CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Actress Max Collins revealed that her latest role in the television drama Master Cutter has demanded a significant shift in her creative approach, requiring her to draw deeply from her personal experiences as a parent.
In the series, Collins portrays Audrey, a woman searching for her child after discovering they were placed for adoption without her knowledge. Collins noted that the character deviates from traditional television archetypes, offering a complex exploration of maternal distress and personal resilience.
"Si Audrey ay hindi basta love interest ni Atoy," Collins said during a Zoom interview on July, of her initial reaction to the project script. "She [Audrey] also has her own journey and marami siyang pinaghuhugutan. Ang lalim talaga ng layers niya with her family, with her child, and with Atoy as well. So yun yung pumasok sa isip ko. Wow ang ganda ng journey ng character na ito. I really would love to play her."
Collins drew heavily on her real-life perspective as a mother to ground the show's intense emotional sequences. Navigating major life changes, including her current domestic dynamics, gave her a deeper understanding of her character's underlying grief, she explained. This defensive mindset takes center stage in A Quiet Career: Max Collins on boundaries, and fame, which details her core strategy for navigating showbiz publicity without compromising her artistic focus. Navigating major life changes, including her current domestic dynamics, gave her a deeper understanding of her character's underlying grief, she explained.
"I'm fortunate enough to actually be a mom. So to really understand what it feels like to be a mom and to have a kid," Collins stated. "In my own personal life, I have had experiences where like now I'm co-parenting with Pancho which is going well. But before, when it wasn't going well, it was a hard time in my life and yun yung nakatulong sa akin to portray Audrey more since her issues with the family and her pain... moving on from that and looking for a brighter future."
Collins described the long, physically demanding production days on set as highly taxing due to the narrative's emotional weight.
"Physically demanding din po siya, 'di ba? The whole day pag nagte-taping, umiiyak. And like that day especially, umiyak ako the whole day," she recalled. "It was very demanding for me and emotionally draining because as a mom, naramdaman ko talaga yung pain ni Audrey kasi na-imagine ko pa lang na mangyari yun sa aquarium with my child and it's like, wow, iba yung pain talaga."
Collins reunites with leading man Dingdong Dantes in the new production. Reflecting on their collaboration nearly a decade ago, Collins emphasized how their evolved professional relationship creates a deep sense of mutual trust on set.
"It’s so nice to be working with him now as an adult kasi nakatrabaho ko siya when I was younger," Collins added. "Um, we had a teleserye with Miss Lorna T. when I was I think almost 20 and then now that I'm turning 30 something... Um, it's nice to experience acting with him as mature adults because parang meron na kaming tiwala sa isa't isa pagdating sa eksena. We can always play around with the scene and also magbigay ng input and then just see where it goes naturally," She concluded.
