Acting like a star

Sara Malakul Lane takes on her latest role: Hollywood hotshot

Did you know?: Belly of the Beast and Volcano will be released in 2004.

Story by Suwitcha Chaiyong, Photography by Paniti Boonma and courtesy of Sara Malakul Lane

Starry-eyed wannabes across the globe dream of making it big in Hollywood. And there isn't any exception for Thailand where more and more Thai celebrities are dreaming of having the international spotlight shine upon them. But not many are as lucky as 20-year-old actress Sara Malakul Lane who has made her dream of acting in Hollywood come true.

Sara recently came back from Bulgaria where she shot Volcano, a Hollywood flick in which she plays in the leading role opposite Chris William Martin. That's right, a Thai lady in the leading role. But that's not all. Before that, she played Steven Seagal's daughter in Belly of the Beast. The film, by the way, was shot in Thailand.

Even though Sara is now a Hollywood star, she hasn't forgotten her roots. She is friendly and she answers reporters' questions with enthusiasm. It's no surprise then that an entertainment magazine in Thailand picked her as the nicest star.

But things weren't always so easy for Sara. When she was auditioning for Belly of the Beast, she almost gave up and walked out of the waiting room.  "I saw a lot of Thai celebrities waiting to audition," she recalled. "I told the person I went with that this was a waste of time and I wanted to leave. But they asked me to stay."

She did stay and she did audition for the part, but she didn't put her heart into it. "When acting for the part, I didn't pay much attention to what I was doing, but the casting people liked the way I acted. They said I looked naturally stubborn, just like the character," Sara said with a sparkle in her eyes.

She plays an American teenager in Belly of the Beast, a role that wasn't easy for her. "It was hard. I had to change from my British accent to an American one," she said.

But her character did have some exciting scenes that made up for her accent problems. "The most exciting scenes in the film were the fight scenes," Sara said. "I got to kick and beat up the bad guys and I stabbed one of them with a knife. The downside was I ended up with bruises all over my body."

Because of her good acting in Belly of the Beast and her professional behaviour on the set, the producer contacted her to play the leading role in his other film Volcano. "In Volcano, I play Angela, an Italian village girl blessed with a sixth sense," Sara said. "People accuse me of being a devil child. I had to act like I was crazy. It was fun."

As the title of the movie implies, it was also dangerous. "I had to do quite a lot of scenes with fire and lava," she recalled. "I was nearly hit by a fireball, but the safety guys rescued me in time."

But despite the action on the set, Sara said that acting in Hollywood films could be lonely. In Hollywood, the actors each had a car to pick them up at the hotel and then spent most of their time on the set in their trailer waiting to shoot scenes. "The actors didn't get together like when I played on Thai soap operas," Sara said. "Those were more like a family."

But Hollywood films do have their benefits. One of the major pluses is travelling. While shooting Volcano, Sara got to see the beauty of Bulgaria, which the producers used in place of Italy. "Bulgaria is an amazing country. I was there during the summer, so the weather was beautiful. The people were very welcoming and Sofia (the capital) is a totally unspoiled city. I recommend it to anyone who wants to spend a holiday there � plus everything was reasonably priced," Sara said.

So what's next for this leading lady? Like most Thai stars, she has done a bit of everything � modelling, VJ-ing and acting. But for Sara, the answer is clear. "I am an actress 100 percent," she said. "I just have many different roles. When I am on the catwalk, I am playing the role of a model. Most recently, I acted as a singer for a VCD release called Love Dream Death. Everyone asked if I was going to become a singer. No way, I can't sing, but I can act like a singer."

And if she keeps up the good work, Sara may just get to act like a Hollywood leading lady for years to come.

VOCABULARY

wannabe (n): a person who behaves, dresses, etc. like somebody famous because they want to be like them
roots (n): the feelings or connections that you have with a place because you have lived there or your family came from there
enthusiasm (n): a strong feeling of excitement and interest in something and a desire to become involved in it
audition (v): to take part in a short performance given by an actor, a singer, etc. to try to get a role
stubborn (adj): determined not to change your opinion or attitude
stab (v): to push a sharp, pointed object, especially a knife, into somebody, killing or injuring them