Living up to fame is not what matters<\/p>\n
By Yogita Tahil Ramani<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): If good looks were all that counted to reach the
\ntop echelons of the TV and film world, few would fit the bill
\nbetter than Khadijah Azhari, popularly known as Ayu Azhari.<\/p>\n
Tall and full-bodied, with an aquiline nose and straight,
\nthick black hair, the 28-year-old mother of four from Jakarta
\nlooks every inch like she was born to be a star.<\/p>\n
Except it was not that easy. From a family which upholds
\nIslamic norms, Ayu found her Afghan mother and grandmother were
\noften outraged by what they saw of her on and off the screen.<\/p>\n
\"Well, it was basically the thigh-length skirts and camera
\ntricks of love scenes on the screen. Come to think of it, there
\nwas more,\" she smirked.<\/p>\n
An idealist and dreamer, the eldest of eight in the family
\nyearned to have her own family and \"foolishly married\" at 19 to a
\nmusician wanna-be.<\/p>\n
Between juggling modeling, a baby and a husband, she still
\nfound time to act. It paid off. She won the national film award
\nfor best supporting actress for her role in Dua Kekasih (Two
\nLovers).<\/p>\n
Her husband turned out a \"drug addict\" and she spent no time
\nin divorcing him -- \"I cared for him, but then I knew that if I
\ncontinued having close relations with him, I might get involved
\ntoo.\"<\/p>\n
She has gone on to play in at least 20 movies and several
\nsinetron (TV drama series), for which she won best actress awards
\nfor her roles in Vonis Kepagian (Premature Verdict, 1996) and
\nPerkawinan Siti Zubaedah (The Marriage of Siti Zubaedah) in 1997.<\/p>\n
With talent and hard work, the money rained on her. Now well-
\nsettled with her second husband and children, the actress
\ncommands more than Rp 70 million per sinetron episode. Movie
\ncritics say her take works out over the several episodes to be
\nmuch more than the usual Rp 500 million check for a single movie.<\/p>\n
She is a serious actress and family oriented, which has led TV
\nand film people to consider her simple-minded. One director puts
\nit, \"Ayu will laughingly chuck away money and a promising career
\nfor the sake of her children and husband.\"<\/p>\n
Ayu has her reasons. She had to make very difficult decisions
\nat a very young age. She would never admit to it, but it shows in
\nthe way she tends to take immediate control of difficult
\nsituations, without her realizing it.<\/p>\n
While walking down a road to Hotel Atlet Century Park in
\nCentral Jakarta for an interview with The Jakarta Post, her young
\nson fell down and hit his knee on the pavement. He cried and
\nbegged to be carried.<\/p>\n
She bent down, held her son's arms lightly and looked at him
\nsternly. \"Look, you cannot cry this way. You will attract
\nattention. When we reach the hotel, you can sleep on the sofa.
\nFine?\" The three-and-a-half-year-old boy nodded and stopped
\ncrying.<\/p>\n
With this same determined, practical mindset, she shifted from
\nplaying movies to TV series. Movie stars had egos to maintain,
\nincluding Ayu. But she also felt that she had her \"pragmatism to
\nlive up to\".<\/p>\n
Ayu said that all movie stars needed reassurance of who they
\nwere, and it could only come through their craft.<\/p>\n
\"How are they going to get that if they don't act?\"<\/p>\n
She slipped into roles of the second wife, a cheap prostitute
\nand several more which other high-priced Indonesian actresses
\nshrugged off simply because they were in sinetron. Currently, she
\nis busy shooting her next Multivision Plus sinetron titled Satu
\ndi Antara Dua Pilihan (One Among Two Choices) and awaiting the
\nrelease of Slamet Rahardjo's movie, Telegram in Jakarta. Playing
\nthe role of a woman who emotionally motivates a troubled
\njournalist, the movie will be Ayu's return to the silver screen.<\/p>\n
The following are excerpts from an interview last week.<\/p>\n
Question: Most TV series today are mediocre soap operas
\ntelling of spouse-changes and the next fashion statement. Aren't
\nyou embarrassed to act in them?<\/p>\n
Answer: The only difference I see in the movies and TV series
\nI act in is that one is made with celluloid film and the other a
\nvideo camera. It all depends on a good director. Many of them
\nhave egocentric mentalities. They might dabble with the idea of
\nmaking good productions by checking lights or cajole actors with
\nminimalist statements once in a while. But, on the whole, they
\nconcentrate on individual goals ... like concentrating on
