The straightforward and carefree Ria Irawan

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

Actress/video music director Ria Irawan, 33, had just taken a break after shooting a music video recently, and immediately joined her producers and other crew members who were also resting in a corner.

Moments later, she has already sparked laughter for telling bawdy stories which would make most parents cover their children's ears.

Ria is carefree, brutally straightforward, and never hesitates to start a conversation even with strangers to put them at ease, or simply to make them blush.

As an actress, she is very professional, she always comes to the location on time and does her homework.

However, she is far from the usual stuck-up image of a celebrity. For her, the shooting location is home and all crew members, even the lowest ranking, are her family.

In fact, she does not know any other kind of life as she has been in the industry since she was four.

It was her late father, then well-known actor Bambang Irawan, who took her to a movie production before she even knew that what she was doing was called acting.

"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have had another kind of childhood," Ria told The Jakarta Post.

In school after the holidays were over, kids would tell various stories about how they spent their vacation. Some would say that they went for a picnic, some would tell how they spent their time playing interesting games. But Ria would always come with the same story.

"I only did shooting and more shooting. It was kind of sad," Ria said.

Her father, who died when she was 10, always emphasized that acting meant work, so she had to take it seriously and do it with all her heart.

Perhaps, one must understand the above history before jumping to conclusions about her carefree attitude, the thing which has been the fodder of the tabloids.

She admits to having been a troubled person once.

It was the controversial death of a young man named Rifardi from a drug overdose at her home in 1992, which put her name in the headlines in most local publications.

She and her former boyfriend, well-known music video director Rizal Mantovani, had to deal with the police before they were eventually cleared of any suspicion.

"I'm a friend to all kinds of people. Many times they come to my home for sanctuary if they have problems. I try to help them," Ria said.

After all the turbulence, however, she successfully bounced back and freed herself from dependencies, including drug use.

Today, she is reestablishing herself as an actress.

When old-time players start to fade away or end up doing second rate TV dramas, otherwise known as sinetron, Ria's career took wing again when she was chosen to play a leading role in the upcoming big screen movie Biola Tak Berdawai (The Stringless Violin).

She has also done other things such as music videos (some of which have even won awards from a local TV station) and importing several Spanish soap operas for local TVs.

Nevertheless, she has no regrets about the things she has gone through. In fact, she admits that everything that has happened in her life took place only because she allowed it to happen.

"I'm a very curious person. I hate it when people don't try to figure out everything. Me, I always want to try everything."

Ria is indeed the kind of person who is driven to try everything.

Even though she had already achieved stardom status when she was a teenager, she chose not take leading role in teen flicks. Instead, she chose supporting roles playing opposite good adult performers.

"I love acting in supporting roles. I think supporting roles are very important since they often carry the story forward," Ria said.

As the result, she won the Best Supporting Actress for her moving performance in Selamat Tinggal, Jeanette (Good Bye, Jeanette) at the 1989 Indonesia Film Festival (FFII).

"Back then, I always wondered if I was going to receive another award. But then I learned that it was not really the right way of thinking," Ria said.

She then realized that the main achievement she had to aspire to was to be satisfied with her work. So she kept honing her skills as an actress.

"Only since 1997, I could really call myself an artist. I even put it on my ID card as my occupation," Ria said while puffing on a cigarette.

Apart from her carefree attitude, her innocent, child-like looks reveal that a sadness and loneliness inside her.

She admits to have tried to build relationships with men from many backgrounds.

Her marriage to a man 14 years older than her, however, hit rock bottom only several months after it started in 1997.

Today, she said, she manages to be a single woman, but added that the possibility of marriage is always open.

"Everybody needs a relationship. But I'm so lousy at taking care of men. Right now, I prefer making friends with women," Ria said.

Despite the fact that she is much calmer than she was several years ago, she admits that she is still in a turbulent state.

"I just started taking yoga, and I already feel more emotionally stable," she said.

The break was over and she had to go back to work.