@re-joyce 29 December 2025

“I’m already 32, but I feel like I’m still not done growing up,” she says. “I discovered a lot about myself during my 20s— things I don’t think I would have been able to learn had I become a mother early.” While real-life motherhood is beyond her at this stage in her life, she’s willing to take on that role, even if only in front of the cameras. In “Call Me Mother”—a Metro Manila Film Festival entry she co-headlines with Vice Ganda—Lustre plays Mara, a former teenage beauty queen who lives a life of regret after giving up her son Angelo (Lucas Andalio) to work as a high-fashion model. The film challenges the definition of motherhood, portraying it as something not solely based on gender, but on presence; not on control, but on letting go. It also asks us to rethink what family and sacrifice actually mean. “My character, Mara, taught me that not being ready for motherhood doesn’t make you a bad person,” Lustre shares. “It’s a beautiful story about motherhood and its different faces and forms. I think it’s important to have this kind of material because it might spark a conversation.” But Lustre herself is no stranger to being called one. She’s “mother,” as her fans and colleagues would hail her, for her acting chops, progressive takes on femininity and relationships, her outspokenness on politics and social issues, and even her social media “estetik.”