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A large black SUV pulls into the driveway, quickly calling our attention. “Ang macho,” one of the crew members says, before what might be the longest pair of legs we’ve ever seen comes out of the driver’s side.
Bronze-skinned and raven-haired, Klea Pineda confidently enters the shoot location wearing high-waist shorts and Alexander McQueen sneakers. She walks to the couch by the window and crosses her legs.
It’s almost impossible to look away from her.
The 20-year-old actress has that energy that always makes her ready for the spotlight, be it television, the runway, or even a beauty pageant.
She apologizes for being tardy, a result of having stayed up all through the morning, taping for the afternoon drama, “Magkaagaw.”
“Twenty-seven hours na po akong gising,” she explains, as we wonder how she is able to remain fresh.
Camera at the ready, lensman Dix Perez asks if she'd like would like to warm up while we wait for her stylist. In one swift move, Klea drops her keys on the coffee table, reaches for a TimTam, and proceeds to strike sweet but sultry poses in the garden.
Her glam team had already turned her into this cover-ready summer nymph, with perfect beach waves, piercing eyes and blush-colored lips. But her stylist hasn’t arrived yet.
We ask Klea what she thinks about when she pieces an outfit together.
Her style is, in a word, chill.
“I’ve never been super girly,” she says. “I don’t like wearing outfits that aren’t comfortable, and it also depends on my mood.”
Like her current style icon Kendall Jenner, Klea almost always steps out in sneakers, crop tops, and the occasional baggy pair of pants. But like the young Kardashian, the Kapuso darling regards her mile-long legs as an asset and she shows them off whenever she wants.
It isn't long before her stylist arrives with a trunk of clothes for her to change into. He says his long-legged client definitely “has the height and the attitude” to pull off casual and effortless looks.
It’s just that that they had to “play it up” these days, especially now that Klea is becoming one of the most promising stars on television.
After winning Starstruck in 2016, Klea played some memorable roles in several hit TV shows including “Encantadia” and “Ika-5 Utos.”
She dreams of becoming a Victoria’s Secret Angel or Miss Universe someday, but Klea is totally fine with putting all these dreams on hold.
She is, after all, the star of GMA-7’s highly-anticipated drama series “Magkaagaw.”
“I want to focus on acting first because it’s what’s happening right now. This is the big break I’ve been waiting for. As long as the moment is here, I want to grab it while it’s hot," she says.
“Since I’m only 20 years old, I have a lot of time.”
If there’s one thing you need to know about Klea Pineda, it’s that she’s freaking cool.
Her birthdate, March 18, 1999, is tattooed along her hip bone, and she gladly shares with us the totally random story about her name.
“When she was pregnant, my mom and my dad were at their favorite restaurant and they just saw a sign that said ‘Klea’s Car Repair Shop.’”
She eventually got a good laugh out of this, because now she’s a certified motorhead, too. Yep, Klea is actually a race car driver.
Those pics of Klea in a helmet and leather suit on IG weren’t just for show. She actually finished second-runner up in an autocross race this year, against men who really knew how to drive.
The skill and the love she has for driving all come from her dad, who taught her how to drive stick.
She has been a Formula 1 fan, geeking out about the races with her father since she was little.
“It’s our special kind of bonding time,” she says.
Learning this, we can’t help but blurt out that Lewis Hamilton just placed again in the Japan Grand Prix.
In turn, she tell me that she and her dad were also stoked that their all-time favorite driver Michael Schumacher was finally awake from his coma.
“I’m the happiest when I drive,” Klea explains. “When I drive my friends or take my family on trips; that makes me so happy inside.”
This doesn’t come as a surprise — she just volunteered to drive herself all the way from Bulacan after an exhausting night on set.
Klea wasn’t always cool.
She swears that she never expected to end up in the spotlight. As a student, she didn’t have much self-esteem and was often placed in the back for being the tall girl. She also wrinkles her nose at the memory of being bullied.
“My confidence was so low,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Ugh, I’ll never get that.’”
She did theater for a while, but admits she was more of a swim team and dance troupe kind of girl. And with science being her favorite subject and a peculiar fascination with the human brain, Klea thought she was going to be a psychologist.
But a teacher saw something in her and convinced her to join pageants. Klea ended up repping her school in many beauty-cons.
Then she made quite the entrance into show business, booking "Encantadia" as her first project and all.
Klea reveals that she never would have actually gotten into Starstruck without the effort of her two aunts. In fact, her entry into show business was a family affair.
