Jasmine Curtis-Smith tapped into the “worst” version of herself to effectively flesh out her latest movie role.
In Netflix’s Alter Me, she plays a lady boss who’s embittered by her failures in the love department. She ventures into the “alter universe” as she seeks the mentorship of a highly-coveted “escort” hoping to better connect with other people and her own emotions in the “real world.”
When asked where she drew inspiration to essay an initially jaded and bitter character, Jasmine said during a recent virtual roundtable: “The Jasmine mindset (laughs). No, but really though, I feel like I had to tap into the worst version of myself, because I know I’ve been there.”
She readily admitted to being not-so-nice to people in the past but has since reformed her ways. “I know I’ve been that horrible to people at some point in my life. And I acknowledged it and I made peace with it and I think that (experience) allowed me to use it in this project,” she said.
“I think sometimes our personal experiences can only make our characters better and grow on screen for the audience. So, I’m just thankful I had that and I was able to make peace with it and I’m no longer like that, yey!” she added.
Meanwhile, director RC de los Reyes explained that Alter Me mirrors how relationships are formed and carried out in the digital world. “It’s the story of everyone — if not everyone, the majority. Many have an alter account. I think the main inspiration of the story is how we make connections to other people in our world and, most importantly, to ourselves. We made the ‘alter world’ the setting of these two characters who wish to find connections in their lives. We want to emphasize that the real connection is in the real world — not in the alter world — because that is what is important.”
Nevertheless, Jasmine can understand people who choose to have “alter” social media accounts because she also maintains one.
“I have and what I follow there are mostly my cousins abroad, yung mga tao na hindi ka-work, and then also mga quotes for, like, attracting positivity or how to do well in business, how to think and how to attract good business, yung mga ganun, because I want to learn those things so my alter account is more of that,” she said.
She continued, “It’s for family and then cousins, not mom or dad, actually nandun si Ate (Anne Curtis). Yes, yung hindi ka i-ju-judge or if i-ju-judge ka, kaya mong sagutin ng hoy ‘wag ka.”
For her, an alter account can also be one’s “safe space”.
“You know, I’m just being real, this is me and then walang ‘friendship over’ there. So, that’s how it is with my alter account. It’s a safe space, so to speak. Everyone’s alter accounts I think are them trying to create their own safe space.”
The Kapuso star can also relate to her character learning from mistakes the hard way, and making sure these won’t happen again.
“No regrets, you know, like, they had to go through those things to learn certain things. Parang tayo lang din, like kami sa acting namin ganun lang din. If there are things that I might not be happy with in a performance, I always think, hey, you know what, I know what I did wrong there, but when I have a scene like that in a following (project), I’ll make sure (lessons) from the scene, ma-apply ko.
“Because I’m critical with myself, (I’ll be thinking) how can I make sure it doesn’t happen again? How can I improve that? Ganun nalang para di ako ma-stuck, like shucks, I didn’t do it to my best. But it’s just some of those things that just have no regrets, just deal with it.”
Alter Me, co-produced by Viva Films and Ten17P, is still streaming on Netflix.