When we met up with Kanticha "Ticha" Chumma, she was having lunch by herself at GMM Building in Asok. It was a humid afternoon and the winner of the model-seeking reality show The Face Thailand Season 2, a hit when it aired earlier this year, came to the interview from the inaugural ceremony of her debut acting role in the TV series My Name Is Single.
"I'm playing Timor, a fashion buyer who is quite similar to myself because she's outspoken, confident and speaks a mixture of Thai and English," said Kanticha, in fluent English.
The 13-episode romantic comedy is loosely based on Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre's famous tune Khon Mai Mee Fan and will pit Kanticha opposite Rathanand "Ter" Chanyachirawong (Kim from The Diary of Tootsies), diva Rudklao Amratisha and Getsunova's frontman Prakarn "Name" Raiva.
It's been half a year since Kanticha was crowned The Face's winner, and life has been busy since then for the Thai model who grew up in Sweden. Over these past few months, she's done modelling, commercials, runway walks and appeared on the cover of various magazines.
"People call me models. I'm not even of the legit height," said Kanticha who is 167cm tall, which is considerably short for runway models. "But I can do it because I never give up."
The 21-year-old admitted some people think she won The Face out of luck, especially when the audience seemed to put the money on her taller and "prettier" opponents, and hence more suitable for the title than herself.
"If we let the public majority of Thailand decide, maybe I wouldn't win the show. I'm not in the stereotype that would fit into the dara industry," she said, referring to the star-making quality. "I'm lucky that the judges are the ones who work in the industry. I think they saw something in me and perhaps they wanted something different, too. It became an opportunity to prove to the people that you don't need to be, say, 177cm to win this."
Kanticha herself believes she was indeed lucky. But not many people realised what went on before luck was on her side. She revealed she's always wanted to be a model. Growing up, she spent her time moving back and forth between Thailand and Sweden. TV shows such as America's Next Top Model and the likes were responsible for planting the dream in the young Ticha.
That dream eventually turned into determination. Kanticha used to send her portfolios to different agencies and travelled for hours to do free shoots.
"But nothing really went as planned," she confessed. "I got a lot of no's. I was like, what am I lacking? What is it that others have that I don't? And you feel your self-esteem going down. You get rejected for the first time and, holy sh*t, it hurts."
After some persistence, Kanticha soon established connections with photographers and make-up artists. She began getting small random gigs of photo shoots, but nothing major.
"I can't survive with the money I got, though. What I have done in Sweden was nothing compared to Thailand. The industry wasn't as big. Over there, they don't have the same dara system as we have in Thailand. Anyone looking to be big needs to go abroad."
During her gap year after finishing high school, Kanticha decided to fly back to Thailand to audition for The Face Thailand Season 2. She was picked to join actress, model and singer Namthip "Bee" Jongrachatawiboon's team.
Hard work eventually paid off, and that's the code Kanticha lives by -- that and the classic "follow your dreams". She made her final walk and strutted away from the show a winner. "P Bee", as she affectionately calls her mentor Namthip, remains Kanticha's role model and inspiration.
"She is so talented, humble and real. I admire that about her," said Kanticha. Inspired by Namthip, she let on she would love to reach the point where she doesn't need her face and name appearing on mainstream news just to be able to find work.
Being where she is right now, and especially after being crowned winner of The Face Thailand, Kanticha has seen one too many comments criticising that she's not beautiful enough. And she has no tolerance towards the negativities people try throwing at her.
"F**k you. I'm beautiful, bitch," she said, smiling. "If they're gonna give me beneficial criticism then I'll take it. I wanna improve myself. But to tell me I'm not beautiful, what do you want from me? You just want to bring me down and I'm not gonna let you succeed on that."
The model believes that, as she was raised in a society that's not too judging, she felt she has a strong wall built against destructive criticism since young age.
"I'm very confident, and it's not about thinking I'm perfect. It's about knowing your own good and bad side. You embrace the good and try to improve the bad."
Kanticha is very well aware of the Thai beauty standards in which one has to be white and skinny to be considered beautiful to the public. She expressed that it is quite unfortunate how many young girls are criticised when they don't conform to the society's definition of beauty.
"If a girl has dark skin, people would call her dam [black]. These girls grow up feeling insecure about themselves and that's just sad."
As for the society's craze on being all bone and skin to achieve what they believe as true beauty, Kanticha is strongly against the idea. Being fit is rather the trend to follow in her opinion.
"You cannot starve yourself to get a beautiful body!" she insisted. "Being thin isn't equal to being fit. And to be fit, you have to exercise."
"I like working out, and jogging, doing crunches and sit-ups," said the model of how she takes care of her body. "I eat chips!" she whispered secretively before letting out a laugh.
My Name Is Single will air every Monday starting on Aug 1 on GMM 25.