“I started from zero. I had no portfolio, no experience in commercials, nothing,” Klea remembers, sharing it was her two aunts who not just encouraged her but worked with her to build her a portfolio.
“We woke up at 2 a.m. to organize a photo shoot at 3 a.m. just so I could send some shots in for Starstruck.”
When she won the talent search, Klea had another family member in mind: her grandfather “Papang” who had passed away the year before she joined.
“My Papang is the reason I keep on fighting,” Klea shares. “He’s why I want to be successful in the industry. Back in Starstruck, he was really my motivation in all those tests.”
She also shares a piece of advice he gave her after getting rejected for a project.
“(Papang) told me, ‘Don’t be sad. If it’s for you, it’s for you’. That really stayed with me. Even now, I still tell it to myself whenever I have an audition.”
On “Magkaagaw,” Klea plays Clarisse. “A girl who gives importance to her priorities, her family and her dreams. She encounters a lot of problems before achieving her dream. I was like, ‘That’s me!’” Klea says.
“She also has a lot to prove to a lot of people, and a lot to prove to herself.”
Having a daily soap renders Klea so busy that even if she tries her best to find time to go home and spend time with her family, she often ends up missing them because of her busy schedule.
She admits to feeling guilty “whenever I’m not there with them” but luckily, Klea is in good company.
In the show, Klea is married to her rumored sweetheart, Jeric Gonzales.
Having worked previously on “Magpakailanman” and “Ika-5 Utos,” the two GMA actors have grown closer.
“Before, wala lang na parang nagwo-work lang talaga. Pero ngayon, nakikita ko na interested siya sa ‘kin, and parang ako, I find him interesting din.”
As far as her first impressions go, Klea reveals that Jeric is exactly what she pegged him to be: A gentleman.
“Si Jeric kasi, ‘pag tinignan mo, sobrang good boy, parang boy-next-door yung itsura niya, ‘di ba? And totoo.
“Sobrang respectful din niya sa scenes namin. Kapag may scenes kami na may kissing, or hugging, before [we do it], ia-ask niya muna ako kung ok lang sa ‘kin, kung kumportable ba kong gawin to ngayon.”
We try to find out the real score between her and Jeric, but Klea easily shoots them down with a well-thought-of answer and a smile.
It makes us think: Klea can totally be a beauty queen.
During the interview, Klea learns she was pushing 600,000 followers on Instagram. She was visibly shocked, yes but also, it's interesting what she has to say about the platform. Klea has quite a lot to say about Instagram.
She wants her followers to know that what they’re seeing on her feed is her never-ending love story with photography, her body, her job and her family.
Unlike a lot of people who use Instagram as a highlight reel, Klea uses her feed to let people know who she really is.
On some days, she’s channeling her inner-Lovi Poe on a beach somewhere. Other times, she’s in full-costume getting ready for a take. One day, she’s standing on a podium after winning a race. But on many days, she just goes for a drive to get coffee.
This epiphany of not needing any online validation came to Klea while she was on vacation.
“I realized that many people go on vacation just to take good photos, or post something about their trip. But vacations are actually better without phones,” she says.
"Cherish the moment. That day, that time with your family, with your loved ones,” she adds.
“Everyone is so invested in likes, followers [but] life isn't there.”
We ask Klea to describe herself.
She searched long and hard for the right word, and says: "A dreamer."
“(Klea) has so many dreams she wants to reach and, even if they’re so difficult to achieve, she tries still her best because she will never be satisfied with just being ‘OK.’”
If you scroll down far enough through Klea’s laid-back OOTDs, sizzling bikini shots on the beach, and cute photos with Jeric on Instagram, you'd see a pic of her on a Miss Universe plane with a caption saying "Nothing's impossible."
You’ll also find a photo of Klea with Miss Universe 2016 Pia Wurtzbach, to whom she looks up very much.
“She showed everyone that you can achieve your dream no matter how many times you’re rejected, no matter how many times you lose, or no matter how many people get down on you or tell you that ‘this isn’t for you’,” Klea says.
“She proved that getting rejected twice or thrice does not define you. It only motivates you to do better and be better until you reach that dream.”
Klea begins looking at her watch, anxious. She’s already worried about traffic on the way home. It’s Friday after all, and she wants to catch some zzz’s. She has a few more work things to iron out. She wants to help her parents get that dream house someday. She also wants to visit Amsterdam, but she isn't even sure if she'll make it to her dad's birthday celebration. Her calendar is full.
Klea knows she has a long way to go until Miss Universe, but it looks our girl has the drive (and the legs) and the cool to take her wherever she wants.
