Cover Story: Daydreaming On A Star

Acting coach Oraphan ‘Khru Bew’ Arjsamat believes everyone can benefit from stepping into unreal situations

The games we play in our youth can sometimes pave the way for our future profession. Instinctively, therefore, Oraphan Arjsamat might have known what she would one day become. “When I was a teen, I would pour a glass of cold water and convince myself that it was hot,” she recalled. “Or, sometimes, while I was standing at the bus stop, I would imagine I was in a forest. I could tap into an inner sensory experience in a wink. I just didn’t tell anyone.”

Later, when she became an acting coach, Oraphan found that her childhood fantasies were actually an acting method known among modern theatre practitioners as Stanislavski’s system.

“I didn’t realise that it was an acting exercise,” Oraphan said. “It was to create inner feelings and sensations to achieve an outer expression. That was just my kind of play.”

Oraphan is better known in the entertainment biz as “Khru Bew”, the sought-after acting teacher who has been behind a number of TV and movie productions, such as Hormones The Series, Full House, May Who?, ATM Er Rak Error, SuckSeed and more. Oraphan recalls that in high school, she was a sensitive and imaginative girl who was fond of acting, role playing, watching TV and observing people. These traits proved to be the perfect foundation for her career today. She applied for the Faculty of Communication Arts of Chulalongkorn University because she wanted to perform in the varsity Lakorn Nitade annual play.

After completing a master’s degree in theatre directing at Middlesex University in England, she returned to Bangkok in 2007 and began teaching at Mahidol University International College. At the same time, she jumped at a coaching opportunity for the romantic comedy film Hormones (Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawoon) directed by Songyos Sukmakanan.

“It was my very first gig. Normally, an acting coach would have previous experience in casting or directing, but I was a completely new graduate. I was coaching about 10 actors. It was also the first movie for the lead actress Ungsumalynn ‘Pattie’ Sirapatsakmetha. So we had an intensive one-on-one session every day,” she recalled.

“Everything was totally different from what I learned at school. In real life, you never know what will happen. It’s mainly problem-solving. Ten actors mean 10 personalities. In coaching, you have to pull everything together. I find it both challenging and fun, however.”