The emerging actress channels a life of movement and learning into a craft that holds it all together.

Julia Saubier used to train like a monk. In Yunnan, China, she lived in a kung fu monastery, and in Henan, a military school where she spent eight hours a day practicing martial arts. One imagines her among a thousand Shaolin monks in orange robes, breaking blocks with bare hands or balancing on poles. “It was similar to that,” she says. “It was very intense, but at the time, I had the most clarity and the most joy in my life.”

She was in China getting her master’s degree in economics with a focus on the Chinese film industry, and after watching the martial arts films that was required by her program, she felt like she needed to understand the craft of the genre in an embodied way. She was also inspired by the badass female leads who could swordfight their way through a marauding army. Her skills led her to represent the Philippines in a global kung fu competition, but an injury eventually cut short her plans to pursue further martial arts training in Beijing, and she returned home.

Back in the Philippines, motivated to learn about the country’s own fighting traditions, she studied Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, a bladed weapons system originating in the Visayas, with Survival Arts, a group dedicated to empowering women against violence through Kali. It was an experience that would embolden her to step into the world of beauty pageants. With her height (she is 5’ 10”) and mixed-race features (her father is French, her mother Filipino) people had always encouraged her toward pageants, but as a student she was laser-focused on sports and academics, finishing high school at ISM and university at NYU Abu Dhabi on full scholarships. After watching how Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray used their platforms to make an impact, she decided to give the crown a shot.

“There’s a saying in meditation circles: the teacher appears when the student is ready,” Saubier says. Following in the tracks of her father, who rode all over the Philippines bringing solar lanterns to off- grid communities, she was getting her motorcycle license when Melanie Marquez and her daughter Michelle Dee happened to be in the same class. Marquez looked at Saubier and said, “I like your height. I think you could be a beauty queen.” The once-in- conceivable idea took root. She joined Bb. Pilipinas in 2019 and Miss Universe Philippines in 2022, where she made it to the Top 10 representing Albay, her mother’s home province.

Her run in the pageant scene inevitably led to acting, “not because they’re connected,” she explains, “but because doing a beauty pageant takes more guts than saying I’m going to drama school to become an actor.” Saubier saw acting as the place where all her interests converged: martial arts, filmmaking, production, advocacy, activism. She moved to London to attend the Identity School of Acting, known for its multicultural student body, and was soon cast in her first commercial involving wire works and special effects: she shreds a guitar, takes a swig of Red Horse beer, and is suddenly exploded into another dimension. “That was the first time on set where I was doing my own stunts and my own physical work.”

The commercial opened the door to more action work. She went on to work as a special action performer in The Marvels and played Batgirl’s jiujitsu coach in the subsequently can- celled film Batgirl. “After we had filmed everything, I found out on the news that they had canceled it, which was crazy,” she recalls. “But for that, I did my own stunts as well. Having that background was just super helpful to pave the way for the kind of projects that I eventually wanted to do.”

Two years ago, Saubier gave birth to a son, and the trajectory of her acting career shifted. When someone told her having a child would kill her career, she dismissed the thought. “Being a mother has deepened my craft and my appreciation for life and humanity, and I think it’s just really strengthened my work as an actor and also my character as a person,” she says. She has dialed back the physically demanding stunt work, though, after earlier injuries were aggravated by childbirth. “As a full time mom and actor, I didn’t have time to take care of myself, and it got worse. But I’ve been in rehab, so hopefully I can integrate that part back into my career.”

Her latest project is more in line with her current ener- gies, exploring the softer side of womanhood. She appears as an elf in The Magic Faraway Tree, a fantasy adventure film based on Enid Blyton’s beloved children’s books. She was all of six months postpartum when she filmed it, and was upfront about her changing body when she submitted her audition tape. “But it was really special, because my son got to come to set, and it’ll be a memory for him when he’s older. That was really my inspiration for doing that film.”

Saubier’s life, which can seem like a series of pivots, is really a process of accumulation. Her interest in the field of development economics was sparked by her father’s motorcycle missions in rural areas, which evolved into a zeal for international politics and journalism. Internships covering the UN and the conflict in Gaza had her briefly considering a career as a war correspondent. But film and theater kept calling, and she found herself producing student films, a process that made her reconsider what cine- ma could do to transform how we see the world. One connection led to another, and while studying abroad in Paris, she landed a continuity internship on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs.

“It’s really sounding all over the place,” she laughs. “But everything I’ve done has informed my work.” She is grateful that her travels, her education, and her immersion in different cultures have left her attuned to what is happening around the world. “The world needs people who have real experience, people with an interdisciplinary background.”

“It’s important now more than ever,” she adds, “because with AI, we need to remind ourselves of our humanity. We’re losing touch with what it means to be human. And film really has the power to remind us of what makes us who we are.”

By AUDREY CARPIO. Photographs by BORGY ANGELES. Deputy Editor: Trickie Lopa. Fashion Editor: David Milan. Fashion Associate: Neil de Guzman. Art Director: Jann Pascua. Multimedia Artist: Mcaine Carlos. Producers: Julian Rodriguez. Editorial Assistant: Mavi Sulangi. Digital Technician: Rojan Maguyon. Hair and Makeup: Don de Jesus. Hair and Makeup Assistant: Bonita Teaño. Special thanks to Studio Barcho, Gabriel Sarmiento Schmid, and the Schmid Family