Kyle Echarri said he was happy with his stay inside the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) house because it was an opportunity to show who he really is, including his “vulnerable” side.

The 18-year-old actor-singer, the fourth evictee from Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunity Season 10, also opened up on the real reason he joined the ABS-CBN reality show.

Kyle recalled being asked why he joined when his career was “good” already. “I even got nominated one night because someone said I don’t need PBB anymore, parang ganun. For me, it’s not just about getting more supporters, being more big because of the PBB. For me, it was just to show who the real Kyle Echarri is through PBB,” the Cornerstone artist told The STAR in an exclusive Zoom interview.

“Lagi akong na-mi-misinterpret ng mga tao, lagi po akong napagbibintangan na ganito ako (or) ganito din ako, so I just felt like it was the right platform to show myself,” he also said, adding that PBB also afforded him the chance to take a big step out of his comfort zone. “It really made me happy and made me feel good again.”

For him, having no connection to his family was the hardest part of the entire experience. “Kasi kahit nasa lock-in taping ako, lagi po akong nag-fe-face time sa kanila (family). I always called them. I always make sure that I’m able to update them. So, it was hard.”

One of his toughest times was his last week on the reality show. “I was experiencing some kind of like, anxiety, worrying about what’s happening in the outside world: Tama ba yung pinasukan ko, tama ba yung ginagawa ko kasi ‘pag nasa loob ka… you don’t know anything that’s been said about you.”

Kyle was particularly worried for his mom. “It was really hard for me and lalo na yung mom ko kasi may lupus siya,” he disclosed, adding that the last thing he’d want his mom to experience is stress, especially if he’d be bashed.

On one hand, his mom was also a source of strength. “I didn’t know how people were thinking. Were people bashing? Were people happy with me? Hindi ko po talaga alam. So, what I would do, a lot of people saw it, I was wearing my mom’s bracelet, kasama ng letter niya… I wore it every night that I had anxiety, I’d pray holding it every night. I’d always read her message… (where) she’s really just telling me how proud she is of me and to enjoy my journey… before I went to sleep just to keep me going because my No. 1 support system besides my friends, of course… will always be my mom.”

Meanwhile, Kyle understands it could be easy to “judge people” in a reality show because “that’s what it’s built to do,” but he said there were many factors and things people don’t know about due to “camera angles,” or deep conversations inside the confession room not aired out of respect to the housemates.

When asked which negative comments after PBB that particularly hurt him, he indicated that some of his actions inside the house got misinterpreted by netizens. While he didn’t go into specifics, he said his being “malambing” with fellow housemates was given extra meaning.

“My mom (raised me) up as a very sweet person. She saw that in me, she even told me that she got so kilig from the first time I called her beautiful when I was a baby, ‘Mama, you’re so beautiful.’ Malambing po talaga ako na tao. Minsan na-misinterpret ng mga tao kung gaano ako ka-sweet. Pero ako, wala naman talagang meaning yung pagiging sweet ko. It’s just how I am with my friends. Kita naman ng mga tao, I was like that with practically everyone in the house. But they (critics) like to pinpoint a lot of things just to make me look bad and also to add meaning to that.”

Nevertheless, Kyle has no regrets, only lessons learned from his PBB stint. “I’ve been bashed since I joined The Voice (Kids). This is the one time in my life na talagang sinasabi ko sa sarili ko, I really can’t please everyone,” he said.

For him, the lesson there is acceptance. “Even though I say it all the time, it doesn’t mean I feel it all the time. So as much as I can, I’m trying to teach myself talaga you can’t please everyone. As long as you’re pleasing yourself, friends, family, and of course, your parents and everyone around you, as long as you know yourself, who you are, that’s what’s important.”

As for the “best part” of the PBB stint, it was “learning how to trust again.”

“Even Kuya (Big Brother) said he saw that I learned how to trust again. I’ve been in the industry for a long time and it really gets to you once you lost so many people because of things that you do, or may nakilala ka na plastic sa buhay. So, I learned how to trust again, I learned how to make new friends again, and open up to everyone. I was very vulnerable inside the house, which is something that I tried my best not to be, but grabe yung emotional warfare sa bahay so talagang di mo mapigilian minsan.

“But I felt like my best learning would just be to do things that make you happy… like, just going into the house itself. It was a make-or-break for me, it was (again) a big step out of my comfort zone. Dun po ako masaya sa mga bagay na di ko kontrolado pero gagawin ko lahat para maging kontrolado siya. So, it felt good. Sobrang masaya po ako sa lahat ng nangyari.”

Kyle also pointed out that the housemates became a family. “We were all there for each other whenever we were sad. And we all had an emotional support system for each other… Everyone treated each other like family.”

What’s next for Kyle? The Gold Squad member has a new teleserye and a movie for 2022. He also plans to release an album as he became very creative in PBB and rediscovered his love for music and writing songs.

Kyle said, “I’m grateful for all the blessings I’ve already received for the couple of days that I’ve been outside the house and tanggap ko po lahat what will happen to me in the next couple of days, months, years. That’s something I’m trying to teach myself, to really just live by it, kahit ilang beses sabihin minsan hindi katanggap-tanggap. So, sometimes you really just have to tell yourself na whatever happens, happens,” he said.

Moving forward from PBB, he said, “I’m just taking everything, learning from my mistakes and shortcomings, and just taking it day by day.”