Saab Magalona on Sister Maxene and Elmo

SAAB MAGALONA is thankful to GMA-7 for giving her the chance to play villain to Kris Bernal in “Koreana” that ends today. “I really had fun playing contravida,” she says. “It’s so challenging kasi it’s not natural for me yung mataray at nananampal. I have plenty of aggressive scenes pa naman. First time I was told to slap Kris, I didn’t know what to do and it’s Kris who told me, ‘Totohanin mo, okay lang.’ I admire Kris as she has many emotionally draining scenes but she makes it look so easy.”

What if she’d have “sampalan” scenes with her elder sister Maxene? “I don’t know, kasi in real life, hanggang sigawan lang kami. That’s when we were younger. Never kaming nagsampalan. We have the same birthday, Nov. 23, but she was born 1986 and I was born 1988. After me comes, Elmo, but I’m 6 years older than him.”

She’s a late bloomer in acting. “Kasi I finished muna my creative writing course at Ateneo. But now, I realized I enjoy acting pala kaya sana masundan agad itong ‘Koreana’. I’m also into writing. I write about shopping and culture in a new website, juice.ph. I also have my own blog, isabellamagalona.com. I’m an internet celebrity. I’ve been sent to Singapore as a blogger and I’m going next to Hongkong Disney.”