The Filipino-Australian actor, musician and entrepreneur talks about returning to the primetime spotlight after eight years, his new Aussiedoodle Koda and why he's no longer afraid of the unknown.

PHOTOGRAPHY Belg Belgica
CREATIVE DIRECTION Paolo Chua
STYLING John Lozano

On set and to the public, he is James Reid. After all, this is someone who carries himself with the assuredness of a man who has spent most of his life under the spotlight since he was 16 years old. Yet, behind closed doors, as the gaffer adjusts the intensity of some of the lighting, he is still James Reid, but this time, calm and simply relaxed. A gleeful, rhythmic tune bounces to his ears from the studio&rsquo;s walls, and suddenly, he&rsquo;s tapping his loafers to the beat with an effortless, casual suavity.
The Filipino-Australian actor, musician and entrepreneur has candidly refused an orthodox categorization &mdash; a direct reflection of his dynamic, evolving taste and self-belief. For years, &ldquo;James Reid&rdquo; felt like a massive media construct. But this time around, he is entirely in control. In an engaging conversation, Reid catches up with L&rsquo;Officiel Hommes Philippines on how he&rsquo;s been and what he&rsquo;s been up to lately.

How different does teleserye work feel now compared to eight years ago?
Many things, really. It&rsquo;s changed a lot since I was last doing this. There are new laws in place now, where taping days and working hours are strictly restricted. The overall energy on set is much less hectic than it used to be. It was crazy before; honestly, I don&rsquo;t know how people survived those schedules!
But more than the industry, I think I&rsquo;ve changed a lot. I didn&rsquo;t really know what I was doing back then. I was just along for the ride, going with the flow, running through every single door that opened and saying yes to everything. Now, there&rsquo;s a lot more intention and purpose. We started&nbsp;Someone, Someday in November 2025 and we&rsquo;re finishing by July 2026. We&rsquo;re shooting almost a hundred episodes, but there are definitely days that we get to rest, sometimes. During my latest taping day, though, I was in every single scene. And when you&rsquo;re in every scene, the production team says it&rsquo;s your birthday. So I get to the set and they say, &ldquo;Happy birthday!&rdquo;
What&rsquo;s it like working with Kathryn Bernardo and Maja Salvador, especially with this project marking such a significant return for all of you in different ways?
It really is a significant moment for all of us, including our directors, Chad Vidanes and Dolly Dulu. I think this is Direk Chad&rsquo;s first&nbsp;teleserye&nbsp;ever, and from what I know, he&rsquo;s mostly done films. And for me, coming back to Dreamscape feels comfortable, since my last teleserye was with them, too. But the shocking experience and biggest change for me has been working with Kathryn. She is incredibly down-to-earth and grounded. She&rsquo;s super kind to everyone on set and so hands-on with the script. I&rsquo;m learning a lot from just watching her work. And Maja, of course, has so much experience, but she&rsquo;s also just a great friend. It makes the set totally fun.

Would you ever produce a series or a movie? Or be involved in the writers&rsquo; room?
Writing for a series seems hard, but I would love to be involved with movies in the future.
What has music taught you that acting hasn&rsquo;t?
I think music is so vulnerable. In acting, you absolutely have to tap into your emotions, but when you&rsquo;re writing music, it&rsquo;s a different kind of vulnerability. It&rsquo;s extremely personal to me. So one thing that acting showed me was how to feel the full spectrum of emotions through a character. But then, music taught me how to feel what I&rsquo;m really feeling. It taught me how to be really honest with my own emotions. To me, it&rsquo;s almost like therapy. I like that it&rsquo;s actually really raw.
With acting, you&rsquo;re working with a lot of material. My acting teacher likes to say that a role should move you, not trigger you &mdash; if you find something in you that matches the character and moves you, then use it; if it triggers you, then don&rsquo;t. Music is different. Sometimes the things I write are triggering in a cathartic way, and other times, they just move me. It doesn&rsquo;t always have to be so deep.

Have you become comfortable with the ambiguity of your career?
Yes. I&rsquo;ve become comfortable with the ambiguity of everything. I don&rsquo;t really know how things will turn out, but I&rsquo;m able to handle whatever comes my way, and that comes with practice. I mean, I&rsquo;ve been thrown into countless chaotic situations, so I believe things always eventually turn out okay. Especially when you&rsquo;re in music, in acting or Filipino showbiz &mdash; they love putting people in a box. And there&rsquo;s a reason for the box. But then, I bounce back between acting and doing music, where I&rsquo;m just kind of free with the genres that I play and being a celebrity figure in the Philippines. It&rsquo;s quite polarizing.
I like that you use &lsquo;polarizing&rsquo; because it&rsquo;s a bit strong. Why, though?
I get confused. That&rsquo;s why I used polarizing because it gets frustrating trying to balance my music that I just want to be a free thing and being in the limelight where the name &ldquo;James Reid&rdquo; comes attached with very specific characters and artista stereotypes.

