Vision of love
Fazura and Fattah Amin sit down for a rare interview together and offer us a glimpse of life as one of the country’s most high-profile couples.
THE newspaper rustles in my hand as I read a line from its pages out loud, “I am not designed to settle down.”
At this, Fattah Amin and Fazura, both seated before me, shoot each other a look and burst out laughing.
Those very words were uttered by Fazura herself when asked about her thoughts on marriage in a 2015 Star2 article I dredged up.
Despite her bold proclamation, Fazura has been married to Fattah for about 10 months now. Known together as “Fattzura”, they are one of the most well-known celebrity couples in the country today.
So what changed? In a rare interview together, Star2 uncovers the love story between the woman who was “not designed to settle down” and the man who wore her resistance down.
Striker, not a cheerleader
After a failed relationship, for a long time, actress Fazura felt marriage was not in the cards.
“There’s a line in Gol & Gincu where my character says, ‘I don’t want to be a cheerleader, I want to be a striker’,” the 34-year-old borrows an analogy from the futsal-set 2005 film she starred in.
“There was a time when I felt I was the cheerleader, where I was the girl who was always just cheering for the other person instead of striking my own goals.”
This realisation prompted the actress to embrace singlehood and devote herself to work. And work she did. She even picked up the prestigious Best Actress trophy at the 2015 Malaysia Film Festival for Manisnya Cinta Di Cappadocia along the way!
“I was euphorically obsessed with my career. I told my mum I was OK with not being married, which worried her for many years,” she shares.
All that changed in early 2017 when Fazura was paired with a hot new actor, Fattah, in the romantic drama, Hero Seorang Cinderella.
“We courted each other for a bit. But in my head, I thought it was just temporary. When the show ended, we would say goodbye and just be friends,” Fazura says.
To her surprise, Fattah continued pursuing her.
“Faz is the kind of person who cares deeply for the people around her. If anyone says anything about her friends or family, she always has their backs.
“Throughout the time we worked together on set, I saw how much she cared for me. That’s how I knew she was the one,” says Fattah, 27.
In fact, he felt so sure about his love for the actress, he broached the idea of marriage just a few months after they met on set.
Fazura reveals: “He would says things like, ‘You know I’m going to ask you to marry me, right?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t know, I’m not ready’ and immediately change the subject.”
Fattah brought the subject up a few more times. Each time, the career-oriented actress wouldn’t budge.
“I think at that time Faz felt if she married me, I would control her. That I would say, ‘You can’t act anymore or you can’t act with other male actors’,” Fattah reasons.
50-50 odds
That’s why, when Fattah official-
ly proposed to Fazura six months after their initial meeting, he didn’t know if she would actually say yes.
“50-50,” Fattah estimates the odds.
Despite the possibility of being rejected, the actor felt confident after he “prayed for guidance (solat istikharah) and got the sign that she was the one”.
In a hotel room filled with flowers and candles on the night of Fazura’s 34th birthday, Fattah, who got down on one knee, waited for a response from the girl of his dreams.
Fazura recalls: “I looked at him for like 35 seconds (after he popped the question). In my head, I was like, ‘Wait, this is the girl who didn’t want to get married. What if he’s going to control me?’ ”
In that moment of hesitation, Fazura caught a vision which silenced her doubts.
“It was something I never experienced before. When I looked him in the eyes, I saw myself growing old with him and having babies. It was an epiphany I got from God. So I said ‘yes!’”
The actress adds Fattah reminds her of her late father when she saw him praying on the set of Hero Seorang Cinderella one day.
“It’s hard to find a man who can be the religious leader of your family, who can guide you and remind you (of your faith). My father was like that and I saw it in Fattah.
“Interestingly, Fattah was born on Sept 14 and my dad passed away on Sept 14. So, he’s like a replacement from God.”
Looking back, the road to finding each other wasn’t a smooth one, with both Fattah and Fazura encountering their fair share of failed relationships beforehand. Yet the couple doesn’t resent their exes.
“I’m not the type of wife that goes, ‘Don’t talk to your ex-girlfriend or I hate your ex-girlfriend.’ I’ve bumped into a few of them before and I smiled at them,” Fazura shares candidly.
“Instead of hating your exes, you should always thank them. I see them as ‘teachers’ sent by God. They taught me so many things that made me the person that I am today,” she adds.
A day in the life of Fattzura
“You always scold me,” Fattah tells Fazura, pressing his lips into a mischievous frown, when asked what a typical day at the Fattzura household is like.
“That’s because he likes to throw his shoes on the floor after I just mopped it,” Fazura playfully retorts. Her husband nods, readily admitting to being the messy one.
Fazura, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. “I’m such an OCD. I’m constantly cleaning. I don’t hire any help because I love doing it on my own.”
Fattah chimes in jokingly: “I’ll be sitting down, eating, most of the time,” before adding, “I do help out with the dishes after she cooks.”
This display of teamwork extends to their professional lives as well.
For one, the couple will work together on a duet album soon. You read that right, Fattzura fans!
There’s also the possibility the two will star in a TV show together.
But does appearing together on projects so often run the risk of the two being deemed as monetising their relationship?
To preserve the sanctity of their marriage, the couple says they are very selective when it comes to taking on projects that require them to work together.
It’s a principle that spills over to their social media accounts as well. “We’re very private. We don’t share every single thing we do on Instagram every day. And we definitely don’t showcase our personal life for the purpose of monetising it.”
Fazura adds limiting their projects together is also important to grow their individual careers.
“I don’t want to be labelled as just Fattah’s wife or for Fattah to be labelled as just Fazura’s husband. For 16 years, I worked very hard to build my own brand, so I still want to stand on my own.
“And although Fattah is relatively new in the industry, his brand is very strong. He should not let anyone overshadow him.”
Speaking of working together, perhaps the most highlyanticipated “project” has to do with the couple welcoming a new member to the family.
Fazura says they have been feeling a lot of pressure to have a baby.
“We have lots of goals we want to achieve so I have to carefully craft the best time to ‘open the factory’. We also want to enjoy each other’s company at the moment since we just got married,” she offers.
“But when the timing is perfect, we’ll have lots of babies.”