It’s easy to say that you want to be famous. But, like any other job, being a celebrity can be difficult work. One can’t always muster a smile for discreetly taken photos. Case in point is Nadine Lustre’s confession about what really went down when that viral photo of her during a Siargao sarsa run was taken.
Lustre went live on the “Boys Night Out” radio talk show to promote her single “Wait For Me.” On the show, the singer-actress opened up about a couple of topics including work burnout and staying away from “energy vampires.” (Make of that what you will, stans.) The conversation then led to her viral sarsa photo. Running to your nearest sari-sari store barefaced to buy a bottle of sarsa isn’t exactly headline-worthy activity from just anybody. How did Lustre feel about the impact of that photo? And is there a deeper story behind it?
“We just came from the north. We went surfing, running around. So we were really tired and I was really, really hungry. We went back home, and the only thing that we could get [was] the lechon manok. I bought lechon manok and then there was no sarsa. No sarsa, no suka, walang sawsawan ’yung lechon manok. So I was like, ‘Ay parang gusto ko ng Mang Tomas’… Wala na ngang rice, wala pang sarsa ’di ba?” Lustre recounted.
“I went to the store. ’Yun lang ’yung store na posibleng [may sarsa]. Well, there was a lot but that was the closest one to us. So we stopped at that store and I got Mang Tomas which was right beside the counter,” she continued. “And then, this girl—I saw her already, that she was taking a photo. I was so freakin’ tired. I was like, ‘Uh. Okay, whatever.’ Kaya ’yung mukha ko ganun na lang.’”
That was pretty much the scope of it for Lustre. Her reaction when she saw the photo and how everybody was talking about it the next day was simple: “Oh, yeah. Cool.”
Her blasé reaction to public response hardly comes as a surprise. She’s spent years dealing with body shamers and trying to keep her relationships on the down-low. Recently, she’s been focusing her energies on her career and projects like her mental health platform with Yassi Pressman and Liza Soberano. Good for her!
Photo courtesy of Nadine Lustre’s Instagram
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