CARMEN SOO ~ The Alpha Woman

Cover Story of GLAM Malaysia June 2012 - Text by Min Luna

Glam has been trying to feature Carmen Soo on its cover and as one of its most GLAM women for several years now. However, her tight schedule has never been to our advantage. So when we heard that she was flying home for a break, GLAM quickly got hold of her. "Okay Carmen, it's time for some serious catch up with GLAM." Indeed, this sweet-looking Ipoh lass is still as sweet and as humble as ever (she came sans chauffeur or personal assistant), though, throughout the shoot, the crew teased her about how famous she is in the Philippines.

     "There they say I am the first Malaysian actress to have tapped into Philippine TV," she told us with a sense of pride. Upon her return in early March, after being floored with work virtually non-stop, Carmen intends to take a two month break before she embarks on a new project. "I never really determine how long i will spend in one country. If I am in Manila for two months, then my agent there will secure projects for me to work on that fills up that time."

     According to Carmen, there was a point last year when she was so busy flying from one country to another within a space of a month that she fell ill, and this required her to take antibiotic jabs every week! "Now, I'm trying to take a chill pill. I am not afraid of taking my time and waiting for offers to come. There will always be one." After this she would like to explore potential in China, Taiwan or Singapore. Carmen admits that she is honing her Mandarin speaking skills to broaden her wings. "It's on my bucket list!"

     When Carmen talks about charity, a topic close to her heart, she says does not pick only one organization. To her, every organization needs help and attention. In 2009, when typhoon Ketsana hit Manila, Carmen, together with ABS, the TV station she is attached to, quickly stepped in to help. "The rain poured furiously every single day and almost the whole of Manila was struggling with flash floods. My actress friend, who was staying in a two-storey bungalow, had to swim to the rooftop, and was stranded there for four hours! With over five million citizens in Manila, there were only four pitiful rescue boats. After the flood receded, you could see hundreds of cars floating around like Lego pieces. It was the most devastating year for them." She added that, recently, when her friend Melinda Looi celebrated turning a year older, they gathered to spend some time at a sex trade shelter home. A group of celebrities and the designers organized T-shirt and accessory-designing activities. They had previously volunteered at The Soup Kitchen, an organization which provides food to the homeless in Chow Kit Road.

     

JUGGLING MANILA & KUALA LUMPUR

Carmen had to juggle her time between Manila and Kuala Lumpur after she became popular through a tele-series collaboration between the two countries, an ABS-CBN show title Kahit Isang Saglit (KIS) in 2009. The shoot took seven months, during which time she travelled between two time zones. In 2010, she was involved in a project in Kuala Lumpur for nine months.

     "Malaysia is my home so if the perception is that I have settled down in Manila, then the acting offers will start to slow down. I cannot lose Malaysia! Then Singapore calls me for a new series, The Pupil, which just completed its season two shoot last month." Now she is waiting for movies that she acted in to be screened at the cinema, such as the first 3D movie in Malaysia, The Hunter, a horror movie shot on location in Borneo. Similarly, Dead Mine, which is an international project that saw the collaboration of artists from London, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Australia, will soon be shown on HBO. It also features a set designer from France, who worked on the epic Atonement. Carmen is the only Malaysian artiste in this project. Dead Mine has already been sold in England and at a Canadian festival. Considering her choice of film projects, she appears to select only international ones but she insists it is just a coincidence.

     "I'm not typecasting myself. Every job offer that lands on my plate allows me to learn about the different styles in popular dramas from various places. In Manila for instance, they like sad, heavy dramas while Singapore gave me the antagonist's role. It's more boisterous to channel a bad girl, a goody role is boring." But whatever the character, she immerses herself into the role completely. "But of course, people tend to fly where they are appreciated the most right?"

