Bela Padilla Is The Women Of Influence 2026 Creative Catalyst

Bela Padilla doesn’t do "shoulds."

Who she should be, how far she should go, or where she should be at 34—after nearly two decades in the industry, she’s realized those are just industry-mandated limits she has no interest in meeting. Instead, the actress-turned-auteur is operating on a frequency that is entirely, unapologetically her own. For Bela, if she can imagine a future, she’s already manifesting the call sheet to make it happen.

"Your timeline completely depends on you," she tells Cosmopolitan Philippines. "Whatever you see in the future—if you can imagine it, if you can see it—you can make it happen."

Having worn every hat from actress and writer to director and host, Bela has built a career that thrives both in front of and behind the lens. This year, she's diving back into the fast-paced rhythm of it all, starring in My Special Memory with Carlo Aquino and filming the upcoming teleserye Blood Vs. Duty with Richard Gutierrez and Gerald Anderson.

It's shaping up to be a packed 2026 for Bela. But if there's one thing about her, it's that she never loses sight of what matters. Long known for speaking up on social issues, she's not afraid to use her voice, proving that "showing up" means more than just hitting her marks.

"If you're not the megaphone, then be one of the muscles of the group. Be one of the people," she shares. Sometimes, it's her physically rescuing fireflies in Bohol; other times, it's speaking up for coral reefs and the country's marine life.

Whether out in the world or on screen, it's the lives she touches that define her work.

"If you can always save a life, with the films we do, even if it's just one life, or not physically saving them or theoretically saving them," she says, "if you affect somebody that much, then I feel like I have done my job right."

Bela: Traveling a lot opened my mind to what can and should be done. In the Philippines, we're so used to being told that we only deserve the bare minimum—and even asking for the bare minimum feels like we're asking for a favor when we shouldn't feel that way.

I don't speak up because I want to speak up about everything. The world is already so noisy. There are so many opinions online. You'll hardly see me post on my feed, on Instagram, or on Twitter. But if something's happening, like what happened a few days ago—I'm sure you read that one.* You have to speak up.

I choose what I speak up on—only when I know about it or can learn about it. I don't randomly talk; I want to study what I speak about because we have to be responsible. You're on a platform with more eyeballs than most. When we speak up, it has to be factual—or, if it's an opinion, it should guide people toward what's right, not instigate fear, chaos, or violence.

I would also like for most artists to remember that in most countries, sometimes the entertainment industry is used as a tool to inform the masses, to educate people. Sana, we make it a personal choice to educate people in the best ways we can.

*Editor’s note: Referring to Rep. Bong Suntay's lewd remark about Anne Curtis at a recent Congress hearing.

Bela: If we were in an old setting, where there's a king and a queen and the people who follow the knights, we [actors] would be the jester. We're the clowns. We're the people who make people happy, but that was ages ago.

To become an actor nowadays, especially in the Philippines, you have to acquire a certain level of intelligence because, first of all, it's such a cutthroat industry. You have so much competition.

I feel like they don't see that most people in our industry, even if they didn't study, are equipped with a certain level of intelligence to go through what we're going through.

I'm not saying we're smarter than other people, but we're not dumb. If you want us to stick to entertainment, I would love that. But when there are calamities, when there are problems, sorry, but people DM us. People ask us for help. People ask us for money. People ask us for aid. People ask us to speak up. So I don't think it's our fault.

Bela: We have to choose when we speak up because your voice will lose its impact if you speak up on everything, because your voice will just turn into noise. There are things we can talk about, and there are things we let other people take over. You don't have to fight for every cause. It's not your job.

The whole premise or the whole idea of cancel culture is so unnerving to me because we don't have critical thinking nowadays. Before, you're allowed to speak up, and people are meant to debate or pass an ideology back and forth for you to find the right answer.

Now, it's just this. We all have to follow this side. It can be very dangerous. And it gets proven time and time again that it doesn't always mean that the herd shows the right path. It's very important for me that there is always a discussion.

Bela: If I have certain causes I don't talk about, I just go there. I just show up. You'll just see me fly to a certain place without me posting about it or without asking the team to post about it. I'm physically helping out.

