Fans of Thai cinema may best remember Apinya "Saiparn" Sakuljaroensuk from the iconic afro hairdo she had in her breakthrough performance in 2007 film Ploy. Seven years later, the afro has been replaced with pigtails and she is now more than ready to stake her claim as one of the most talented and diverse young Thai actresses in the industry today.
The 24-year-old is starring in two very different films coming to cinemas this month.
One of them is Concrete Clouds, a film that revolves around the lives of two brothers and their love interests at the time of Bangkok's economic bubble bursting in 1997. It was an era when girls roamed Centre Point [presently Siam area] wearing spaghetti strap tops and platform shoes, but it was not only 90s fashion that Saiparn, who plays a teenage girl from the 90s, admits she found hard to "get".
"Although I was born in 1990, I was too young to listen to the music of that era, bands like Triumph Kingdom for example."
To get into character therefore, Saiparn did a lot of research, including watching old music videos pf adolescents crying in the rain when heartbroken. Nothing really helped, however, until she got on set.
"It was the art, the lighting, the cast, the costumes and the director Lee Chatametikool. They were so good that, when I got on set, I started to absorb and feel the real emotion of how things were then."
Saiparn is well-versed in taking on challenging roles. In Club Friday The Series, she played a woman whose husband was having an affair with her mother.
"Mostly, I get thrown into dramas — and very heavy ones at that. If anything, people think of my name first if they need someone for a drama. I think I'm a very funny person. I'm like a boy. I can be ludicrous, rude and foul mouthed. Why do I always have to cry [in films]?" said Saiparn with a smile.
In Saiparn's other movie out this month, the romantic comedy Love Sud Jin Fin Sugoi — commonly known as Fin Sugoi — she plays a girl obsessed with a Japanese rock singer. The project finally allowed Saiparn and director Tanwarin Sukkapisit to fulfil their long-held promise of working together.
"Golf [Tanwarin] was very specific in the direction she wanted each scene to take and how far she wanted to push it," remembers Saiparn. "She gave it all in every scene. Everything peaked. For me, when I read the script, it was just words and of course I imagined how each of them would turn out. Golf's vision however was way over my head. It's like she's from a different planet. I asked if she was serious and she'd answer, 'Yes, totally'. All of our scenes were fully packed. We weren't just telling a story anymore. It's like we were playing with raw human emotion."
Tanwarin recalled that many cast members were quite nervous when they found out they had to play opposite Saiparn — an actress she praised as possessing all the qualities every director wants.
"They [the cast] knew she was superb," said Tanwarin matter-of-factly. "But, after they all got on set, Saiparn made all of her co-stars relaxed and made the scenes and the film as a whole more natural."
Saiparn has been constantly working since her film debut in Ploy and readily admits that growing up in the entertainment industry, infront of the camera, has taken its toll.
"I used to be really headstrong and moody. I threw tantrums," recalled Saiparn of what she referred to as her dark teenage period. "Sometimes I felt tired of working almost every single day, almost like I was on autopilot, but, if you ask me if I like being an actress, then yes I do. If I had to just stay at home, I couldn't."
Reaching 20, Saiparn believes, was a turning point in her life and was a time she finally realised she needed to get serious about acting and continue to improve herself by taking on different roles.
"I knew I couldn't stop acting because I loved it. I also knew I couldn't betray my audiences by using my face and I couldn't betray my investors by using my name and disappointing them all," said the actress.
Now, thanks to her varied and extensive filmography, one would think that Saiparn has her choice of scripts, and she does, theoretically, but the actress admits that her parents and manager are the ones that actually make most of her decisions.
"I don't really choose which job to do," said Saiparn. "I like continually trying new things and improving, but I'm also not confident enough to say, 'Hey, I want to be in this project because I want to try it out'. I don't dare experiment with an investor's 10 million baht. They have to be confident in me first."
"I want to be an empty vessel so that I can get fresh input every day. That's how you gain experience."
Concrete Clouds.
Love Sud Jin Fin Sugoi.
