Pressure is real for Andrea Brillantes as her latest TV series “Saying Goodbye” comes right on the heels of her recently concluded soap opera “Huwag Kang Mangamba.”

Brillantes plays Elise, a med student in “Saying Goodbye.” The series is about Elise and Ricky (Seth Fedelin) who have been best friends for seven years, and Elise helps out Ricky to achieve his dreams.

“Sobra po kaming na-pressure, kaming dalawa (We were so pressured, the two of us),” she said, referring to her screen partner Fedelin, during the online conference for IQIYI and ABS-CBN partnership.

“Atat na atat akong makuha ‘yung script. ‘Puwede ko na po bang mabasa ‘yung script?’ Tapos minemorize ko na lahat agad,” she said, noting that she did many things just to prepare for her role.

(I was eager to get the script. ‘Can I read the script?’ And then I memorized it all.)

Andrea Brillantes (Image: Instagram/@blythe)

To prepare for the series, Brillantes read some books and watched some movies.

“Nagbasa ako ng mga libro. Ang mga binasa ko ay ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ at ‘A Walk to Remember’ kasi parehas siya ng plot sa ‘Saying Goodbye,’” she narrated. (I read some books. The ones I read were “The Fault in Our Stars and “A Walk to Remember” because it has the same plot as “Saying Goodbye.”)

The pressure is real since they just finished “Huwag Kang Mangamba.”

“So, medyo wala halos kaming pahinga. Pero other than that, umaapaw pa rin ang saya na nararamdaman namin kaysa sa pagod na pagod na kami physically, mentally buong-buo kami, masaya kami, excited kami,” she said.

(So, we almost had no rest. But other than that, the happiness that we feel is overflowing other than we are tired physically, mentally; we are whole, are happy, we are excited.)

“Saying Goodbye” is debuting on Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. exclusive and free on the iQiyi app and www.iQ.com. /ra

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