Iza Calzado

Nearly seven years after Iza Calzado opened the doors of her Quezon City bungalow to YES! Magazine, the actress—whom we described in the October 2010 cover story’s title as “Sensible Siren”—once again graciously lets us into her home.

- Jocelyn T. Valle

This time around, her home is a condo unit in a commercial and residential district in Makati City.

Iza’s captivating face glows as she warmly greets her visitors on an early Thursday afternoon. She’s wearing a bathrobe, and her hair is still wet, yet she doesn’t excuse herself right away to go to her makeup room upstairs to join fashion stylist Kat Cruz, hair stylist Brent Sales, and makeup artist Lala Flores, who will prepare her for the YES! photo shoot.

Instead, she makes us feel at home first. She gives a beso to those whom she already knows and a handshake to the others whom she is meeting for the first time. She tells us bits and pieces about her new place, which she’s still fixing up with the help of her interior designer, Nix Alañon. Then she leaves us alone, so we can shoot the interiors of her condo.

Iza later re-emerges in the receiving area for her portrait photo shoot, fully made up and ready for her close-ups. In between takes, she chats with the people around her about a variety of topics, ranging from her new place to her current film, the award-winning but controversial Bliss.

“Blissful living,” she utters at one point during the freewheeling conversations, in describing her life now. She gives an explanation hours later, when she’s done with our photo shoot and she sits down for an interview.

“First,” she begins, grinning, “go to the dictionary to clearly define blissful living.”

According to Merriam-Webster, blissful means “extremely or completely happy,” so Iza is apparently living a very happy life.

“But for me,” she continues her explanation, “I’m blissful now because I’m at peace. You know, like… It’s not that I don’t have problems, but I’m siguro more sure of myself. I’m more…”