Did you know that Angel Locsin's breakdown scene in The Legal Wife was taped on the same day as her birthday of April 23, 2014?
The breakdown scene, along with her intense confrontation scene with Maja Salvador, was aired again yesterday, April 14, 2020.
Reruns of The Legal Wife are currently airing on ABS-CBN's Kapamilya Gold block after ABS-CBN suspended production of its ongoing teleseryes in the time of quarantine.
The Legal Wife has taken the timeslot previously occupied by Love Thy Woman, which stars Kim Chiu, Yam Concepcion, and Xian Lim.
In the rerun's April 14 episode, Monica (Angel) breaks down after she finds out that her husband, Adrian (Jericho), is cheating on her. Worse, Monica discovers that Adrian is having an affair with no less than her best friend, Nicole (Maja Salvador).
In a rage, Monica drives her car all the way to the resort where Adrian and Nicole are staying, nearly running them over.
At one point, Monica confronts Adrian, telling him, "Gusto ko pa sana magbulag-bulagan, gusto ko pa sanang magpakatanga, kaya lang naaawa na ako sa sarili ko, e. Naaawa na ako sa anak ko kasi iyong nanay niya, gaga! Pero ang galing niyo, ha! Ang gagaling niyo, ang bababoy niyo!"
A day later, Monica goes to the house of Nicole to confront her about her affair with Adrian.
Monica asks Nicole: "Ano una mong tinanggal? Yang bra mo, yang panty mo, o yung konsensiya mo?"
Nicole attempts to explain, "Hindi ko alam kung paano ko ipapaliwanag...Nagkasala ako, Monica... Nangyari ang nangyari dahil inggit na inggit ako sa iyo."
Monica grabs Nicole's hair, but she is pulled back by Dante (Mark Gil) and a maid. The furious wife then grabs her shoes and throws them at Nicole.
These two scenes were originally aired in two separate episodes, but ABS-CBN has compressed the scenes into one for The Legal Wife's rerun.
The breakdown scene was originally taped and aired on April 23, which happened to be Angel's actual birthday.
Back then, The Legal Wife used to do "for airing" scenes, which means they taped scenes that would be aired that same day.
In a press conference, Angel would reveal how she did all the heavy scenes on her birthday.
As Angel said in an interview, "Si Adrian, 'tapos si Nicole, 'tapos sinagasaan ko rin sila noong gabi. So, medyo ano talaga, mahirap, heavy yung buong araw.
"Pero nakakataba pa rin ng puso iyong mga bumabati sa akin. Pero hindi ako nakakareply kasi ang bigat ng mga eksena, in the zone talaga ako."
Angel then talked about why she considered that birthday one of her most memorable ever.
"Pinakamemorable na taping day, at birthday ko talaga. Hirap na hirap ako talaga. Dapat masaya ka, di ba, nagpapasaya ka ng tao kapag birthday mo? Pero dapat ano ka talaga, e, down ka talaga, e [para sa eksena].
"Okay naman kasi maganda naman iyong lalabas, para naman sa mga manunuod.
"So, sabi ko, hindi ako bibitaw. Ano ba naman yung isang birthday lang?! Bigay ko ito sa tao, bigay ko ito sa viewers."
When the ratings data came out, Angel's breakdown scene, dubbed "The True Lies," scored a TV rating of 27.3% according to Kantar Media.
Its rival GMA-7 program, Rhodora X, top-billed by Jennylyn Mercado, got a rating of 12.5%.
After shooting the breakdown scene on her birthday, Angel also had to tape her confrontation scene with Maja.
In a guest appearance in Tonight With Boy Abunda, Maja had her own anecdote to tell about shooting the scene on Angel's birthday.
"Birthday kasi ni Angel noong araw na iyon. Buong araw, hindi ako nagpapakita sa kanya, kasi para iyong moment naming dalawa, kapag magkita kami talaga...
"Kasi sa eksena, ang tagal naming... Iniiwasan ko siya, e. Ang tagal naming hindi nagkita.
"Para kapag gagawin namin iyong eksenang iyon, iyong talagang galit, iyong talagang bibigay kami."
Even then, Maja recalled that Angel was still friendly to her when they talked about their intense scene.
Maja went on, "Doon kami nagkita, 'tapos parang hindi ko pinapansin si Angel. E, si Angel, sabi niya, 'Beh, saan kita sasabunutan?' Kinausap pa rin niya ako!"
Angel and Maja's confrontation scene, called "The Royal Rumble," got a TV rating of 26.2% against Rhodora X's 13.3%, according to Kantar Media.
"The Royal Rumble" confrontation also turned out to be one of The Legal Wife's most popular scenes.
Netizens were still tweeting about it during yesterday's rerun.
Here are some Twitter posts about the explosive confrontation scene:
The Legal Wife also became one of the trending topics on Twitter on April 14.
Here is Angel's interview about her birthday celebration on the set of The Legal Wife: