Angel Aquino has taken us on countless emotional rollercoasters with her unforgettable portrayals, making us laugh, cry, and sometimes even furious. But what happens when she takes a trip down memory lane and watches her iconic teleserye moments? Would she react the same way we did, or reveal something entirely unexpected?
Fun fact: Angel isn't really fond of watching herself on screen because it makes her feel conscious and self-critical—"cringe," as she puts it—so most of the scenes she reviewed in this edition of Kapamilya React were actually her first time seeing them in full.
We begin with a violent female showdown from her recent primetime teleserye “High Street” (2024), specifically the physical altercation between her character, Tania Mae Cruz, and the villain Tori Soler, played by Dimples Romana.
Angel was visibly delighted to revisit this moment, saying that Dimples is one of her dearest friends, having worked with her back in 2015 on “And I Love You So.” She admitted that it was challenging to film such a physically and emotionally charged sequence, but their friendship made it easier to collaborate and plan how to execute the scene sensitively. "Basta ang importante, hindi bibitaw,” she mentioned. At the end of the day, they both know that everything that happens on-cam is just part of the job.
She reassured viewers that no one got hurt during the filming, despite how raw and chaotic the final shots appeared. "Maayos naman namin siyang ginawa," she said, adding that it involved several ad-libs. Angel explained that it’s easy to forget the exact lines from the script in such an intense scene, so what comes out is often a natural reflection of what she feels in that moment, both as her character and as herself.
"Aww," she reacted after watching her three-way screaming match with Desiree del Valle and Baron Geisler, who played Sasha and Harry Aguerro in “Senior High” (2023), the prequel to “High Street.” Here, Tania boldly defended her daughter Sky (Andrea Brillantes) from Sasha and Harry’s kids in front of the students of Northford High School. Tania delivered a chilling warning to the Aguerros, making sure they remembered her name with a line that was full of fierce intensity, which Angel absolutely enjoyed delivering. So much so, that she even gave one of her cars a playful pet name—yup, Tania Mae Cruz.
While she absolutely nailed the scene, as if Tania's wrath was knitted to her own flesh, Angel admits that she was actually nervous before the take due to her fear of speaking loudly in front of a crowd.
This was the same feeling she had during high-tension confrontations in “Dirty Linen” (2023), where she engaged in fierce acting sparring with the likes of Tessie Tomas, John Arcilla, and Janice de Belen. Kapamilya React showed her one particular scene where her character, the seemingly quiet and reserved Feliz, spits out a threat to her family for disrespecting her beloved husband Ador (Epy Quizon)'s dignity.
"Those kinds of scenes, they scare me," she confessed. "'Pag nababasa ko 'yon, 'pag alam kong ite-take ko 'yun today, sobrang na-a-anxiety ako." But she draws strength and support from her co-stars to push through despite her fear.
Overall, Angel considers Feliz Fiero one of the most tasteful characters she's ever played. "I love that para lang siyang piping saksi na hindi makapagsalita, but she wasn't actually innocent kasi she was on it. Pero kumakawala sa kanya 'yung goodness. I love that may black, white, at meron gray."
Not one to rest on her laurels, she isn’t afraid to step out of her comfort zone, and proof of that is her role as the now-iconic General Diana Olegario in “FPJ's Ang Probinsyano” (2022). There was this specific tour de force act she did with Janice Hung, who portrayed the deadly martial artist Meilin Yang, on a rooftop. As Angel remembers, she got dizzy and threw up in the middle of filming—she thinks it was a case of heat stroke—after hours of working under the scorching sun, which unintentionally caused the taping to be put on hold.
"It was so hot. The scene was so hard and so physical," she recalled. But she definitely enjoyed doing it and all her other action sequences in the show, especially because she never expected she would be able to pull them off.
As Angel mentioned, she’s not fond of watching her own performances, but she had fun doing it for Kapamilya React. "Bigla ko sila naalala lahat," she said, talking about her past characters.