\nexploiting the best of one actor or actress' capabilities on
\nscreen.<\/p>\n
This should not do. Professional actors will act their best
\nand, yes, the director's hand always helps but the attention span
\nmust be divided over all factors, from lighting, dialog delivery,
\ncamerawork and research, may it be on a subject about second
\nchoices for a wife like in Istri Pilihan (The Wife of Choice) or
\nmaternity care, in the case of Perkawinan Siti Zubaedah.<\/p>\n
Q: What is it that you call acting?<\/p>\n
A: During my study sessions with Pak Teguh Karya for Ibunda, (she
\nwas 16), he always told me this one thing. Just take care of
\nwhat's inside of you. Without it, a potentially good actor with
\nthe best hairdo, dress and look, is nothing but a mannequin
\ndelivering dialog. I would go up and ask him: \"What kind of dress
\nwould you like me to wear?\" He would say: \"Please, other people
\nwill take care of your outsides.\" Whether a film or a play, there
\nwill always be someone taking care of makeup, dress, hair and
\nsets. To adjust and act out different kinds of roles comes from
\none's inside.<\/p>\n
Q: In 1997, your role in the movie Without Mercy was remembered
\nmore for the love scene than the struggling drug addict. How does
\nthis fit in into acting?<\/p>\n
A: There I played a drug addict who tried to make good of her
\nlife, but couldn't because her life was controlled by heroin. In
\nthe particular love scene, I was not nude but had scanty
\nclothing on. Scenes were shot from the bust up and in a manner
\nthat was to depict a nude scene. I had no hangups with love
\nscenes then. I was unmarried and free. I know I did not do love
\nscenes because I asked for them, but because they were required
\nof me. It was acting, pretending, and I had the job of making it
\nlook real just like everybody else did on the sets.<\/p>\n
Q: How do you feel about audience reactions to those scenes?<\/p>\n
A: What people think afterwards comes out of pent-up frustrations
\nthat come with being hypocrites. So they go talking that I am too
\ndaring, I don't have any morality, I play in pornographic movies.
\nWell, if that is the case, then I would say that I have done my
\njob in acting out the scenes effectively.<\/p>\n
Q: Do real emotions ever get caught up during heated moments in
\nsuch scenes?<\/p>\n
A: When I am in such a scene, one has to control one's emotions,
\nnot get fired up in the process and deliver a good scene. That is
\nwhat acting is all about. The fact that the cameraman can
\nconvince audiences that I am naked in a love scene means that he
\nhas done his job. We are professionals, and believe me when I say
\nthis, acting is not a joke. It is a science of make-believe and
\ndelivering a real message.<\/p>\n
Q: It is widely known that your mother would accompany you to
\nshooting locations when you were very young. What did she think
\nof your acting in movies then?<\/p>\n
A: I started acting when I was 15. My first movie was Akibat Buah
\nTerlarang (The Result of Forbidden Fruit). My mother, who used to
\noften accompany me to on location, knew that odd images tend to
\nstick to young, good-looking girls, but never for the life of her
\nimagined the kind that stuck to me. I remember she used to get a
\nlittle edgy when she would see me holding hands with actors at
\nshoots and wearing the thigh-length skirts I was required to
\nwear. But the real blow came when she was actually sitting in the
\nmovie theater watching my movies.<\/p>\n
Q: What happened then?<\/p>\n
A: You see, a big screen tends to magnify reputations out of
\nproportion. When you walk in a thigh-length skirt today, guys
\nmight whistle and go, nice dress, and the youngsters will go,
\nhey, that's fashion. But portray that on the big screen and whoa,
\nyou have yourselves one big thigh reflected in eyes. The thigh
\nstands out on screen. So one can imagine what camera tricks on
\nnear-kisses did to my mother. Nevertheless, aftershocks never
\nlasted long and my family always supported me, because they knew
\nI was quite serious about acting.<\/p>\n
Q: You started your acting career at 15, when you were in high
\nschool...<\/p>\n
A: After high school at SMU 6 in Bulungan, South Jakarta, I took
\nup modeling and film offers came. I was and still am a private
\nperson. I did not want to belong to everybody. But the offer of
\nacting out not only a good role, but with the now late Tuti Indra
\nMalaon was just too good to resist. I never took formal acting
