PHOTO: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Instagram/marianrivera, YouTube/Ivana Alawi

Marian Rivera is known to be one of the most headstrong personalities in showbiz, especially early on in her career. She’s known to be “matapang” and someone who’s never afraid to speak her mind, but the 39-year-old actress recently got candid on why she has ~*mellowed*~ down as she got older.

Marian recently guested on Ivana Alawi‘s latest vlog, where they had a crab mukbang and talked about their life and being in the industry. One of the questions she got asked was: “What are some of the hardest struggles you’ve faced and how did you overcome [them]?”

YouTube/Ivana Alawi

Marian explained that she initially found it hard to find a balance between being true to herself and her feelings versus what people expected of her. “Bilang artista kasi, napaka-transparent ng buhay natin, alam niyo ‘yan,” she noted. “So may mga bagay na binabato sayo minsan na you don’t know how to handle. Papatol ka ba, ‘di ka ba papatol? I-e-explain mo ba yung sarili mo o ‘wag na?”

She came to realize that she needed to *adjust* her feelings and reactions the longer she stayed in the showbiz industry. “Pero alam mo habang nagtatagal, na-realize ko na, ‘Ah, ito pala ang dapat na ginagawa,’ kasi napaka-transparent kong tao. Parang ‘what you see is what you get.’ ‘Pag galit ako, galit ako. ‘Pag masaya ako, masaya ako,” she explained.

“So ‘pag sa showbiz pala, hindi pwede yung ganun. Hindi pwedeng transparent ka. Kasi alam nila kung pano ka sasaktan.”

Marian may have mellowed down, but she admitted that this wasn’t always the case before. “Pero ako yung case ko kasi, matapang yung personality ko kaya pinipili ko talaga yung gagawin kong laban. Pero dati hindi, lahat pinapatulan ko,” she recalled.

But after Marian became a mother to her kids Zia and Sixto, she learned the value of choosing her battles and where she places her time and energy.

“Pero sabi ko, after ko magka-anak, ‘Shocks, ang laki ng binago sa ‘kin ng motherhood. Gagawin ko pa ba? Parang sayang naman yung effort ko para patula pa kita, ‘e ‘di sa anak ko na lang i-effort ko, ‘di ba?”

Netizens in the comments of Ivana’s video applauded Marian’s growth, especially after she became a mother. They also, however, noted that she could still earn a kontrabida role if she wanted to, especially after seeing how she successfully *pranked* Ivana in the middle of the interview, with Ivana’s sister Mona Alawi as the mastermind-slash-accomplice.

YouTube/Ivana Alawi

Their conversation was going well until Marian called Ivana out for being “late” to their interview, with the former even going as far as exclaiming that they were not to release the video anymore. Marian eventually walked away from the set, leaving an initially apologetic Ivana in tears and asking for the video to be cut.

The vlog then reveals that Mona asked Marian to prank her Ate, explaining that making each other cry was their “love language.” Marian then rushed back to Ivana to embrace her and explain that it was just a prank. To make up for it, Marian and her husband Dingdong Dantes brought out a cake to celebrate Ivana’s birthday, which was on December 25.