Thirty-one-year-old Filipina-Canadian Shay Mitchell visits her mother’s hometown as she brings along Netflix Originals’ ‘You’ co-star Penn Badgley to Manila to promote the first season of their thriller series.
Shay announced her arrival last Sunday, January 13 with a tweet that said, “Hello Manila!” also providing details for their fan event happening two days later at a set designed like their show’s iconic Mooney’s Bookstore at Greenbelt 5. Both Hollywood stars also posted photographs on their Instagram sharing an oversized Halo-Halo at The Manila Peninsula.
In a video, Shay is seen introducing her co-star to the dessert, saying, “So this is halo-halo. It’s a Filipino dessert basically shaved ice with condensed milk. But I have never seen anything that big.” In her Instagram story, Shay elaborates, “So truly, I’ve never seen a halo-halo this big. Halo-halo means ‘mix-mix.’ Basically, this is a dessert mixed with a bunch of stuff.” As a response to his treat, Penn jokes “It was great. I mean it has a lot of sugar, but it was nice.”
The official Netflix account as well teased the visit of their cast to the Philippines, as they posted an image of Penn and Shay posing by a jeepney captioned, “Did someone order a jeepney? These two are on the way to see you” using the hashtag #NextflixIsHere4You in honor of the momentous event.
The day after their arrival, the two held a press conference to promote ‘You,’ which is a series revolving around Badgley’s character Joe and his obsession with the best friend of Shay’s character, Peach. When talking to the media, Penn says he “loves working with Shay because [they]’re different,” adding, “Like the ingredients of halo-halo – unity in diversity.”