Liza Soberano Discusses Leaving James Reid’s CareLess Management & Signing Up W/ New Team
In the cover feature for PREVIEW PH magazine, Liza Soberano addressed the news regarding her leaving James Reid’s CareLess management and signing up with her new teams. What I liked about how Liza approached the way James went into Ogie Diaz(Liza’s former manager)’s podcast is to do her own thing namely the NY Fashion Week, attended the F1 Grand Prix, reperenseted Save The Children PH as one of the panelists at the Milken Institure summit, and making moves behind-the-scenes. Frankly, albeit James not saying anything bad about Liza, I found his move to talk to OgieD a little shady even though I kinda understand it was part of his publicity since he’s now back with ABS-CBN. KWIM? Anyway, Liza did not go online to make any kind of statement which avoided any kind of soundbites for netizens to pick apart off.
Instead, Liza talked about it beiefly with PREVIEW PH. That was a smart move.
Fearlessly Leaving Familiar Comforts
But the journey hasn’t been picture-perfect or fairy-tale-like, where our cover girl is simply thrust into a new world. She has made some tough, intentional decisions along the way. Mere days before the shoot, she made headlines when she parted ways with her management team at Careless, the company founded by fellow Filipino star James Reid. “Careless’ focus has always been on music,” she clarified. “The goal was always to build my own team and gradually shift to more international opportunities.” She is nonetheless thankful for the two years she spent with them. “Through James (Reid) and Jeff (Oh), I was able to find my voice as a woman in entertainment and grow as an artist and entrepreneur in ways I could’ve never imagined.”
Liza is now represented by Transparent Arts, the U.S.-based agency that helped her land her role in the film Lisa Frankenstein. On top of this, she also signed up with artist agency Verve a few months ago. It’s clear that her decision to leave Careless was part of a bigger plan—one that sees her roughing it in Hollywood, where she is no longer the star with an army of fans but an actress auditioning for parts just like everyone else. “In L.A., the market is so much bigger, so everyone has to fend for themselves,” she wrote. “It can be a lot of work managing all of that, but it’s honestly very liberating knowing that I’m capable of all of it.”
Her role in Lisa Frankenstein is just the beginning, and while Liza admits that the process of auditioning is far from glamorous, she seems unfazed. “I don’t really think about rejection,” she wrote matter-of-factly. “I’ve been in this industry long enough to understand how things work.”
But there is pressure, she admitted, in representing the Philippines and making sure her supporters are proud, even as she pursues roles that go beyond stereotypical representations of Filipino characters. “After doing my press runs where I talked about being a Filipina actress, I constantly got offers for Filipino characters with very stereotypical arcs,” she shared. “But my U.S. representatives remind me to be patient and wait for the right project.”
Navigating Hollywood while staying true to her Filipino roots is a delicate balancing act, but Liza is determined to create her own narrative. “I don’t want to be limited or categorized based on my race. I want to one day be in the same conversations as other well-known actresses who star in projects that are up for Emmy and Oscar nominations.”(SOURCE/READ FULL FEATURE HERE)
