Weighty issues with oversize entertainer Hughes
Weighty issues with oversize entertainer Hughes
By Bruce Emond
JAKARTA (JP): Emcee-cum-talk show host Dewi Hughes bristles whenever she hears the "F" word. Most recently it was a journalist, tired at the wait for a show to begin, who committed the offense.
"He shouted at me, 'hey, fatso, when is everything going to get started?'" Hughes said recently over a brunch of calamari and cappuccino. "I was so angry that I went right over to him and said in English, 'my name is Hughes -- say it Uges -- and that is what you call me. And if you ever call me that other name again, you will see what I'll do'."
At 165 cm and 104 kg, Hughes is doing her part to break down the barriers for overweight women in the Indonesian entertainment world. She emcees gatherings, hosts the new RCTI Saturday night talk show Angin Malam (Night Wind) and acts occasionally, most recently in the multimedia show JokoTingkir (she is also the woman dining out and being pampered in a commercial for a Pepsodent competition).
She said it was difficult because fat characters were traditionally the butt of jokes in local comedies. "That is one thing I will not do, the jokes. I watch fat women being insulted and pushed around, called names, in shows, and I think why do they let that happen to themselves?"
Hughes has been through thick and thin times, both in terms of her weight and her career.
One of six daughters born to a Balinese father and a Dutch- Balinese mother, the 29 year old moved with her family to several cities in Java when she was young (she converted to Islam when the family was living in Banten, West Java) before settling in Jakarta.
Her unusual name was the choice of her father, who was fascinated by the life of American tycoon and airline pioneer Howard Hughes.
"When I was in elementary school, the headmaster would call me Hughes, but say it Uges, and it stuck. I like having the name because nobody else has it here. And it was nothing unusual in my family -- one of my sisters is called Kissinger."
She studied at a vocational high school for teachers in Jakarta, and then continued to Atma Jaya University, also in Jakarta, with a major in English. Her father died in 1986, and Hughes said she took additional work, such as a promotional girl for a publishing company, to help her family.
Child psychologist Kak Seto spotted her one day when she was explaining a children's story to some kids.
"He told me that I was good at telling stories and that I could work with him. He would tell the story in Indonesian to the children, and I would tell it in English. I remember the first one we did was Little Red Riding Hood."
She drew on her past experience by playing a teacher in Pengalaman Sherina (Sherina's Adventure), the huge box-office hit which has breathed new life into the Indonesian film industry.
Hughes said her weight gain began about 10 years ago when she was ordered to rest and recuperate after a liver ailment.
"I was not eating right, sleeping right. I was told to stop swimming, stop heavy physical activity and eat what I wanted. I would have a big glass full of sugar every day."
She said she hit the ground running when it came to chowing down, but found she could not put on the brakes even when she was fully recovered.
"I just kept eating and eating. I became lazy about everything except eating. I failed a class because I was too lazy to climb the stairs to the classroom. Imagine that."
In the meantime, she set up her own company to provide entertainment for children's parties. "I had Rp 150,000 to start with, to buy the clown's costumes and equipment, but we did very well. We charged Rp 350,000 which included the clowns, some party gifts."
The weight piled on as she adopted a pattern of compulsive eating. She admitted that part of the problem was she ate from loneliness.
"After the parties, the parents would usually give me half of the cake to take home. I would go home and eat it by myself. Or I would go out to restaurants and eat. I love steak, noodles and Coca-Cola, especially coke. I was drinking a liter a day. And I had to eat rice, or else I would say I hadn't eaten."
She would go out in search of food.
"I loved to go out driving. I would drive up to Puncak where there is this great Balinese restaurant. It's hard to find it because it's on a small road in the mountains. I would sit there, reading magazines and eating. I would have something, and then feel like something else, and order that. Oh, and then how about something else."
Although her weight gain was not an issue for her family ("all of my family have big bones, except for one of my sisters who is really small"), others were critical. "There were no positive comments, nobody would say 'you look good'. It was all about, 'wow, you really have got fat'."
The additional kilos also got in the way of her career ambitions after she took a course on being a TV host. An audition at a private TV station ended in rejection.
"The producer said to me that he really liked me but I was too fat. He said, 'please call me when you've lost 10 or 15 kilos'".
Initially she desperately tried to diet, making the round of enterprises providing hopes of slimness.
"I wanted to be able to dress up like other girls. I went to slimming centers, to an acupuncturist, I tried everything and spent a lot of money. And then when I had gained about 50 percent more, I realized it was all making me fatter. If I was going to diet, it should be about being healthy, not about being skinny."
She persisted in her career ambitions, took a course on having the confidence to pursue one's ambitions -- and the doors slowly began to open.
She was hired as the sidekick to Indra Safera, and then his replacement Eko, on the gossip show KISS. It panned out into a career of regular emceeing gigs, TV appearances and now the talk show.
Hughes balked at the suggestion her fame was based on her novelty value as an overweight female entertainer with a pretty face.
"People knew me when I was 58 kilos, when I was 70 kilos and now when I'm more than 100 kilos. I'm not a joke, I'm a presenter."
She scored a major coup when she was selected to host an interview earlier this year with Miss Universe Lara Dutta, along with other guests MTV veejay Sarah, model-presenter Carolina and actress Desy Ratnasari.
Even with her career in high gear and her assertion that being fat was not a big issue, Hughes acknowledged old attitudes die hard. She is single for the time being because "I'm tired of Indonesian men telling me 'I love you, but could you be slimmer for me, please?'. I can live without that."
Role model
Hughes said overweight people also needed to realize they were no different from others except when it came to the number on the scale. "We are normal, not handicapped. We have two eyes, two arms, two feet. We don't need to have a club demanding the rights of fat people."
She is planning to open a clothing store for large women -- to be named Big -- before the end of the year. Hughes said she was proud if other large women considered her a role model.
"Women sometimes come up to me and say they are wearing red or some other color again because they saw me wearing bright colors. I used to always wear black -- black everything -- until one day my then manager told me she was fed up with seeing me in black.
"I started wearing colors the next day and have never gone back. Now I feel strange if I have to put on anything black."
Despite her avowed confidence in her weight ("I would be so bitchy thin -- skinny girls are bitchy"), would she be tempted if there was a wonder drug guaranteeing thinness?
"Yes, I have to say I would take it, but not to be model- skinny. It would not be about being thin to look good, but for health. When I have a little trouble breathing, then I think it would be better to lose some weight."