     The gap in the creative industry between the two countries is significantly wide according to the beauty who once had the chance to star opposite Jackie Chan. "The entertainment arena in the republic (Singapore) is much larger and packed with hundreds of local soap operas. Their creative industry is filled with people who began from the bottom, so working 24 hours non-stop, shooting between 40-50 scenes a day, three times a week is normal for them. The local situation is different, we work 12-16 hours a day. Maybe that explains why the pay is better (there). Everyone is determined to build a name until they lose focus of the important things in life. With age catching up, I am trying to phase out the Philippines. The hours and work demands are crazy and exhausting. I still have an agent there and I cans till go whenever I want." The KIS heroin says, when she does not have a shoot, her time is taken up by TV appearances promoting a TV series or attending magazine interviews. "It's a different ball game, because the stakes are very high."

    The work culture and the soap opera fanatics gave Carmen a culture shock during her early days. "I panicked and could not tell who was genuinely a friend and I could not share my feelings and worries. Especially when they casted me as the lover to Pinoy's most popular actor, Jericho Rosales. He had just gone through a break up (they were a power couple). So fans who felt I was the cause of the break up wanted to eat me alive when I was only just taking my baby steps in acting then. The popularity of KIS soared and was aired on The Filipino Channel which is an international network. Only after the show was over did the fans realize we were not an item."

     The hold that KIS had on the audience led to a nomination at the Emmy Awards in New York. Carmen flew in to join the celebration. "It was very moving when more than 20 hard core fans of KIS from all over America flew in to New York and organized a relaxing, informal dinner with us. Pinoy fans are very appreciative of their stars. Once I had even received an iPad because a fan wanted Carmen Soo's Twitter and Facebook to be constantly updated."

     She was also offered to host a successful Philippine talk show, Wowowee, a three hour program watched by more than 20 million people every episode. "Eventually this drastic phenomenon taught me the true meaning of success; are the maddening work demands worth the health sacrifices? When you are terribly exhausted and you see how determined their actors are, you are just amazed. They overworked themselves. The KIS director, Gilbert Guevarra Perez, died of a heart attack on location. Naturally, when you push your body to the limit, and do not get enough sleep and rest, healing and cell regeneration does not take place. I was once hospitalized for four weeks due to exhaustion and a sinus problem, which forced them to shoot some scenes within the hospital compound because I was just too weak. I needed to be put on a drop every hour! After that, I resolved to review my life and start over, less gold but contented. But that does not mean I will ever stop acting."

     

THE REAL CARMEN SOO Each time she returns home, she craves for her Mum's cooking and the prawn noodles at a stall near where she lives. "Last year I was determined to travel the world as often as I could. I went to Europe and Japan twice and also spent some time in Morocco and Italy. It was wonderful beyond words. Although I am more comfortable buying practical and timeless clothes, when I was in Rome I just had to get some pieces by Mary Katrantzou! The unique and colorful motifs were elegant and immediately made me an avid collector." Carmen grabbed four items from its collaboration with Topshop, which were gone within an hour after they were launched. Carmen, who is now actively taking up pole dancing, says, "This year I really would like to rest, there are no plans to travel." She is now 35 and admits that it is time to seriously contemplate settling down. "I hope this conscious and unctrollable mission will come true soon," she giggled. This prompted me to ask, 'so when is the date?' She quickly replied she is not yet spoken for. Her work has taken up so much of her time that she lost track of her own quest for love. Her criteria in a partner are his willingness to have a family, a strong faith, that he is smart and is a non-smoker. "Ya, I'm very particular about personal hygience. Once I gace Listerine to an actor friend because he did not realize his smoker's breath distracted me from concentrating on my role." Carmen added, she was once in a relationship with someone younger, "But they cannot give me what I want and I won't compromise." Earlier, Carmen was pretty adamant about not uprooting in the name of career, but she admitted that a couple of serious relationships with a Singaporean and another with somebody from the Philippines almost made her pack her bags to settle down in the two countries. "For love, I would migrate." The soap opera queen admits her attitude towards love did not help her before. "Back then, when somebody asked me out on a date, and I had agreed, if some work matter comes up at the last minute, I would not think twice about cancelling the date. But now my priorities have changed or I'll be 40 and forgot to get married!" jokes the alpha female as she eaved us goodbye. ~End~

Big thanks to GLAM Malaysia for letting me post the article on this blog.

You can visit their Facebook Page and Official Website to check out their latest issue.

Check out also my previous blog for the photos and slideshow: Stunning Carmen Soo in GLAM Malaysia