\nclasses, but I did take up a course for a month or so in Los
\nAngeles and another offered at the Indonesian Film Artists Union
\n(Parfi) when I had just started acting in movies.<\/p>\n
Q: What interested you in acting?<\/p>\n
A: I never liked acting before. When I was a kid, I wanted to be
\na pediatrician thanks to this one childhood experience. My
\nneighborhood doctor once misdiagnosed a tummy ache and fever for
\nmalaria. He actually gave me this bitter medicine which irritated
\nmy liver. There was this minor swelling, my family doctor called
\nit poisoning by medicine. I was about nine or ten and I knew then
\nI wanted to be a pediatrician. But then when I started acting,
\nthe pediatrician fever gradually wore off and so, I learned to
\nact. People said I had talent. Word got around and finally came
\nthe break from Pak Teguh.<\/p>\n
Q: You seem to be a strong family person. You had your suspicions
\nthat your first husband was a drug addict and you chose to leave
\nhim...<\/p>\n
A: You see, leaving someone is a way of helping someone, too. I
\nknew my first husband, Djody Gondokusumo, from since we were
\nreally young. Ever since I was little, I always told my mother
\nthat I wanted to marry at age 20. I finished high school at 18,
\nwent out with him officially when I was 19 and got married soon
\nafter. I was satisfied with the fact that somebody actually liked
\nme and wanted to make me as his wife. He was 19 also (laughs).
\nYa, I guess you could call it first love, literally.<\/p>\n
Q: What happened to the love?<\/p>\n
A: We got married, and soon after I suspected that he was heavily
\ninto drugs. His living with me then just became too dangerous. He
\nwas in a rock band. I was so young. I did not even understand the
\nmeaning of family. I had my first baby when I was 20. He wanted
\nto become somebody he wanted to be and I likewise. We did many
\nthings that were not good for the family. It was just too risky
\nand so our parents intervened. They got us separated because
\nagain, it was not good for Hassan, (formerly known as Axl), our
\nfirstborn. He (Djody) had to fix himself, you know. Now I know it
\nwas drugs. Then, I didn't. My parents knew.<\/p>\n
I suspected his problem but could not bring myself to believe
\nit. I used to say: \"Oh come on how could he be into drugs?\" Much
\nlater, the actress girlfriend he was sharing his drugs with
\nduring our marriage died of an overdose. That was when he knew
\nthat he had to set himself straight. Just this August he went for
\ntreatment in a hospital in Seattle. I think he's doing much
\nbetter now.<\/p>\n
Q: How does Hassan take his absence?<\/p>\n
A: My first son was not affected much by our divorce because he
\nwas just born then. But even though he is seven, he does know
\nthat Djody is his father. He is happy that he has two fathers.<\/p>\n
Q: How did you meet your second husband and what is he doing
\ncurrently?<\/p>\n
A: A couple of years after the divorce, I met my second husband
\nat a friend's party. Alhamdullilah (Thank God), Teemu Kaariainen,
\n(now Muhammad Yusuf), converted for me. We got married soon
\nafter. I am very lucky. Most Europeans (he is Finnish) I know
\ndon't usually care much about religion. They might be born
\nChristians but they never really believe. Yusuf was studying
\nbefore our marriage. I am a year older than him. I was born Nov.
\n19, 1970. When I met Yusuf, I never thought I would marry him. We
\nwere just friends, and I was still waiting for Djody to get
\nbetter because I thought that in life you fall in love just once.
\nHe objected initially to my acting but now he does not. He knows
\nwhat acting means to me, and the people I affect with my acting.<\/p>\n
Q: How long do you plan to act?<\/p>\n
A: Allah has put me as an actress at this point. Allah will
\nprobably show me the way later, too, and what my position in this
\nworld will be. I don't know why I am still an actress, why I
\nstill do it. Definitely not for the money. In any case, it is
\nthrough this acting that I convey messages to society.<\/p>\n
Q: What is your next project?<\/p>\n
A: My next project is a TV show, which I will present myself, for
\nthe coming Ramadhan month. It's called Pesona Islami (Islamic
\nEnchantment). I would call it an informative awareness package
\nthat will tell people of their origins. I believe all souls come
\nfrom heaven. People today don't think of that. I want to remind
\nthem again: How else will they find peace?<\/p>",
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