Mikael Daez, Carla Abellana to return to ‘Love of My Life,’ cite physical contact among taping challenges

Mikael Daez and Carla Abellana will be returning as Isabella Gonzales and Nikolai Gonzales on the GMA teleserye “Love of My Life.”

In a press conference for the return of the show, the two revealed that despite being swabbed and locked in for the taping, the actors had struggles with the physical touch aspect of doing the scenes amid the pandemic.

“It was the first few taping days, hindi natin alam kung paano tayo gagalaw in terms of the physical touch,” Mikael told reporters. 

“Remember we were all, lahat tayo nag-a-adjust OK, ‘when are we taking off our masks?’, and then even in the scenes, I don’t know if you felt this, but I super felt it. I was like, siyempre you’re moving along the scene normally, ’di ba there’s no pandemic in the ‘Love of My Life’ teleserye,” he said.

“So even relating (to) Nikolai, (he) is a very physical person who would hug a lot, touch a lot. I was like, ‘where do I land on this?’” he added. 

Eventually, Mikael said Coney Reyes broke the ice.

“I think it was Tita Coney. We had this one scene, dapat parang magmumukhang magha-hug kami, tapos dadayain, and Tita Coney was like, ‘hay nako i-hug mo na ako,’” he shared. 

“‘Okay Tita Coney I will hug you na,’ so we had a moment,” he added.

Carla said she also had to ask permission from her co-actors and the directors whenever physical contact was required in a particular scene.

“That was the biggest aspect kung saan nangapa kami,” Mikael added.

Nevertheless, Mikael and Carla said they had fun during the lock-in taping and it made their jobs easier and quicker.

When it came to rapport and chemistry, Mikael and Carla said they didn’t have any issues with it.

In their respective vlogs, Mikael and Carla showed their lock-in taping experience.

“Love of My Life” will resume on GMA-7 with new episodes starting Dec. 28. – RC, GMA News