In Philippine show business, the phrase &ldquo;playing mature roles&rdquo; can be synonymous with playing sexy and risqu&eacute; characters. It&rsquo;s something that courts attention and sometimes even controversy. But for actress Sue Ramirez, it&rsquo;s only an expansion of her challenge-ridden path to maturity as a dutiful daughter who had to cut her teeth to support her family and succeed in a fickle industry.

PHOTOGRAPHY&nbsp;Koji Arboleda STYLING&nbsp;Yanna Lopez

13. It signals the advent of adolescence. But it&rsquo;s also the time when one bids farewell to the innocence of childhood to welcome the windfall of new experiences including lucky breaks and growing pains. Oddly enough, raging hormones and tough luck capture the quintessential playbook to describe the coming-of-age experience. Talk about high school sweethearts, hobbies-turned-obsessions, first-time breakups, and inexplicable mood swings that you can only blame on your body changing. &nbsp; But it&rsquo;s also the point in your life when you think anything and everything is possible. Much like most of us at that bright young age, Sue Ramirez was also trying to live the teenage dream the moment she turned 13. With 100 pesos in her wallet to pay for her commute and buy a snack at Waffle Time, the aspiring actress lined up at the audience entrance of ABS-CBN for an open audition for Star Magic. &ldquo;I was number 697,&rdquo; Sue recalls, adding that she had to line up from 6 am to 11 pm. &ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t tired at all! I wasn&rsquo;t hungry! I just had one goal that day.&rdquo; She sang Angels Brought Me Here and a Sarah Geronimo track to impress the casting panel. &nbsp; It's safe to say that her song choices worked as she got called back. However, she wasn&rsquo;t signed right away. She remembers heading to Baclaran church to say a prayer with her mom after each succeeding call &ndash; hoping this time she&rsquo;ll receive an offer. After a few more go-sees, Star Magic finally offered her a contract as approved by Mr. M (Johnny Manahan, the legendary talent scout) himself.

dress, KIMIKIMI

That was 13 years ago. &nbsp; This July, Sue will turn 26 &ndash; the age that will mark her 13th year in show business &ndash; exactly half of her life. &ldquo;Feeling ko bagets parin ako. Age is but a number!&rdquo; she jokes but admits that (at the very least) her body has changed now that she&rsquo;s crossing her mid-twenties. Before this cover shoot, she made sure to work out and had a good night&rsquo;s sleep just so that she would look fresh in front of the camera. Needless to say, she never comes over-prepared. &nbsp; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to come into the set having fixed expectations. I want it to be spontaneous.&rdquo; That mantra rang even more true when she landed the role of Lexi Lucero in The Broken Marriage Vow. &nbsp; &ldquo;I was shocked. This is the biggest break I&rsquo;ve gotten. To be working with Jodi Sta. Maria (or against her) is a big, big thing for me. I cried when they presented this to me. Sobrang laki ng project at dahil malaki &lsquo;yong project, naramdaman ko na malaki din &lsquo;yong tiwala nila sa akin na magagawa ko &lsquo;yong proyekto na &lsquo;to.&rdquo; &nbsp; Undeniably one of the hottest telenovelas in the Philippines at the moment, TBMV (as Twitter folk would tweet) is the local adaptation of the critically acclaimed British drama, Doctor Foster. Though the BBC production is basically unknown to local viewers, the Korean version called, The World of the Married, has become one of the most-watched K-dramas of all time. Blame it on the quarantine hallyu wave that swept over the country, but the 16-episode romance melodrama has struck a chord with most Filipinos who&rsquo;d lap up a juicy &ldquo;mistress&rdquo; show or film on any given day.

dress, Jessan Macatangay

With No Other Woman, My Husband&rsquo;s Lover, The Legal Wife, Ika-6 na Utos, and a multitude more bringing in audience ratings and social media buzz after every premiere or episode, the &ldquo;other woman&rdquo; genre has solidified itself as a hitmaker no matter what. But what is it about a &ldquo;love gone wrong&rdquo; that gets everyone so invested? &nbsp; For one, falling in love is universal &ndash;but so is heartbreak. Relatability is inevitable because the feeling of love is all too familiar no matter what your age, race, gender, or identity is. But for Sue, it&rsquo;s not just a mistress show. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t watch closely with regards to how our characters handle these tricky situations, then you&rsquo;re missing the point,&rdquo; she explains, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see here how women react to love. It shows our complexity as women. That we all don&rsquo;t react the same way. You can&rsquo;t stereotype us anymore. We have different priorities. You can&rsquo;t judge women based on the priorities we choose. Hindi tayo pare-pareho. &lsquo;Yong iba gusto maging lawyer at &lsquo;yong iba gusto maging nanay. We shouldn&rsquo;t be judged based on what we want in life.&rdquo; &nbsp; Unlike the actresses who played the same character in other iterations &ndash; notably Han So Hee as the seductive Da Kyung in the Korean adaptation and the feisty Jodie Comer in the original BBC series &ndash; Sue has made Lexi her own by adding a touch of innocence, playfulness, and ambiguity to the role &ndash; making sure she&rsquo;s more than just the villainous mistress. The result is a nuanced character that viewers have grown to both love and hate. &nbsp;&nbsp; Although in real life, Sue deviates from her character&rsquo;s shortcomings. Because for Sue, family is everything. Throughout the course of our conversation, she&rsquo;s mentioned her mother and her siblings more than thrice. Being the youngest of five, she knows fairly well that she&rsquo;s the baby of the household. But unlike those who would gloat over the undivided attention of their family, the actress saw it more as a responsibility, especially when her father suffered from a stroke when she was six.

