We use cookies to ensure you get the best browsing experience. By continued use, you agree to our privacy policy and accept our use of such cookies. For further information, click FIND OUT MORE.
After dominating commercials and magazine covers and slaying it as a spear-wielding Sang’gre on Encantadia, the Kapuso It Girl is gearing up for her toughest role yet: bringing “girly” to a whole new level.
Words: MARGARET CLAIRE LAYUG
Photos: MAJOY SIASON-BASCOS
Design: JANNIELYN ANN BIGTAS
September 11, 2019
THE GREY WALLS OF THE SHOOTING RANGE REEK of gunpowder and testosterone on a Saturday afternoon. Deafening gunshots boomed left and right as an orchestra of mechanical hums — clicking triggers and sliding targets — filled the air.
The radiant energy of Gabbi Garcia was the perfect counter-balance to it all.
All eyes were on her as she hit target after target with a semi-automatic rifle.
The shots continued to boom as she coursed through a virtual battleground, dirt spraying all about her each time she skidded to a halt.
Her gaze is dead-set through the scope and after a split second, the bullet hits bullseye.
In a single fluid motion, Gabbi reloads her weapon with a fresh magazine.
But before she goes on to fire more rounds, Gabbi briefly looks back and flashes a smile. “Ang saya!”
Gabbi is in the middle of training for GMA Network’s latest action drama “Beautiful Justice.” After weeks of doing basic training indoors, Gabbi was finally deemed ready for an open-air course training.
“It’s my first time to actually shoot in a course, so ang sarap! It’s a different experience. Very different ‘yong vibe,” she says, clearly having fun.
Together with Bea Binene and Yasmine Kurdi, Gabbi topbills the new GMA primetime show. They play three strong-willed women who would go against all odds to fight for the ones they love.
Gabbi is Brie, a glamorous social media influencer with the I.T. proficiency to match, willing to do anything for people she cares about. She’s a character Gabbi is able to relate to easily.
“I’m also a very maarte person. I am very much aware of that,” Gabbi says, a rifle still in hand.
Fit, slender and punching 5-foot-7, the actress looks statuesque even in cargo pants, a sleek black cap and protective eyewear.
She says she still needs to improve her physique, but with fully-loaded magazines still dangling from a belt around her waist — along with a shiny calibre .45 pistol — we’d say Gabbi was perfect for her role.
“I love fashion. I love heels. I love my bags,” Gabbi continues, “pero I can also shoot a gun. I can also do MMA.”
She can also play a mean game of air soft and has been a licensed scuba diver since she was 15. There really is much more to her than meets the eye.
BEFORE SHE SLAYED EVIL CREATURES AS A WARRIOR-PRINCESS in 2016's Encantadia, Gabbi's outlet for her adventurous side were spent at home, where she would sometimes be referred to as “junior.”
Her dad Vince introduced Gabbi “to adventurous games when she was small… (now) she’s involved with paintball, air soft, she’s licensed scuba diver, she’s already tried parachuting, and also in martial arts.”
“So you can say na parang junior ko nga si Gabbi.”
Born December 2, 1998, Gabriella Louise Lopez spent her childhood in Pasay City as the youngest of two girls. Vince is a security manager, while her mother Tes has been working as a flight attendant.
Gabbi describes herself growing up as curious and very “makulit.” She turns to astrology to explain herself: “I'm a Sagittarius, so a super adventurous person. I just really wanna engage in something exciting. I guess that explains me scuba diving, that explains me playing airsoft, that explains me going skydiving also.”
Gabbi had always been an achiever even outside school — the singing, the dancing, the acting — but even Vince was in awe over how has started taking on bolder, more daring roles.
“I think what you see now is the real Gabbi,” he says, glancing at his daughter busting a bunch of water drums open with a .45 caliber handgun.
Perhaps he means the entirety of Gabbi’s personality: kikay and girly, but also adventurous, daring, tough, fearless. “That’s it,” he says. “That’s her.”
THE BREADTH OF GABBI'S PERSONALITY is on full display this month, with “Beautiful Justice” hitting the primetime airwaves and “LSS,” a romantic musical where she stars with boyfriend Khalil Ramos and hitmakers Ben&Ben, premiering in the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.
At the press conference of “Beautiful Justice,” Gabbi spoke about how women were always typecast into “roles na kabitan, sabunutan, you know, sampalan.”
It was about time to break the mold, she says.
It's nothing new for Gabbi, a proud morena who has broken through in an industry where mestizas are still the norm and where whitening creams and lotions are still hot commodity.
“It was just a bit frustrating for me. In order for you to be cast, dapat mestiza ka,” she says of her journey, talking about auditions in the past.
But with support from her family, Gabbi did not only learn to embrace herself, but she “gave up judging myself.” These days, she acknowledges that being just morena might be one of her super powers. In fact, it became her biggest asset — and one she happily and proudly talks about on social media, where she has more than four million followers on Instagram alone.
GABBI HAS BECOME A BIG BELIEVER OF SELF-LOVE, acceptance, and body-positivity. “I was so scared of changing. I felt like, kunwari, ‘pag nagbago ako, I [would] feel so out of my comfort zone,” Gabbi says. “But it’s nice to change for the better.”
She says it’s wonderful that more women feel empowered to speak about things. “If you look at social media, parang very active na ang women empowerment, very active na ang mga babae who fight for their rights. I guess people just need to listen more.”
According to Gabbi, in the quick five years she’s been in show business, “trusting myself more than listening to other people” is the biggest challenge — and the biggest lesson — she’s faced as an actress.
“It's OK to cry, but don’t stay there. Believe in yourself more. The opinions of others don’t really matter. Learn how to anchor on people who you trust and who will bring out the best in you.”
At 20, Gabbi says she feels “more independent.” She is building her own house, embarking on roles that require her to step outside her comfort zone, and still learning.
“I feel like I’m more adventurous now,” she says. “Maybe more out-of-the-box? So it’s nice to change for the better.”
Not that she’s veering away from the fun-loving glam girl that everybody has come to love. On her days off, Gabbi would treat herself to chick flicks or a session at the spa. Sometimes, she’d go shopping or finish up a video for her recently launched YouTube channel. Gabbi loves a fresh-smelling room and admits to living for soy-based candles.
It’s all her. “You actually express yourself through clothes, through fashion, through makeup. You can be adventurous and girly at the same time.”
And just then, Gabbi is called for another round of training. She excuses herself, gets up and prepares. She puts on her protective eye wear, readies her high-calibre firearm, and begins.
We watch her skid across the gravel in sneakers, in awe at how bad-ass she can be. She’s all woman.
SHARE THIS STORY