensions, and the grids. “My place would be messy sometimes,” she shares. “But if you go there when it's clean, you'll see that it's really minimalist din. The walls are white, the floor is white. There's not a lot of knickknacks that are displayed. I guess it's really just the kind of person that I am,” she says.
“Having an organized and a clean home or room for me just helps a lot with my mental health. I get really scatterbrained if my place is messy. Even if my closet is messy. Parang ang gulo-gulo ng buhay ko. That's how it feels,” she continues. “I try to keep things clean and simple. I love having no fuss. Kung ano yung pinaka-simple, pinakamadali, I would always go for that.”
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Curated as her feed might be, she’s still unfiltered in real life. We’ve all seen her viral sari-sari store photo. “People see me now with no makeup on. I live in a condo, so sometimes, I go to the mall without wearing anything or I go to my shoots with no makeup, basa pa yung buhok,” she laughs. Even her braless OOTDs take over the Internet. “It's more comfortable, honestly. I still wear bras sometimes, but sobrang bihira na lang,” she quickly shares.
It wasn’t always this way. “I've always had this thing that I have to look good all the time or I have to be smiling all the time. I have to really dress up and look proper,” she remembers. “Now naman, I still do, just because I love dressing up,” she explains. “But if there are days when I'm like, ‘Yeah, whatever, I don't really care,’ I'm not embarrassed or I'm not ashamed to go out and be seen by people.”
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Her city life now—she’s mostly working in Manila these days—is still a reflection of her routine in Siargao. “That's where I fly to when I need to breathe,” she says of the island she started considering as home in 2021. “Siargao was a big part of that [change] because when you go to Siargao, you know, it's the island life—everyone is so laid-back. No one really cares.”
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That energy couldn’t have been more apparent than in that viral sari-sari store photo of her buying sawsawan. She’s channeled that carefree mindset into her day-to-day. “I've learned to just let things be. I'm just gonna be me. 'Di ba? Bahala na kayo diyan. If you wanna judge me, I don't really care,” she says lightheartedly.
Taking a Breather
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It’s that same, relaxed mindset that lets her be more grounded in her decisions now. “It's kind of blasphemy if people hear me say this—but I kind of wanna stop working on acting projects this year,” Nadine reveals. She has reason to think (and even phrase it) that way. Actors deciding to carve their own artistic paths are somewhat occult to the industry.
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That’s especially true for someone who soared to stardom with mainstream hits like Diary ng Panget and teleseryes like On The Wings of Love and Till I Met You. But if Nadine’s filmography is anything to go by, you know she’s not one to shy away from exploring her artistry. She’s got nuanced projects like Never Not Love You, the genre-diverse Ulan, and Mikhail Red’s Deleter. She’s working with the director again for his Filipino folklore film, Nokturno, that’s set to be released soon. But that might be the last we’ll see of her for a while. At least, on the big screen.
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“I don't really know what I want at the moment. All I know is that I wanna make music and I wanna do more creative projects.” She continues, “It feels different when I work on music as compared to films or acting projects.” There’s no specific sound just yet, but again, she’s taking things as they come. “I wanna explore. I wanna try out new things with the stuff that I do. I kind of just wanna go into the studio and see what happens.”
She’s also venturing into new paths. “I'm going into business [and] the stakes are very high. It needs a lot of attention. It needs a lot of time. I'm still trying to find the balance with this business side and my career side of things,” she shares. In line with her more conscious lifestyle, she’s working on a plant-based milk brand that’s set to release this year. She’s also setting up shop in Siargao with a vegan restaurant.
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The “less” she does, the more it feels like Nadine is taking up space for herself. “Right now, I'm really like a blank page.” But the feeling doesn’t faze her. “There's something comforting about that because it's exciting. I love planning, but at the same time, it's nice to not know where you're going sometimes. It's scary. When you're scared and uncomfortable, that’s where growth is.” She adds, “Let's see what I write on this piece of paper.”
“Right now, I'm really like a blank page. When you're scared and uncomfortable, that’s where growth is.”
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Her van had already stopped three questions ago. She took a moment before answering my last: “What else is next for you?”
“Figure my shit out,” she breaks into a laugh. “I have a lot of that to do.” She says, “I'm not really ashamed that I'm kind of a mess right now. I mean, it happens. But I'm happy because I know that day by day, I'm taking one step at a time.”
She takes another towards the center. Heels up. Eyes on the ground.
Photographer: Josh Tolentino
Creative Director: Bacs Arcebal
Editor-in-Chief: Marj Ramos-Clemente
Production and Fashion: Reg Rodriguez and Isha Fojas
Makeup: Jelly Eugenio
Hairstyling: Paul Nebres
Production Design: Rocket Sets
Story: Ida Aldana
Videos: Jana Jodloman
Social Media: Jamie Lou Briones
Shoot Location: Rocket Sets
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