Julia on pros and cons of being a Barretto

What's it like to be a Barretto?

During an interview with G3 San Diego on Instagram recently, young actress Julia Barretto talked about the "benefits" and "best things" of being a member of a popular showbiz clan in the country. 

"Being surrounded by beautiful women! Ang gaganda nilang lahat!" she said.

Turning serious, Julia said that she loves being a Barretto because of her grandfather who passed away late last year.

"That's the best, best, best, best part about being a Barretto - just having his blood and just being his granddaughter and just that's at the top of my mind," she related. "And you know just having women that you can look up to and who just are so beautiful and wise and fun. Family is just so important."

She said that she cannot think of any reasons why she should hate being a Barretto."I love it!" 

Julia admitted that in terms of her family, she has nothing but good words. But when it comes to following in the footsteps of her mom Marjorie and titas Claudine and Gretchen's careers, she admitted it was "very hard" because people think she was riding on her last name and she won't be successful on her own merit. 

"I think people always have that notion na 'okay, anak yan ng artista so mas madali.' They think it's easier but honestly, it is so, so hard because there's so much pressure and the comparison is until your last project in your career or until you grow old," she said. 

Julia added: "You know for a while you'll be in the shadow and you'll have so much to prove before you can get out of the shadow and you have to prove why you deserve to be in the industry, why you're in the industry, and why you're not just there because of the last name. It's so hard and I had to face all of that at the very young age of 15, 16. Well, you know, in fact, in reality dapat nga I'm just in high school going into college. Na I don't have to hear the opinions of others; have to get this kind of pressure. But you know, I think nasa dugo talaga namin yung pagiging artista or actress, na I fell into that path."

Regardless of her beginnings, Julia noted how she took the challenge head-on and just let those criticisms motivate her instead of making it a burden.

"Just prove to people, you know, I love what I do. I wanna show them I deserve to be here, why I deserve to get all of these projects. So sabi ko na 'okay gagalingan ko na lang. Hindi ko na lang i-di-disappoint para sa after generation ko tuloy-tuloy pa rin. But yun lang, other than that, you would want to be a Barretto!"

So how does it feel being a torch-bearer of the current Barretto generation?

Julia thinks if she will put it that way, it will just give her pressure but thankfully she never sees it that way. 

"You know what, they always ask how does it feel to be a Barretto, how does it feel to be related but you don't feel that whatever they feel or kung ano man yung answerable they want from you when they ask that question. I don't know what to answer because I don't get that feeling eh," she explained. 

But Julia believes it all boils down to her family not putting that kind of pressure on her. 

"You know what, I'll just take it as siguro I'm honored and I will take it as a task for me. So sana given that I'm only 23, there may be humps in the way, some learning experiences but sana at the end of my career later on in the future I come out of it and make the first generation proud of what I was able to do or what I have done," she said. "Maybe I hope I will be able to do something that will make my older, the older ones proud and even the next generation after me proud."