MANILA, Philippines - As you read this, Solenn Heussaff is in Hong Kong, probably in her hotel room, nursing a hangover. Everyone’s favorite slasher (actress/host/singer/painter) hasn’t celebrated Halloween in over four years, and she’s dead-set on changing that dismal record. Her spoiled boyfriend (look at Solenn’s Instagram to see what we mean), businessman Nico Bolzico, is with her on this trip, the Rambo to her flower-child at last night’s festivities. But even if Solenn is I’m-a-Slave-for-you levels in love with Nico, she has no qualms about executing him for the sake of art. She has no problem doing the same to her brother, either. In fact, the only people that have been spared from her killing spree (so far) are her mother and sister.
Solenn the Slayer
It’s all hypothetical, of course. The 29-year-old admits she’s “lucky,” which means girl has no sob story and therefore does not have a grab bag of sad experiences she can draw from when a scene calls for non-stop flowing, big, fat tears. You know, the kind her co-star Judy Ann Santos can summon before you can even think “Action!” Solenn has been advised by some people to think of a bad breakup, but as she points out, “I’m over my breakup, so I can’t cry about it anymore.” For the movie T’yanak (graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board and showing in cinemas nationwide), she had seven crying scenes to survive and the girl who “has it good” had to get creative: “I had to kill my family.” First to go was her brother Erwan, who she buried for the first cry-fest in the movie. Too bad you won’t really see the by-product tears because the two directors, Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes, ended up cutting the scene. (Such a senseless death! Sorry, Erwan!) It’s no big deal to Solenn because she agrees with direk Peque: “It’s more powerful in some scenes not to cry.” There’s a little problem, too. Once Solenn ends a loved one’s life, she can’t ever kill them again. With Erwan hypothetically gone forever, her boyfriend Nico was next on her list. As you watch her break down on screen, with the veins on her forehead popping out from an avalanche of grief, you start to understand two things. A. Solenn, honey, when it comes to Nico, you’re an absolute goner. B. Legendary director Peque Gallaga handpicked her for his recent movies Seduction and T’yanak because, imperfect Tagalog be damned, this girl slays.
Solenn’s Baby
If you follow her on Instagram, you’ll see that Solenn has been carrying the dreadful T’yanak around. There are actually five of them for different shoot purposes, but the one she’s holding for the Supreme shoot is her favorite. In person, the T’yanak looks worse for wear, its little feet held together by scotch tape, its legs about to be totally disconnected from its butt. It smells like chocolate, oddly. “He’s a bit broken because he’s been in fight scenes,” Solenn explains. On her IG, there’s a photo of the demon baby spying on Isabelle Daza as she works out, another where it’s being a creep, watching Georgina Wilson, Martine Cajucom, and Jess Wilson try to get some sleep. It’s all for the sake of promoting the movie, obviously, but some of Solenn’s followers take it a little too seriously. There was one enraged woman who told Solenn, “You’re an immoral woman. You’re so immoral for bringing it everywhere and making fun of the baby. Be careful, your baby might be abnormal, something like that.” The normally dedma Solenn was “really pissed,” shocked that someone would go as far as involving her yet-to-be-born children. “It’s a freaking movie I’m promoting. Seriously, people. Chill.”
Little Solenn, Coming Soon?
Demon babies notwithstanding, Solenn eventually wants to have her own kids, and TBH, eventually isn’t such a long way off: She wants to start a family at 31. (She’s turning 30 next July.) Solenn dreams of having little trilingual boys and girls with names starting with the letter S. With some prodding, we got her to reveal her chosen name for a future daughter: “I’d name her Savannah. Or Thylane, which means wild orchid in Vietnamese.” But wouldn’t she miss the freedom of being single? Turning serious, Solenn says, “I don’t think there’s 100 percent satisfaction in life until you’ve raised a child. I’m just not excited about the weight gain.”
Our little conversation comes to an end. Solenn has a movie date with Nico and the photo shoot needs to start, like five minutes ago. I look at her and wonder what will happen when she runs out of loved ones to kill. But something tells me she won’t be needing that kind of morbid motivation soon. With T’yanak, she has given birth to a different kind of monster: Solenn Heussaff, actress.
Photo by BJ PASCUAL
Produced by DAVID MILAN
Makeup by OWEN SARMIENTO
of MAC Cosmetics
Hair by DARWIN SABLAYAN