Jumping on that, is there a personality you admire who successfully broke out of that figurative box?
Fresh off my mind, I would have to say Justin Bieber &mdash; especially after looking at what he did at Coachella. Just his laptop on screen, super bare-bones, fingers up to his old label. Coming on stage to kind of say &ldquo;I&rsquo;m giving none of the image you guys created&rdquo;, he managed to break through all those stereotypes people labeled him. It was super raw, and yet, you know the fans were there for him.
The attitude is punk. It&rsquo;s adjacent to your philosophy of being raw and stripped down.
Yes, there&rsquo;s a rebellion to it. James Dean was my hero when I was younger. I&rsquo;m starting to piece the archetypes that I gravitate towards after this conversation. (laughs)

&ldquo;I want to do it all while I can, strike while the iron is hot and then go to a different part of my life.&rdquo;

I noticed on set you were admiring the Cartier earrings from the Love Unlimited collection. How does your personal style relate to that? Are there specific statement pieces you pick up on?
For me, it changes. My fashion merges with my taste in music. It goes hand in hand, like the way the trends flow around. It&rsquo;s very Western. Now I&rsquo;m listening to a lot of folk, R&amp;B, maybe I&rsquo;m a mix of country and R&amp;B. It influenced my eye a lot, the shape of the pants, the boots. Western buckle belts. I wouldn&rsquo;t say there&rsquo;s any specific statement piece, but, at its core, it&rsquo;s always in tune with my music.
So it&rsquo;s modular, easy, like the links in the Love bracelet. No limits really, to who you are and what you listen to.
Yes, I would say. I brought my Bode school loafers for the layouts, too.

It&rsquo;s a great indicator of how much you value your style. Speaking of contrast, do you ever feel a tension between the pace of the industry and the kind of life you want to live?
Yes, I&rsquo;m totally cool with the idea of a star burning out and then disappearing completely. But let me clarify, not me burning out in a sense that is emotionally, mentally and physically draining, but just... this phase I&rsquo;m in right now, I want to really push the limits in what I can do. I&rsquo;m such a curious person and I have these opportunities; I need to know how far I can take it. So in the next couple of years, I&rsquo;ve been really pushing the films, the series and making albums at the same time. I want to do it all while I can, but my ultimate goal really is to settle down, have a family and that&rsquo;s really not too far in the future. So I want to do it all while I can, strike while the iron is hot and then go to a different part of my life.
In relation to that, since you grew up very publicly, there comes a perception of yourself that people hold you to a high regard, it&rsquo;s exhausting. Has it been difficult to evolve past your teenage image?
It is difficult because I don&rsquo;t seem to look any older! (laughs) I&rsquo;m trying to grow a beard, but it just won&rsquo;t grow!

I&rsquo;m sure people would pay to have your genes.
Seriously, though, I wouldn&rsquo;t say it&rsquo;s the teen image that it&rsquo;s difficult to grow out of. I think there are times in my life where that was definitely the case. My artista image made it quite difficult for me and created a lot of friction when I was trying to do music.
Back in 2016, the music industry was split in the middle. On one side, you have people who are really into music. It&rsquo;s like bands and indie and underground hip-hop and everything. The other side was all artistas singing covers &mdash; which I was included in. But my label at that time wouldn&rsquo;t allow me to make anything that wasn&rsquo;t marketable, so I went ahead and made my own album, Palm Dreams (2017), and started my own label, Careless. It was English. A hodgepodge of R&amp;B, trap-soul, mixed with electronic. I tried to make that transition, but the stereotype was hard to kind of break. It was difficult for people to see me as anything other than a rom-com actor, love team, artista.

But to remedy that, there are so many subcultures now, even I can&rsquo;t keep up with the gig schedules. The niche is definitely there.
Definitely. When you compare 2016 to now, it&rsquo;s a really different time we&rsquo;re living in. There are so many subcultures, and the Philippines has caught up real quick, at least with Western and global international culture and standards. Filipinos are just so up to date with everything! For me now, especially with the way I run Careless and talk with my other artists, they really have to enjoy it. If they don&rsquo;t, then what&rsquo;s the point? Who else is going to enjoy it?
Outside of work, what&rsquo;s your life revolving around lately?
Koda takes up so much of my time! She&rsquo;s my half-a-year-old Aussiedoodle &mdash; an Australian Shepherd-Poodle mix &mdash; with these blue eyes from her shepherd side. It&rsquo;s pretty rare. She will come to me in the morning and chew on my ear or pull on Issa&rsquo;s hair, as if to say, &ldquo;Wake up, it&rsquo;s time for my walk&rdquo; &mdash; and that starts as early as 6am!

How adorable! Do you guys get enough sleep?
She&rsquo;s so young, so I can&rsquo;t really leave her alone &mdash; it&rsquo;s like having a child. Usually we&rsquo;re up around 7am anyway and we&rsquo;ve finally figured out the potty training.
Why didn&rsquo;t you bring her today?
Good question. But also, with everything happening in my life, I don&rsquo;t know why I got a dog actually. But nevermind, Issa said she wants company at home when I&rsquo;m out taping.
But going back to your main question, just to have a full picture: I&rsquo;m re-kickstarting my acting career, in the middle of making my own album and fusing a bit of yacht rock to my R&amp;B pop sound and running my own management music label on the side.

That&rsquo;s rather packed, but is there something you haven&rsquo;t done yet?
My team and I met with so many producers and directors recently, and then John [Lozano] always says, &ldquo;You need to pitch [James] a psychological thriller!&rdquo; I&rsquo;m actually really excited for that. I&rsquo;ve been wanting to try roles outside the typecasting I&rsquo;ve been given.
Have you ever considered theatre?
I&rsquo;m even down to do a musical!

DEPUTY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Joan Kong
ART DIRECTION Nyael David
GROOMING Mac Igarta
DIGITECH Hallvard Cano
VIDEO DIRECTOR Jim Lazam
VIDEOGRAPHER Ian Canlubo
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jeron Ellana
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Jom Ablay
LIGHTING ASSISTANT Jyllan Bitalac
STYLING ASSISTANTS Bea Yabut and Arar Pascual
GROOMING ASSISTANTS Angelo Torralba and Win Denoyo
VIDEO ASSISTANT Luke Calvo
SPECIAL THANKS TO KASSA

Beyond the Archetype: James Reid

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