Beauty queen turned actress Ariella Arida debuted in ‘Coming Home’ which is a Philippine drama directed by Adolfo Alix Jr. under Maverick Films in 2020. This film is an official entry of the 2020 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Recently, former Miss Universe Philippines talked about her experience which was scary and exciting at the same time. “It’s my first ever movie. It was so nerve-wracking because it was a new environment for me. I didn’t know how the production is and how things are done behind the scenes. I wasn’t sure if it was the same as doing a television show, which I have tried in the past”, she said in a recent interview.

For Arida, things were even more challenging as she was paying the role of a ‘mistress’. “I had to play someone who’s had a hand in breaking a family. I had to find a way to put myself in the character’s place,” she said.

In Coming Home, Ariella plays Mercy who is a nurse working at a hospital in Qatar. She meets and starts a romantic relationship with Benny (Jinggoy Estrada), an overseas worker forced to leave his unsuspecting family behind in the Philippines. But when Benny figures in a grave accident, Mercy is compelled to return him to his martyr wife, Salve (Sylvia Sanchez).

Ariella, a chemistry degree-holder from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, was crowned Binibining Pilipinas in 2013 and, later that year, represented the country in the Miss Universe pageant, where she finished third runner-up.