top and skirt, Jessan Macatangay

&ldquo;The struggle of my mom having five kids &ndash; bata pa lang ako, nakita ko yun. My brother had to stop studying to act as her dad&rsquo;s caregiver then us sisters were trying to help with his therapy.&rdquo; Her mom being steadfast, strong, and practical didn&rsquo;t want to sugarcoat their father&rsquo;s situation no matter how young her children were. So when the chance arose for her to earn money for her family, she jumped at the opportunity. &nbsp; In a span of 11 years, Sue watched her father&rsquo;s road to recovery including its highs and lows. &ldquo;Kaya open kaming magkakapatid sa idea of death. Bata pa lang ako, palagi na akong may kaba sa dibdib ko na baka sa susunod na araw, hindi ko na makikita &lsquo;yong daddy ko. Kaya pinapahalagahan ko talaga &lsquo;yong mga tao sa paligid ko. Kahit na sabihin mo na I had 11 years to prepare for my dad&rsquo;s passing, hindi mo maalis &lsquo;yong sakit &lsquo;pag nawalan ka ng magulang.&rdquo; &nbsp; That&rsquo;s why Sue prefers to live life with no regrets. Because as clich&eacute; as it sounds, the actress knows how fleeting life can be. In spite of her father&rsquo;s passing, it was her mother&rsquo;s strength that kept the family together. &nbsp;&nbsp; But Sue never took growing up so quickly as a burden. In fact, she embraced her hard-earned maturity. In a way, her grit prepped her to keep her head up as she navigates the world of social media &ndash; a place where uncensored opinions can run amok. &nbsp;&nbsp; Having been a target of cyber-bullying for years and being a victim of a malicious photo scandal with her friend Maris Racal that led to a witch-hunt online, Sue knows why it&rsquo;s better to speak up rather than stay silent on issues that go far beyond her personal pains. &ldquo;I try to spread positivity. My motivation to speak up is not because I&rsquo;m offended but because I&rsquo;m confused. I don&rsquo;t understand why people would be saying these things.&rdquo;

Sometimes I feel like social media has gone really out of control. People can be very insensitive and very sensitive at the same.&rdquo;

top, Jessan Macatangay

She adds, &ldquo;Lahat naman tayo may pinagdaanan pero hindi natin kailangan maging masamang tao. We all have a choice to do and say the right thing. Hindi natin kailangan na iparamdam sa ibang tao to the point na hindi sila comfortable sa sarili nila. It&rsquo;s more of that than taking offense. Sometimes I feel like social media has gone really out of control. People can be very insensitive and very sensitive at the same.&rdquo; &nbsp; But in an industry where comparison reigns online and offline and where audiences always have something to say, how does one thrive? For Sue, it all boils down to being self-aware and surrounding yourself with people who tell it as it is. She cites how people would point out her cellulite and scars, knowing full well that she&rsquo;s aware of them. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need to prove anything. Alam ko &lsquo;yong worth ko. I&rsquo;m not asking for validation outside because I&rsquo;m already validated at home. My support system is to thank. Hindi ako pinalaki na perfect ako. Pinalaki kaming magkakapatid na alam namin na we&rsquo;re imperfect but that&rsquo;s all right! That imperfection isn&rsquo;t wrong. It&rsquo;s accepted.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp; On set, she moves languidly, not at all self-conscious of her body&rsquo;s natural folds and curves as she poses in the sculptural pieces by Filipino designer Jessan Macatangay (his collection was flown in from London just for this shoot.) &nbsp;

&nbsp;You&rsquo;ll see here how women react to love. It shows our complexity as women. That we all don&rsquo;t react the same way. You can&rsquo;t stereotype us anymore. We have different priorities.

&ldquo;How do you do it?&rdquo; I ask on impulse, an hour into our conversation. &ldquo;How do you not get tired despite doing this for 13 years?&rdquo; They say repetition can be maddening and sticking to one job is rare for a millennial and more so for a full-fledged Gen Z. &nbsp; &ldquo;I want to help the younger generation of artists. I want to pay it forward, too. Because the older and more experienced people on set were the ones who helped and guided me,&rdquo; she shares. Then with a smile and a chuckle, she leans in, &ldquo;Feeling ko palaging bago. &lsquo;Pag young ka mag isip, lalabas naman &lsquo;yon eh. Madami pa akong magagawa. It&rsquo;s how you take it. And it&rsquo;s because I really enjoy what I&rsquo;m doing.&rdquo; After all, for Sue, life is a matter of perspective and resilience &ndash; numbers have nothing to do with it.

jumpsuit, Élan Wear

PRODUCERS&nbsp;Yanna Lopez and Loris Pe&ntilde;a CREATIVE DIRECTION&nbsp;Loris Pe&ntilde;a MAKEUP Julius Cabanisas HAIR Julia Fresh VIDEO DIRECTOR Aijalonica Lei

Sue Ramirez: Take a Hit, Pay It Forward

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