Anne Curtis-Smith during the project announcement of 'It's Okay to Nit Be Okay' Star Creatives

It's official! Anne Curtis-Smith is taking on the lead role in the Philippine adaptation of the hit 2020 K-drama It's Okay to Not Be Okay.

ABS-CBN and Star Creatives held an event to announce the project. It's the first adaptation for the South Korean series, making this even more special.

The project announcement was graced by cast members Carlo Aquino (as Matthew 'Matmat' Gonzales), Joshua Garcia (as Patrick 'Patpat' Gonzales), and of course, Anne Curtis-Smith (as Emilia 'Mia' Hernandez). Also sharing the stage with them were director Mae Cruz-Alviar and creative producer Henry King Quitain.

'It's Okay to Not Be Okay' Philippine adaptation cast members Carlo Aquino, Anne Curtis-Smith, and Joshua Garcia Star Creatives

The project marks Anne's teleserye comeback. An interesting story is that Anne manifested this role, as she gave her management, Viva, a heads-up about it. She told Viva head Veronique del Rosario that should she make a comeback in a TV series, she wanted it to be It's Okay to Not Be Okay and requested her management to check if they could get the rights for it; much to her delight, after a week, she was told that the project is already with ABS-CBN. As fate would have it, the female lead character eventually landed in her lap.

'It's definitely worth it,' Anne said during the project announcement. 'Hindi naman ako mag-a-accept ng isang project if I didn't feel it was worth leaving my family a little bit to shoot. When they offered this to me, it was an instant 'yes' because I loved the original. I couldn't let it pass.'

Anne had a stint on the TV series FPJ's Ang Probinsyano in 2016, but the last teleserye she starred in was Dyesebel back in 2014.

South Korean series It's Okay to Not Be Okay starred Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Ye Ji. A rom-com drama, its story focuses on a popular children's book author with an antisocial personality disorder (Seo Ye Ji as Ko Mun Young - to be played by Anne) and an orphaned caregiver who works at a psychiatric hospital (Kim Soo Hyun as Moon Gang Tae - to be played by Joshua) and has a brother with autism spectrum disorder (Oh Jung Se as Moon Sang Tae - to be played by Carlo). A well-loved series, it also trains a spotlight on mental health awareness.

It's Okay to Not Be Okay PH will be available on Netflix.

Lead photos from tvN, Star Creatives, and @annecurtissmith