Stephanie Perez


 * The correct title of this article is Stephanie "Steffi" Perez. The omission of the " is due to technical restrictions.

Stephanie "Steffi" Perez is a character played by Jade Lopez that first appeared in the 2020 Toho disaster film, #JusticeForLove: End of the World.

#JusticeForLove: End of the World
A journalist from the Philippines, she is also Mylene's supportive best friend since high school. Three years prior the events of the film, a near-death experience traumatized Stephanie that resulted in her leaving the country and moving to San Francisco, after Mylene's sister Andrea wanted to start her own company there.

In the present day, Stephanie is now a local news reporter. She reunites with Mylene after three years as Mylene arrives in San Francisco. When Mylene started helping a woman named Alicia to recover from her depression, she still encourages Mylene's decisions of helping Alicia, unlike Olivia's skeptical feeling about Alicia.

Sometime later, after Olivia was suddenly murdered and Mylene is framed for killing her, Stephanie attempts to gather enough evidence linking Gregorio to the murder of Olivia, by approaching Cristina, Gregorio's executive assistant, and convinces her to testify against Gregorio in Mylene's court trial. Cristina initially refuses Stephanie's request.

Mylene then advices Stephanie to abandon any attempt on clearing her name, as it might result in Stephanie's death, but she refuses. Stephanie reveals to Mylene that she prefers to die fighting for the truth instead of letting her friend suffer for a crime she never committed. After realizing Mylene's fate of being sentenced for life in prison, Cristina eventually agrees to testify against Gregorio, but in exchange of quitting her job and reuniting with her 3-year old daughter in the Philippines.

Two months later, the court trial finally takes place in Sacramento. Due to the unusually high evidence presented by Lori, combined with Cristina's testimony and Stephanie's own evidence which she gathered, actually results in Mylene being acquitted and is proven innocent. After celebrating with Mylene on successfully clearing her name, Stephanie immediately returns to the ruined San Francisco for a live coverage of search and rescue operations in the city.

After the United Nations finally reveals the asteroid's existence to the public, Stephanie was promoted to news anchor for the California coverage of a special worldwide broadcast regarding the launch of the ICBMs that would deflect the asteroid. After the mission failed, Stephanie decides to stay in Sacramento with Mylene, preferring to spend her remaining time with Mylene than returning to her home country.

The Final Moments
By October 10, 2020, the asteroid finally impacts Earth and has triggered a global firestorm. Stephanie could be seen with Mylene and her family, all embracing their deaths together as the firestorm approaches Sacramento, 6 hours after the asteroid's impact.

Trivia

 * A scene depicting her death was filmed for the film, along with a destruction scene of Sacramento, intended to portray Mylene's ultimate fate. The scene went unused for unknown reasons, but could be seen in the film's international version under alternate and deleted scenes.
 * The novelization actually had Stephanie being killed by strangulation, while attempting to convince Cristina. In the film, the scene was removed after the filmmakers decided to entirely reshoot the film's third chapter, by removing additional subplots focusing on Gregorio and Andrea.
 * #JusticeForLove: End of the World marks the second instance that both Isabelle Abiera and Jade Lopez appeared together, after in the 2019 series Bihag.
 * Coincidentally, Lopez is portrayed as the supportive best friend of Abiera's character, which is also her role in the series.