If you don't want to talk about things, if you're not the megaphone, then be one of the muscles of the group. Be one of the people. You don't always have to be the megaphone. You can be the people behind that person who's ready to speak up. So if you're not ready to be front and center, then be in the middle. Be in the back. Just always support.

Bela: When I see injustices that are happening in the government, then I'm happy to speak up because I pay my taxes diligently. We should be able to ask where our taxes go. But in a way that doesn't instigate fear, doesn't instigate chaos or violence. I like to be very calm when I speak, and I think first.

Recently, I've been more and more inclined to help animals. I've always helped causes to help animals but it's been more persistent. During the pandemic, I kept watching the documentaries of David Attenborough. I saw how much the pandemic changed the animals' lives and how they thrived when we weren't outside. I started feeling really guilty.

I'm very, very obsessed with the fireflies of Bohol. Actually, I have been for the last three years. I almost got into a fight on Valentine's Day. I was in Bohol on a paddleboard. A group of French tourists was a little bit drunk. They were taking pictures with flash, and they were smoking, and they were very loud—[those are] the three things that will kill a firefly.

So I paddleboarded back, and I asked them to keep it down a little bit. And one of them just went, "Go for a swim or something." Very rude. They said, "Who are you to tell us what to do?" They thought I was a white girl telling other white people what to do. So I said, "I'm Filipino, and I grew up here in the Philippines. We are supposed to protect our wildlife, and you're just visiting."

I find that our LGUs could do a better job in these places. The first time I did these firefly tours about three or four years ago, six big trees in Bohol were filled with fireflies; this Valentine's Day, there was only one tree left. It's depressing—the fireflies are supposed to be our friends. They deserve as much of our land as we do. They've been here way before we existed.

This eats me up every day. When I'm not working, this is what I think of. And it's not just fireflies: the whale sharks of Bohol. I was shooting something in a paddling track for Waves for Water. It's a really good non-government organization (NGO). If you want to look up NGOs to support, they give out free water filters to make water potable for communities so the children don't get sick, so they can go to school.

I went to Bohol a few months ago for Waves for Water, and we were filming something in a paddling track. I was freediving. And the next day, we heard the whole thing closed down.

So I went online to check what happened. A few tourists decided to write their names on the corals. Who does that? And then we asked, were the tourists held accountable? And we were told that they left the island. They weren't fined. They didn't do anything to rehabilitate these corals. Corals take so many years to regenerate. Corals are such a big part of the ecosystem of the ocean. And it's not a secret that the oceans are getting warmer and warmer every year. We get so much of our life in the water.

We're taking it for granted. We should really be the stewards of this. We should be helping out. You speak up, and you sound like a tree hugger.

Bela: I would like to say I'm very conscious. My films look a certain way. I recently got a comment from someone on text telling me, "Parang your roles have been repetitive na. You're always the sad girl, or you're always the girl who can't commit." And it's true. I have noticed that, and I have asked if I could do something else for a change.

But, again, it's always a cycle. Put out sad-girl movies, relationship movies with two characters—it makes a lot of money. So producers will keep putting their money on that. I don't think people realize how expensive it is to produce a film.

As much as I would like to be mindful, and I want to say I take full credit for the roles being given to me, I can't because I'm under contract. So the roles are assigned to me. To a certain degree, I can say no a couple of times in a year. But there's a limit to that.

Now, the reason siguro that people see that the work is good or it feels grounded is what I put na lang when I'm on set. I'll study as much as I can, and do what I can for the role. I have a few movies that I wish I hadn't done, that I wish I could remove from my IMDb.

Bela: I didn't enjoy filming Wish You Were the One (2023). That was quite recent, but it's one of my best-rated films. In terms of critical acclaim, I feel like the people who reviewed it really loved it. But I didn't enjoy filming it on set.

It felt so cliché. I'm just lucky I was with JC on set, so I really had fun. Sir Romnick Sarmenta is such a wonderful actor to watch perform. I was lucky with the people I was with. Personally, I wish I weren't there. There's this disconnect.

