TARA BASRO Becoming unbreakable
“The journey of accepting and loving yourself is different for everyone,” TARA BASRO points out in an interview with Claudia Rindiantika. “I am not saying that it’s easy, it’s not at all easy. Even for me, until today I still struggle”
“Iused to try so hard to fit in, I tried hard to please everyone,” recalls Tara Basro, the 29-year-old star of Perempuan Tanah Jahanam and Gundala, in her Cover Story interview with Prestige. “For a long time, I felt that I was not represented in terms of my skin tone and my body. When I was younger, I used to think, ‘I want to look like this person in the magazine’. But I realised that biologically it wasn’t possible”.
Success in her chosen profession has encouraged Tara to be vocal about issues of body positivity, self-love and selfacceptance. “The journey of accepting and loving yourself is different for everyone,” Tara says. “I am not saying that it’s easy, it’s not at all easy. Even for me, until today I still struggle.
“There is always some way to better myself. But I think we have to embrace the journey, be more curious and be open. Because if you are not willing to be open to anything new, if you are not willing to listen to constructive criticism from others, it wouldn’t work. It’s also helpful if you have a good support system.
“But at the same time, if you take a look at the entertainment industry, there’s still so little real representation of Indonesian women. While Indonesian people are very diverse, this diversity is still not being represented enough in movies.
“For sure, the film industry is more progressive now in terms of diversity. It’s better than it used to be, but I would love to see more. I think there still are film producers who don’t dare enough to take the risks to, for example, make a woman or a man who doesn’t look like how the Indonesian beauty standard is as a lead character.
“As we can still see now, they always become the sidekicks or something like that. But actually, we need them as main characters as well sometimes. There is this element of empowerment when we see a representation of ourselves in movies. It empowers us like, ‘Oh, I can do anything. I can dream anything and I can reach it’.”
Being a public figure brings pressure to look “perfect”. How does Tara deal with this? “I feel like I have shared so much of myself with the audiences, so I think it would be fair if in the process of doing that I still can keep a bit of myself, which is the true form of myself,” she answers. “Either it is my point of view, or my body, or anything where I can voice my thoughts. Where I can wear whatever I want, where I can express myself.”
In a society that is very critical of people, especially women, what does Tara think needs to be done so that we can be more empowering towards each other? “I think, first, we need to realise that other people are not our competition,” she replies. “The next is, we need to heal ourselves from our insecurities. Because I think insecurity is what fuels the hatred, the body shaming and any other negative things. So, when we are healed, when we don’t feel insecure, we wouldn’t feel envious or threatened by others.
“When we feel secure, we would become unbreakable. So, if someone talked bad about you or tried to bring you down, it wouldn’t affect you. I think those are the main keys.”
How did playing Merpati, an upcoming Indonesian superheroine, empower Tara? “It’s very comforting the idea that now we have a lot of many strong female characters being represented in movies,” she says. “To play those characters feels like a responsibility. Because although they are mythical or fictional, there is a realness that everyone can relate to. It’s nice that it can empower not only myself, but also the audience.”
What makes a strong woman in her opinion? “I think women are strong because of the fact that we are allowed to show emotions, that we are allowed to be vulnerable,” Tara says. “I think men should do that as well. I think vulnerability is one of the characteristics that I am proud to have as a woman.
“Today, we have so many platforms to speak up about our thoughts and show our strengths. But we are also embracing our weaknesses, which are part of our strength. Women today are more resilient because we refuse to give up and we refuse to be unheard. So, I feel really proud to be alongside these women.
“I hope I can be a positive influence for others. Not only for women, but for everyone, whoever they are. I hope that being so vocal about what I believe in, pouring my heart into what I do… I hope people can see it as an example and they would know that they are not alone, that they are being represented. In the end, I would love to be the voice of people who need to be heard.”