Mathias Muchus: More than meets the eye

Mathias Muchus: More than meets the eye

By Agni Amorita

JAKARTA (JP): Actor Mathias Muchus cannot be accused of giving
in to typecasting.

He was the boy-next-door in the hugely popular 1980s TV series
Losmen, but gained weight to beef up his looks as a boxer in the
film Rio Sang Juara (Rio the Champion).

He won a Citra, the country's now defunct film award, for
playing a homosexual artist in Istana Kecantikan (Palace of
Beauty) in 1988. And recently he was the cheating husband of an
obsessive wife in the TV series Jangan Rebut Suamiku (Don't Take
My Husband).

He has gained more fame today as the father in Petualangan
Sherina (Sherina's Adventure), the box-office smash produced by
his wife Mira Lesmana.

He not only backed his wife's tough decision to make an
independent movie, but 43-year-old Muchus, who also hosts a game
show, has no difficulty accepting Mira calling the shots on the
set.

"Best of all, I was chosen in a fair and professional way
after auditioning because there were already some names put
forward to play my character," said Muchus, who has two sons,
Galih Galinggis, 9, and Kafka Keandre, 2, with Mira.

His signature role was Tarjo in Losmen. Aired by the then sole
TV station state-owned TVRI, the show told of a middle-class
Yogyakarta family who ran a bed-and-breakfast.

The show was by noted writer Tatik Maliyati, his own professor
in real life, and the cast included veteran actors such as Mieke
Widjaja and Mang Udel.

The streets emptied every Thursday when the show was
broadcast. Muchus' cute looks and naive, idealistic character of
the innkeeper's youngest son stole the show.

"It wasn't just about my physical appearance as people used to
think because the best part that brought me fame was how I could
fit into Tarjo's character as a university student who spent all
of his life in Yogyakarta," Muchus said.

Originally from South Sumatra, he undertook his own research
to hone an authentic Yogyakarta accent.

The television roles continued even after the Indonesian
cinema slipped into a morass, with Muchus taking part in the TV
boom. He has had leading roles in several important sinetron (TV
series); some of his best acting was in Jangan Rebut Suamiku with
two dazzling actresses, Paramita Rusady and Meriam Bellina.

Muchus also takes his theater career seriously. He is the only
actor nominated to play the leading role in the upcoming play
Caligula, which was planned to be staged in 1997 but canceled due
to the monetary crisis. "Acting is my life," the actor said.

Key

Professional is the key word for Muchus in his more than two-
decade-long acting career.

Born in Pagaralam in South Sumatra, Muchus was named after a
Catholic priest who lived next door.

"He was a close friend of my parents who at that time had too
many options for naming me."

Pursuing a dream in performing arts, young Muchus went to
Jakarta to join the School of Performing Arts at the Jakarta Arts
Institute.

"Up to now, its has no more than 20 students each year and its
dominated by male students. Girls are not interested enough in
the very long and hard process of acting lessons," he said.

"My acting process started from a big zero, but the severe
training and basic preparation recharged me almost a hundred
percent. Mentally I was shattered and so empty before the new
concept was introduced. The good news is I became aware that the
acting process is a lifetime education so at anytime I am
learning."

It's a difficult road made harder because of the lack of
support for performing arts careers.

"Parents usually disagree when their children want to study in
the not so commercial performing arts school," Muchus said.

"That's why having idealism for acting in the local film
industry is very, very hard. Because all aspects of it -- from
the script, crew and production process -- are not sufficiently
supportive. Heading for a professional way will take a long
journey because even its elementary aspect, timing, is
neglected."

Lack of professionalism is a problem.

"If we are talking about professionalism, the actor's emotions
have to be kept as a priority without any useless nontechnical
handicaps, like simple things such as late operations. It is a
basic thing but we mostly can't do it."

Another major problem is the use of professional actors with
untrained ones to cut costs.

"As a consequence the professional actor has to adjust his
capability, usually by lowering, to get along because the scene
can't be done alone."

Muchus blamed star-oriented filmmakers in the country, who
want to fill their movies with beautiful no-talents, as the
greatest threat to the quality of local films.

"The great film aspects are neglected for the sake of those
stars. The worst thing is that to pay the millions of rupiah for
the beautiful faces' contracts, the film production budget has
been pressed after the shooting has started. It explains how a
great idea of a movie can turn into a pitiful show in its
realization. This ongoing process, of course, affects the actor
psychologically, and eventually they adjust their standards lower
with the declining production values."

He acknowledged an actor's appearance was important and he
stays fit through bicycle riding. "But it (appearance) doesn't
come first. To be a great actor we have to learn every day. Look
at Christine Hakim -- she is phenomenal today through continuous
learning, day to day".