Lovi Poe Talks About Her Love For K-Dramas

“I was late to the party,” Lovi Poe says. “I was too late when I started [watching K-dramas]. It was just during the pandemic.” Like many Filipinos, the newest Kapamilya and Metro cover girl discovered the wonderful world of K-dramas when the pandemic hit and lockdowns were implemented, forcing everyone to stay at home.

At the time, during the first lockdown in Metro Manila, Crash Landing on You (CLOY) just ended; the Son Ye-jin - Hyun Bin starrer became buzzworthy soon after and achieved phenomenal success. This was the first-ever Korean series Lovi watched, and the one that led her to the so-called “K-drama black hole.” 

Lovi tells Metro.Style, “And then [I watched] Something in the Rain and then Flower of Evil and then it didn’t stop. Black hole!” 

She regrets that she didn’t discover K-dramas and the handsome oppas earlier, especially since there could’ve been ways for her to meet or see some of them somehow. The same brand she endorses, Bench, also happens to work with many of these Korean celebrities, like Park Seo-joon and Lee Min-ho who have already visited Manila through the brand. “I’ve been working with Bench and they’ve been bringing my favorite Korean stars here and I was never around kasi hindi ko naman alam. Bakit?! Sayang talaga,” Lovi says in jest. “The fact na si PSJ [Park Seo-joon], si Lee Min-ho... I was like, ‘Bakit naman ganito, Lord? Nasaan ako nu’n?’ Wala! Lost ako. I had no idea.”

Other K-dramas she watched include YoonA and Ji Chang-wook’s The K2, Song Hye-kyo and Park Bo-gum’s Encounter, Park Min-young and Park Seo-joon’s What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun’s My Love From the Star, and Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Min-ho’s Legend of the Blue Sea. At the time of the interview, she also just finished Squid Game, which is currently Netflix’s most-watched series.

Asked about her favorite Korean actress, Lovi was quick to say it’s none other than Jirisan star Jun Ji-hyun. She shares, “I’m a huge, huge fan of Jun Ji-hyun [from] Legend of the Blue Sea. She can be funny and not care about her looks kasi ’yun ’yung important bilang isang artista eh, ’yung kahit papangitin ka, okay lang, you know? But she’s like, she’s game to do anything, so isa s’ya sa mga paborito ko.” As for the Korean actors, Lovi cannot name one ultimate oppa, because she finds it impossible to choose among Ji Chang-wook, Hyun Bin, Park Seo-joon, and Jung Hae-in. 

As a K-drama fan, you can just imagine how thrilled Lovi was when she was told her first project with ABS-CBN is the remake of the Korean series Flower of Evil. “I remember Sir Deo [Endrinal] was like ‘We want you to play the girl in Flower of Evil. I remember just thinking, ‘This is one of my favorite shows.’ It wasn’t sinking in for a while and then it even got better. They were like, ‘And you’re gonna be playing it with Mr. Piolo Pascual’ and I was just like, yeah, I thought Flower of Evil was the best news about it but then all of a sudden, there was Piolo Pascual tandem. I was speechless for a while. And I remember talking to my manager, and I was like, ‘You have to watch this Korean drama because it’s one of my favorites.’ I keep saying it but it is a dream come true, the fact that they’re trusting me with such an amazing show, an amazing storyline.”

Flower of Evil originally starred Lee Joon-gi and Moon Chae-won. Lovi will breathe life into the character of a mom, wife, and detective whose husband is hiding a secret under a different identity. What does she love about the female character? She says, “Her love for her family. There’s this struggle between having this integrity, keeping her integrity because of her work and her love for her family. So, how she managed to balance that and, you know, be tough the whole time that she was carrying this, I don’t know, confusion一I think that’s what I love about the character and how selfless she was to guide her husband, too.”

When Lovi found out she was going to be paired with Piolo in the Philippine adaptation of the Korean series, she was instantly reminded of one particular scene: “The first thing na pumasok sa utak ko was, I’m already saying it, but Piolo was drowning. When he was drowning underwater and then nag-jump ako sa pool to give him air. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. And I just imagined me and Piolo doing that scene, and I was like, oh my god!”

The rising global star一who also made her debut in the international music scene this year and is working on the Hollywood movie The Chelsea Cowboy一hopes that through this Flower of Evil remake, more viewers locally and globally will get to appreciate what Filipino artists and creatives can do and offer.

Lovi Poe is Metro's latest cover girl. Read our exclusive cover story on her here.