Why Daniela Stranner enjoys playing mean girl

MANILA, Philippines — Daniela Stranner admitted feeling pressure when she essayed the role of Z in ABS-CBN’s teen drama series “Senior High.” But she enjoyed playing the show’s resident mean girl as she got to display different kinds of emotions through her character.

“I was actually surprised kasi wala lang, I was just doing my job and stuff like that. Yun pala maganda na pala yung nalalabas ko. People are inspired sa akin like that, so natutuwa po ako. And it’s kind of (being) pressured but it’s a good kind of pressure,” said Daniela in a mediacon for Star Magic.

While noting that a protagonist role can be “more comfortable” and “predictable,” she prefers to do an antagonist role because it challenges her more.

But what she likes most about playing kontrabida is that she gets to explore her emotional range like what she did in “Senior High.”

She told The STAR, “Nakapag-explore ako na baliw ako. Nakapag-explore ako na nagwawala, na galit ako, na to the point yung pinaka galit-galit ko (I got to explore being crazy. I got to explore going wild, being angry, reaching the height of my anger).”

“So, maybe it’s exploring different kinds of things because being a kontrabida, it’s like the worst eh. And once you’ve experienced the worst, you can do a lot of things. So, that’s what I enjoyed the most about it.”

Meanwhile, the Filipino-German rising star has been likened by some as the young Claudine Barretto because of her looks and acting performance.

“I’m flattered po, honestly,” Daniela said in reaction to the comparisons to Claudine. “I’ve been reading comments like that as well and I haven’t watched any of her movies yet but I saw some clips on TikTok, sa mga shows niya and stuff like that. And I heard that she was one of the popular actors in her days and one of prettiest so I’m really flattered to be compared to her.”

The Kapamilya actress also remarked that she doesn’t want to be in a love team just yet. She explained, “Honestly, I don’t wanna be stuck to one person because I like to explore more. I wanna be the type of actress who can work with anyone because you will learn a lot from every actor you work with. So I wanna try muna ng iba and maybe in the