Elma Theana's hard times no bar to stardom

By Tuti Gintini

JAKARTA (JP): Like mother like daughter, so goes the life of TV star Elma Theana.

Elma's mother, Waty Siregar, played in titillating films in the 1970s and danced with snakes in nightclubs. Elma, too, worked her way from the bottom.

These days, however, you are more likely to find Waty at home, joining Muslim prayer gatherings and taking care of her grandchildren.

Elma, 26, said she was very proud of her mother, "whatever her job was."

Speaking on the set of her latest TV drama Istana Kaca (Glass Palace) in Kuningan, South Jakarta, Elma said that her mother was the family's sole breadwinner. Following a divorce, Waty would take any job going to support her family -- including striptease dancing. Her mother's spunk to support the family inspired Elma to earn money from adolescence.

Elma said that from the time she was at junior high school her mother was very busy. Every night her mother danced in nightclubs. Her elder sister became a singer, too. She was often lonely, living in a small rented house located near a fetid canal in a slum area of Jakarta that her mother rented for Rp 750,000 per year.

"Can you imagine that I lived in such a house? I have led a bitter life since childhood, moving all the time and staying with relatives, renting a filthy house ... and the diseases I suffered were poor people's ones, like scabies, ulcers, warts, diarrhea and the like," said the actress.

Determined to help her mother, she began to scour newspapers for job ads. At the age of 12, she became a photo model. A garment company in Mangga Dua, North Jakarta paid her Rp 2,000 a photo. They took 60 snaps, she earned Rp 120,000 and was very happy to go home.

"From childhood I was always earning money for myself. I found a school, enrolled myself and paid the fees with my own money," she said.

Elma was keen to become a star. She was prepared to model for any product, no matter how small it was, provided it paid. Her face appeared in commercials for many different things including jamu traditional medicine, soaps and confectionery.

"I had appeared in around 20 ads when Xonce vitamins hired me for their (TV) commercial, which eventually got me noted," she said.

Elma played a toll booth attendant who was asked by a motorist 'Xoncenya mana ?' (Where is the Xonce?).

After this, Elma's career took off, and TV miniseries (sinetron) offers came flooding in. Before that, her frequent requests to producers only resulted in insignificant roles in crowd scenes.

"As an extra, I was only paid Rp 2,000. But never mind, the most important thing was that I was getting paid," she said.

Once she was tempted by an alluring proposal. "Somebody came to me offering me a part in a blue film. He said 'what's the use of having a beautiful face and body if you're not using it to make big money.'"

Elma thought hard before rejecting the offer. She became successful and is aware that her fortune didn't just drop from the sky. She is not jealous of other artists who became popular easily.

"I led my life like that and everyone has his or her own way of life," she said.

Neither does she regret she is an actress, and not the teacher or doctor she once dreamt about. She said she used to like to gather her neighbors' small children and pretend to be a dentist. Or she was a doctor, and the children were her patients suffering from imaginary ulcers.

Her desire to become a doctor did not happen because she left school after senior high. "But one day I might make my dream come kind of true by owning a kindergarten and become a director and teacher as well," she said.

Elma had played numerous roles: mother, career woman, doctor, teacher, bad woman, mad woman and lesbian. "What role haven't I played yet? Perhaps a woman with a double personality ?" she said.

Happy enough

Now Elma says she is happy enough. She has made considerable money during her career as a TV star. She has a loving husband, a good career, a house, a luxury car and an 11-month old cute baby under the care of two babysitters. She is also happy having parents-in-law whose love for her exceeds the love they have for their own children.

"I feel my life is accomplished," she said. Elma said she only met her husband four times prior to marrying him. God willing, he is the right spouse for me, she thought.

"At that time I felt saturated with my life, which was just working and working and being the family bread winner. I was tired. Then I thought, in fact I felt lonely, I wanted to share my life with a man. I wanted to get married and have a child," she said.

Elma said she would not marry a fellow artist "on principle". She used to date them though, including Anjas Asmara, who is now Dian Nitami's husband, and Teuku Ryan.

"Fary, my current husband is the fifth man in my life," she said.

She named her baby Thalia after a Latin soap opera star she adores. She admits to enjoying watching soaps before getting married, and Thalia, who played the role of Maria Mercedez, is her favorite artist.

These days she turns down weekend work so as to spend time with the baby.

She has no problem with the inevitable loss of popularity that comes with marriage and child. She said that her income was God's business. As proof, she keeps receiving offers for commercials and TV dramas.

This month she will leave for Bangkok for a soap ad. Along with her husband, child and babysitters.

"In fact, I am not making any profit because the producer is only paying my expenses. I am happy as I can also go on vacation with my family," she said.