Before his "Polis Evo" even ends its run, Shaheizy Sam will pop up on the big screen once again with his latest comedy film, "Rembat"! Directed by young and fresh director Shamyl Othman, "Rembat" is a road-trip comedy starring Sam and Ah Niu as the main leads, while Zara Zya, Zizan Razak, Sherry Alhadad, Arja Lee, Zulin Aziz and more play the supporting cast. The story is about two local football fans; Malik and Chin Chye who go on a hilarious road-trip journey from KL to Johor in order to catch the final match between Malaysia and Thailand while at the same time, they avoid being captured by unruly loan-sharks. Cinema Online chatted up with the talented actor regarding his involvement in the film. What was it like working with Ah Niu? Working with him was really fun. He always tries to make everything simple by discussing some points or action scenes before we actually shot them. It's really helpful because you'll be prepared most of the time since you'll know what you're going to do or what will happen next.
What was the hardest scene to act out for the film? It's not the scene that's hard to do, but to keep the momentum throughout the film – that was kind of hard. It's hard to keep the momentum of the character because everything happens in a day so you'll have to conserve the energy of the character until the end of the day. The hardest part for me was to balance everything up because you're not working alone. If you work alone like in a character-driven story, you'll know that you have to handle everything on your own. But when you work in a team like me and Ah Niu, we have to think on how to a balance everything up, and then we also have cameos to interact with. So we have to make sure that the cameos also get their own spotlight. Also, it was not easy working with the cameos of the film as they made me laugh all the time – be it off set or on set. There's Zizan, Zulin and Sheryl, and all of them are a crazy bunch, so I laughed a lot!
Do you have any favourite moments from the film? Every moment of the shooting was fun! It's hard for me to pick one but I can give you a few, like the scene where Sheryl comes towards the car – that was memorable. During the shoot, it was so funny, but another thing that made it memorable was because of the haze. That day, the haze was so bad, you can't even see what's in front. Another one was during the funeral scene, that was kind of fun. I actually learned some things about the Chinese funeral procession from Ah Niu. Do you think the film will perform as well as "Polis Evo"? I can't really compare between the two films because they are of totally different genres. Even acting wise, it is totally different so I dare not compare. But knowing that most Malaysians love comedy, I think "Rembat" will have its own crowd.
You played two different characters in two different movies which came out almost at the same time, how did you manage your time? Actually "Rembat" came right before "Polis Evo". We shot it back in 2013 and "Polis Evo" was in 2014. Do you prefer playing serious or funny roles? I would love to do any sorts of roles. Because to tell you the truth, I don't really know what type of person I am. I can joke around with you sometimes, but in a twist, I can turn into a depressing person. It depends on my surroundings as well. For example, sometimes at home, I would lock myself in my room and just daydream. Then when I'm with my friends, I would be very loud and joke around all the time. [laugh]
Is there any character that you have never tried and would love to try out soon? I would love to do a biopic. Because you are acting as someone who existed or still exists in this world, so you have to learn how they speak, their mannerisms and everything else. All this while, I've been working on fictional characters where I have to use my own creativity to develop how this person might talk, think or react towards something, but acting as someone else who exists – you have to follow exactly as the way they are, so it's a different kind of challenge for me. What's next for you? I'm now concentrating on promoting this film and at the same time I am preparing for my next role, but I cannot reveal it just yet. "Rembat" be released nationwide on 8 October 2015.