A lot has happened since Iza Calzado starred in three movies in 2019, namely the Cinemalaya entry Pandanggo sa Hukay, the Metro Manila Film Festival special jury prize winner Culion and the iflix attraction Mystified, which she co-produced with her Encantadia sisters Karylle, Sunshine Dizon and Diana Zubiri.
Calzado survived a serious bout with Covid-19 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and, after having fully recovered, continued with her successful acting career. Her teleserye Ang sa Iyo ay Akin, which had been stalled, was finally released in 2021 on ABS-CBN’s various platforms. She also took on the physically and emotionally challenging role of Leonor Custodio, the first Darna, in the Kapamilya network’s retelling of iconic superhero story.
Three days before Mars Ravelo’s Darna premiered, Calzado announced on 12 August 2022, in time for her 40th birthday, that she was pregnant for the first time. Then on 26 January 2023, she and her husband Ben Wintle, the Filipino-British techpreneur behind the Booky app, welcomed their panganay, a girl they’ve named Deia Amihan
— inspired by her well-loved character in the fantasy series Encantandia.
Full blast
Since becoming a mother, Calzado has limited her work to TV guestings, event hosting and product endorsements. But she’s finally going full blast again, starting with the horror trilogy Shake, Rattle & Roll Extreme. She leads the cast of the third episode titled Glitch in this latest iteration of Regal Films’ film franchise that is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
The award-winning actress explained why she accepted the movie offer. “Noong sinabi na sinulat ni (When they said it was written by) Noreen Capili and Anton Santamaria, and director mo si Richard Somes, the more it became appealing,” she said during the movie’s presscon.
“Considering all these things and then when they said, six days ka lang kailangan… E tinitimbang ko talaga noon kung ano ang kaya kong gawin na ngayon na nanay na ’ko. Hindi mahirap umoo sa six days. (When they said I was only needed for six days of shooting, I was really weighing things on what I can do now that I am a mother. It wasn’t difficult to say yes to six days of shooting.)
Is is worth it?
“The number one talaga that I think of is my child, so if it’s time away from her, is it worth it? Napaka-intentional ng choices ko. Kasi ang resources natin is limited. Time, for me, is a very precious resource. Of course, merong pera, time, energy. So lahat ’yan sa bawat gagawin ko, ang isang malaking yearning ko talaga ngayon na nanay na ako ay I have to be intentional with what I say yes to. (In everything I do now that I’m a mom, my decision has to be intentional with what I say yes to.”)
Calzado plays the role of Ingrid Salvador, a single mom to two children working as a fashion designer., who reaches a point in her challenging life where she starts losing faith in God and becoming cynical. But when malevolent creatures suddenly appear, she comes to her senses to fight for the safety of her children played by young actors Miggs Cuaderno and Jewel Milag. Also in the cast are Angel Guardian and Donna Cariaga.
Aside from Glitch, the other two episodes are Mukbang and Rage. The former is directed by Jerrold Tarog with stars Jane Oineza, RK Bagatsing and Paul Salas, while the latter has Joey de Guzman at the helm with a cast led by Jane de Leon, Rob Gomez, Mika Reins, Paolo Gumabao and Dustin Yu.