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Alexa Ilacad admits she once thought of quitting showbiz: ‘Baka ngayon ako talaga handang-handa’

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Push Team

Alexa Ilacad is having one of the busiest runs of her career, but the actress-singer admitted that there was a time when she seriously thought about walking away from it all.From her hosting duties on <a href="http://pbb.abs-cbn.com">Pinoy Big Brother</a> to her stint on <a href="http://yourface.abs-cbn.com">Your Face Sounds Familiar</a> and her latest project Miss Behave, Alexa has been enjoying one project after another – a stretch she waited a long time for.In an exclusive interview with PUSH ABS-CBN on the sidelines of the finale premiere of Miss Behave, Alexa looked back on the long road she took to get here.She compared her path to those of pop stars Sabrina Carpenter and Zara Larsson, both of whom were far from overnight successes.&quot;My journey sort of reminds me of Sabrina Carpenter or Zara Larsson&#x27;s journey. Parang there was an article released about Sabrina Carpenter, and the headline was something along the lines of &#x27;It took her 10 years to become [successful].&#x27; Mine, more pa,&quot; she said.&quot;I think I&#x27;ve been doing this for more than 16 years, if I&#x27;m not mistaken. It&#x27;s been a long time coming talaga. But I love what I&#x27;m doing so much, that&#x27;s why I held on. And now I feel like, finally, things are slowly coming together.&quot;Looking back, Alexa believes the wait had a purpose. She said the opportunities came at a time when she was finally strong enough to handle them.&quot;I feel like maybe ito kasi &#x27;yung panahon na baka handa na ako, or I&#x27;m ready to deal with everything thrown at me. Sabi nga, parang &#x27;God wouldn&#x27;t put a dream so big in your heart if you weren&#x27;t capable of making it happen,&#x27;&quot; she said.&quot;So maybe in my case, parang delayed gratification – maybe it just had to take some time. Baka if I experienced it any earlier, baka hindi ako handa. Maybe I wouldn&#x27;t be equipped to deal with it, unlike ngayon. Baka ngayon ako talaga handang-handa to receive all of the blessings na binibigay sa akin,&quot; she added.Alexa said she has made peace with where she is now, even if some people still see her as a starlet after all these years in the business.&quot;Kasi most people would argue na, &#x27;Ang tagal mo na, starlet ka pa rin. Ang tagal mo na, ganyan ka pa rin.&#x27; Pero ako kasi, parang kontento ako. I&#x27;m content with my career, never ako nawalan. Hindi man ako superstar, I&#x27;ve always had shows,&quot; she said.What matters to her, she said, is that she has stayed visible and has managed to keep reinventing herself over the years.&quot;Kahit paano, hindi naman ako nawawala sa radar ng mga tao. I&#x27;m still able to reinvent myself or make myself relevant time and time again. So &#x27;ayun, I&#x27;m just very happy na I feel like now it&#x27;s slowly becoming my time,&quot; she shared.Still, Alexa was honest about the harder years. She admitted there were moments when she doubted her path and came close to giving up.Having started as a child star, she said the wait was especially difficult to watch when others seemed to get their break so much faster.&quot;Well, I&#x27;d be lying if I said na hindi ako nainip. I&#x27;d be lying if I said na never ko naisip na mag-quit – or na baka hindi ito para sa akin. I would think about that all the time. Kasi nga, ang tagal. Ang tagal talaga,&quot; she said.&quot;Samantalang some people get it so quickly. Some people, unang taon pa lang, nakukuha na nila lahat ng mga pinapangarap ko. So minsan napapaisip ako na, &#x27;Ah, baka hindi ito &#x27;yung para sa akin. Maybe this is God&#x27;s sign na I should start doing something else with my life,&#x27;&quot; she said.Every time those thoughts crept in, she said, she would go back to the reason she started in the first place.&quot;But then I always come back to why. Why did I start this in the first place? Una sa lahat, passion ko eh. And I know in my heart na this is something you can&#x27;t take away from me. Kahit tanggalin ko pa &#x27;yung sarili ko dito sa pag-arte, sa pagkanta, babalik at babalik ako because this is what I love to do,&quot; she said.Alexa also recalled the questions she kept asking herself during those low moments — why her career, steady as it was, never seemed to take off the way she hoped.&quot;So parang nagkaroon din ng time na naiinip ako. Sabi ko, &#x27;Ako ba may mali? May problema ba sa akin? What do I lack? Bakit although steady, hindi umaangat? &#x27;Yung hindi umaalagwa?&#x27;&quot; she said.Eventually, she said, she learned to make peace with the pace of her career.&quot;Tapos parang may time na sabi ko sa sarili ko, &#x27;You know what, maybe I wasn&#x27;t meant for great things. Maybe I was just meant for good things. And that&#x27;s not bad. Good is good.&#x27; And looking back, I&#x27;ve been happy. Happy naman ako,&quot; she said.She also counts herself lucky for never running out of work, and for skipping the difficult in-between years that many former child stars go through.&quot;Hindi nga ako nawawalan ng project eh. Hindi ako dumaan sa awkward stage na usually when you transition from being a child star to a teen star to a woman,&quot; she said.&quot;Talagang magdadaan at dadaan ka sa awkward stage na &#x27;yun. I never went through that. So I still consider myself so lucky and so blessed talaga,&quot; she added.For Alexa, being able to keep doing what she loves – steadily, and on her own terms – is enough.&quot;And &#x27;ayun nga, sabi ko, steady isn&#x27;t bad. Steady paycheck isn&#x27;t bad. Doing what I love. And &#x27;yun nga, na I&#x27;ve come to terms talaga with the fact na ito talaga &#x27;yung gusto ko, ito talaga &#x27;yung mahal kong gawin eh,&quot; she said.&quot;Kung hindi niya ako mahal, ay pipilitin natin. Mahal ko &#x27;to. Ito &#x27;yung gusto kong gawin. Kaya sabi ko, I&#x27;m doing it for the passion and for the love talaga,&quot; she added.

Alexa Ilacad had patiently waited for her moment, and now she is more ready than ever.

Alexa Ilacad had patiently waited for her moment, and now she is more ready than ever.

Alexa Ilacad admits she once thought of quitting showbiz: ‘Baka ngayon ako talaga handang-handa’

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Alexa Ilacad admits she once thought of quitting showbiz: ‘Baka ngayon ako talaga handang-handa’

Push Team,

Paolo Lim

Published August 09, 2026 12:24 PM PHT

Read More:

Alexa Ilacad

Miss Behave

Pinoy Big Brother

PBB

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