Bela: Last Night (2017) was the first full-length feature film script I wrote for Star Cinema. My first draft was what they used on set. When the movie came out, it was how I imagined it. I'm very thankful that they didn't revise anything on set. Back then, the central theme of the film was still taboo to talk about.

When the pandemic hit, people started watching it because they started having mental health problems. Then, it got recommended over and over. I was getting inquiries for talks in schools, in offices—over Zoom—because of the pandemic lockdown. I was asked to do talks about mental health, about writing Last Night.

After the pandemic, Star Cinema decided to publish all its films on YouTube. One of the movies they published was Last Night. I saw a comment online from a person who watched it, and the person decided, it's a sign from God, saying, "This movie made me realize there's so much more to life than my problem right now, and I should keep on living."

When I read that comment, I cried. If you can always save a life, with the films we do, even if it's just one life, or not physically saving them or theoretically saving them, if you affect somebody that much, with the films or the work you put out, then I feel like I have done my job right.

I hope that's the effect they get, or that's what they hear about from people who watch my films, that "her film affected me in a good way, made me feel something, made me feel good about myself." I want people to believe that there's always more to life than what we're going through right now. For me, that's the purpose of a film anyway. We bring you into the cinemas for two hours, you forget who you are, you forget your problems, you're like in our POV. If I get you to forget what you're actually going through, then I'm happy.

Bela: The fact that we are required to unlearn is again another expectation. So, I think, fuck all of it. Do what you wanna do. To each her own. Let every woman be allowed to do what she wants to do. If she wants to stay traditional, if she doesn't wanna work and just wait for her husband all day, let her do it.

If she wants to be a career woman and never get pregnant and never have kids, let her do that. I feel like we are so set on defining what we should and shouldn't do. Why do men just exist? Why can't women just exist? Women should be able to do that too.

Bela: Yesterday, in an interview for My Special Memory, I was asked, "How did you feel when they offered you the role?" I said I wasn’t offered it—I asked for it.

I flashed back six or seven years ago when I first asked and was told no. I was pigeonholed: "You're the girl who always finds her love but never gets it in the end, right?" Because it sold well, they kept me there. I couldn't show what I wanted or play what I wanted.

But I allowed myself to dream. Every time an actress dropped from the project, I'd say, "Maybe this time, if you consider me." I wasn’t the first or second choice—somewhere down the line—and they gave it to me because something went wrong.

I was sure I wouldn't watch this film in cinemas; it would break my heart if it wasn’t me. But seven years ago, I threw a coin in the hat, imagined myself in the role—and now my premiere is happening.

Anything you want in life, you can make happen. If you need to rest, rest—your body, mind, and soul are preparing for the next phase. Your timeline completely depends on you. Whatever you can imagine, whatever you can see, you can make it happen.

Bela: You can't be behind if you don't know how long the race is. No one knows when they're gonna die. You can die tomorrow. So if we die tomorrow, were we behind or were we advanced? Did we achieve everything we did, or did we achieve way more than what we thought we would? Did we achieve less? Also, if you die tomorrow, you'll never know.

Stop adding so much unnecessary pressure. The world is already pressuring us so much. There's no need for us to do it to ourselves. Allow yourself to think you are on the right track.

I read something recently that I love. I'm not good at it yet, but I'm trying. It says if you can overthink the bad things, then you can overthink the good things. So if that helps, please try it.

Bela: To be able to say To Each Her Own is to be considerate. It's to allow people to find their full potential. We all have our own path, we all have our own journey—we all have something to say. But actually, not everyone gets the liberty of forming their own opinions. Not everyone is in the right financial status to be able to choose wherever they wanna go. So, when you say to each her own, it is to be considerate.

Executive Editor: Ida Aldana

Art Director: Ica Del Mundo, assisted by Rebekah Vigilancia

Final Art: Bea Malonzo

Photographer: Stephen Capuchino

Makeup Artist: Florence Vergara
Hairstylist: Jury Soriano Panganiban
Stylist: Steph Aparici

Story: Kate Sarmiento

Producer: Alyana Olivar
Video: Cherrie Julian and Jino Del Mundo, assisted by Alfred Locsin & George Tuliao

Social Media: Aina Lizarondo, assisted by Margaux Bataclan