Andrew Wolff

From Transit magazine, April 2, 2008

He was once better known for his scandalous love life and bare-chested billboards. Now, Andrew Wolff is hoping to reinvent himself as an athlete and all-around nice guy. But will the public let him?

Text by Nana Caragay | Photography by Kerwin Kaiser Yu
Special thanks to Ms. Mayeth Acuña of White Beauty Aesthetic Center

The first thing you notice upon meeting Andrew Wolff is his sheer size. Standing easily head and shoulders above the average Pinoy, almost every inch of his frame seems to be packed with lean, toned muscle. His skin is a glowing, creamy white—after all, he’s an endorser for MET, a brand of glutathione pills.

But once he starts talking, it’s easy to forget his big, hulking form. He laughs frequently, his eyes crinkling at the corners every time he breaks out into a mega-watt smile. Charming and easygoing, I’m reminded that he is still very young, all of just 22 years old. But he’s lived quite the colorful life already. He moved to the country a few years ago after deciding to put his Computer Engineering studies at England’s Bristol University on hold. “The truth is I was getting a little bit depressed,” he relates, “because of a lot of things. Maybe I was alone… so I took some time out.”

Eventually, he found himself on Philippine soil—he’s half-Filipino and had lived in the country from the time he was two years old till right before he moved to England to start school at the age of four. To kill time, he agreed to go along with a friend to try out for modeling rakets. “I came over here for a vacation for six months. I didn’t come here to model, it just so happened that I did modeling,” he says. “But I enjoyed it.”

Pretty soon, the industry took notice. Andrew became one of the finalists for the MTV VJ Hunt, posed for billboards in nothing but his underwear, and got involved with another high-profile starlet. That’s when he started becoming tabloid news.

All in the past

He would prefer not to dwell too much on that particular aspect of his notoriety, though. “I don’t really want to talk about my past anymore,” he shrugs. “For me, I’ve just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad relationships, been with the wrong people. When I first came to the Philippines, I was a newcomer. I was obviously foreign, bata pa, no one really to guide me.”

It’s safe to assume, of course, that he’s referring to his controversial relationship with Viva Hot Babe Gwen Garci. Words were exchanged, allegations were made, and throughout it all, Andrew chose to remain silent rather than air his side. “Kung girl yung kalaban mo sa showbiz, mas magandang ‘wag magsalita. Ikaw yung mapapasama, diba?” he explains.

But he does want to make one thing clear: “You shouldn’t believe everything that they say. Showbiz in the Philippines is very cruel; the reporters are very cruel. For me, I think what happened is I had a bad relationship with someone who didn’t tell the truth, and made me look bad, and it was like a domino effect.” And that’s all he has to say about that.

Moving on

What he’d rather talk about now though is the new passion he’s discovered—or an old passion that he’s rediscovered, to be exact. He just returned from the SEA Games in Thailand last December, and what’s more, he emerged victorious, coming home with a silver medal.

What sport did he compete in, you ask? Andrew has been playing rugby football since he was 12 years old, starting back when he was still living in the UK. A group of rugby enthusiasts, mostly ex-pats and a few Filipinos who grew up abroad, banded together to form the Philippine Rugby Football Union and push the sport in the country. They formed a team to compete in the SEA Games and trained with just a limited amount of time. “We trained for 10 days straight,” he says. “But we’ve known each other for years.” For those not so familiar with the sport, he compares it to “playing basketball with three players on a massive court—you have to do a lot of running, It’s the same principle in rugby. There’s a massive pitch, but only seven players. So you have to run more.”

So off they went to the SEA Games, not knowing what their chances of winning would be because they were still such a new team. But what do you know—they made it all the way up to the finals and even managed to finish second place! “We should’ve got the gold,” he insists with a good-natured smile. “We were competing against Thailand, and they had the home court advantage.”

As for how it felt representing the country, considering he only recently adopted the Philippines as his homeland—“It felt great. One of the best feelings I’ve had. After all the controversies, I’ve brought honor to the country,” he grins.

Andrew the athlete

And he doesn’t plan on stopping there. Andrew also wants to try his hand at other sports, boxing in particular. He’ll be participating in Mano Mano 2, a celebrity boxing show hosted by Cesar Montano that will air on ABS-CBN. It’s something that he hopes to pursue more seriously. He says that he’s “improved so much” since appearing in another celebrity tournament, Bakbakan ’06. “Before I was like a street fighter. I didn’t know how to box properly; I just did it for entertainment. But I’ve really been training, and since then I’ve learned a lot about boxing, the right technique. If I can, I’ll bring it up to the next step and fight on an amateur level.”

His ultimate goal is to get three medals in three different sports. Now that rugby is down, there’s just two more to go. “I’m quite athletic; I can adapt to most sports,” he says confidently. “I’ll try anything and I’ll strive to my fullest potential to get the gold.”

The fierce, competitive guy I see before me is a rather far cry from the pretty-boy poser image people may have associated with him back in his modeling days. While he hasn’t turned his back on the industry completely, he adds determinedly that he’s “not relying on showbiz or modeling to feed me. It’s nice to do and I enjoy it apart from the chismis side. But I’m not going to go hungry or sleep on the street if no one gives me a project.”

Besides, Andrew has still more things to prove and loftier ambitions to fulfill. He wants to eventually go back to school and get his degree. He wants to be recognized for his athletic abilities. But above all, he wants to set the record, and his reputation, straight—not by talking to the tabloid press, but by showing people who he really is through his actions and deeds. “What I’d love is for everyone to see my good side, my sporting side—competitive, athletic, down-to-earth. With my sport, I want to promote healthy living, anti-drugs, that kind of thing. I want to change the misconceptions. I’m an athlete and a good guy,” he finishes. And then he flashes that huge, blinding, boyish smile, so that it becomes very hard not to believe him.