MANILA -- Is Diego Loyzaga at the crossroads in his life?

“I’m at a very good point,” Loyzaga assured ABS-CBN News. “I’m loving my job. I’m loving my career. I just had the best vacation of all time. It was so good. I had plans prior to 2022, but in life, not everything goes according to plan.”

At the start of the year, Loyzaga surprised everybody when he hied off to the US for the first time and spent a month-long vacation moving from coast to coast.

“I had to reassess,” Loyzaga continued. “I had to see where I wanted to go again now that things have changed. What am I going to do? What am I working for right now? What am I doing all these for?

“What is my one-year plan, two-year plan, five-year plan? Where will I want to be? The US gave me a set of new eyes. Now I know what I want to do. What I’m saving up for. It was just very nice, very refreshing for me.”

The 26-year-old actor has opted to keep mum about the breakup of his one-year relationship with actress Barbie Imperial, which happened after the holidays. Imperial already confirmed their breakup, apparently the reason Loyzaga flew to the US in a haste.

“My mind is in the right place,” Loyzaga said. “My heart is in the right place. I’m a very happy guy. Everything is great. Self-love is very important. Always love yourself first.

“I feel like I’m the new me, although physically, right now, I’m kind of sick. I guess it’s the jet lag and I have colds.”

Loyzaga had a busy 2021 after he charted five films. He started the year with Yam Laranas’ “Death of a Girlfriend,” followed by Joel Lamangan’s LGBTQ comedy, “Bekis On the Run” and Roman Perez’s Jr.’s “Hour Tour,” Nuel Naval’s “More Than Blue” and Fifth Solomon’s “Dulo.”

The last film, “Dulo” was Loyzaga’s first team-up with then girlfriend Imperial.

He started 2022 with the intense dramatic film, “The Wife,” where he worked for the first time with director Denise O’Hara, as well as with Louise de los Reyes and Cara Gonzales.

This time, he cannot be more thankful that he gets to be in the cast of “Adarna Gang.”

He worked with his co-star, Ronnie Lazaro, in the series, “Pangako sa ‘Yo” on ABS-CBN aired in 2015. He also starred with JC Santos in the local adaptation of the Korean film “More Than Blue,” shown last December.

“I know star-studded talaga ang cast ng ‘Adarna Gang’ at mahusay,” Loyzaga noted. “We got to work with veteran actors. I kind of got into my Cesar Montano acting. Am I doing it like him or should I do something different?”

'Loyzaga realized he needed to put his own acting style to his films. “I should do it like I feel I should do it,” he admitted. “If lumabas ang Cesar Montano, ‘di lumabas. That’s not surprising. I’m his son.

“This [‘Adarna Gang’] is not intense action that you see in my dad’s films. Working with the people in this movie, I had to be alert, aware at all times. Kung hindi, kakainin ako ng mga kasama ko sa eksena.”

“Adarna Gang” director Jon Red had a different treatment for his latest film, something that suited Loyzaga.

“I really liked it,” he attested. “Direk Jon allowed us to do how we felt or how we thought we should portray our characters. If may adjustments, we told him. He praised me a couple of times so I was happy with that.”

That Loyzaga pursued an acting career is not surprising for him, since both his parents are actors.

“I grew up with my mom [Teresa Loyzaga], so, I think most of my personality was built from what I saw at an early age living with my mom surrounded by women, except my older brother. I guess I got my personality from them.

“The features, though, I look like my dad. I really do. I lived with him for a few years and I guess I picked up a few things from him also. I’m a fan of my dad. I watched his films. He made it to Hollywood. Isn’t that a dream?

“I strived to live that one day, I’ll be as good as him or better or just be in that caliber of artists. Respected as an artist. My mom is respected as an actress and a singer. She sings so good. I wish I could. I really wish I could. My dad also. It’s so natural for him.

“I guess I got the good in both worlds. I’m also always trying to strive to be better than that and go beyond that.”

Playing a role of a gangster was not a hard adjustment for Loyzaga. In fact, he really looked forward to the chance.

“I think I always wanted to play a role of some sort like a gangster or a mobster,” he said. “As a kid, watching TV shows like ‘The Sopranos’ or films like The Godfather and Scarface, I kind of always had this idea of how I would be if I was a mobster and part of that.

“Like a kid playing pretend, I guess that was pretty much what I wanted. I was pretending to be cool, a gangster. It wasn’t that hard to jump into it. It was something I always wanted to try. I’ve always wanted to play a role like that.

“It was just like in the back of my head. Maybe like one of my personalities also like I just switched into it doing this film. It was really fun. It was so fun.”

Loyzaga will get excited once his dad Cesar gives his nod to their project together and they share stellar billing in a film. “I don’t want to tell you there is a plan,” Loyzaga said. “In a way, there kind of is. I’m just not certain when it will happen.

“It has been a dream of mine that we do a film together, since I met him. Since I joined showbiz, since I was younger, since I was a kid. Hopefully, this interview reaches him and he says yes.

“Sana talaga makasama ko siya. For sure, I’ll learn so much from him. If ever that we’ll do something together, now is the perfect time.”