She may be small in stature but Tharoth Sam packs a punch when she's in the spotlight, be it on the big screen or in the ring. The actress can be seen soon in the upcoming action movie, "Jailbreak"; a rose among the thorns as she is the only female in the group of police officers sent on a mission to transfer a dangerous criminal to a high security prison. When a riot breaks out in the prison, her character, also named Tharoth, wastes no time in showing the boys how to sucker punch their way out of the chaos. Learn more about this rising star before catching her in "Jailbreak", opening in cinemas this 2 November.
Tharoth is well-known in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community as Little Frog. She was introduced to the sport by Chan Reach Kun Khmer, a Cambodian-American MMA fighter who encouraged the spirited young lady to start competing professionally too. This led to Tharoth becoming the first female Bokator Fighter to make it into the MMA League, winning the ONE FC MMA Tournament in 2014. Tapology stats reveal that the agile 27-year-old currently ranks 17th out of 90 active Southeast Asia women in MMA. The Cambodian-born champion carries a unique Bokator-infused fighting style, which is instilled into her by the master of the Khmer ancient art himself, San Kim Sean.
Speaking of Bokator, Tharoth's skills in the martial art is sharpened from the years of training she's received from San Kim Sean, the man who successfully revived the 1700-year-old traditional sport from Cambodia. Now the martial art is slowly gaining recognition across the globe and Tharoth is proud to be a part of it. Not only does she bring it into the ring, she also brings it onto the big screen, as what audiences will be able to witness in "Jailbreak". She's not the only one as co-star Dara Our is also a Bokator expert and the cast is also largely made up of the National Bokator team.
Prior to starring in "Jailbreak", Tharoth has had small roles in other movies, including 2012's "Act of Valor". Fast forward to 2017, she's landed a couple of prominent roles in two movies showing worldwide and one of them is a Hollywood title helmed by Angelina Jolie. The other is, of course, "Jailbreak", in which she plays a police officer who can easily fight her way through a prison riot. She admitted that her strong-willed character in the movie is very much like her real self, as she was cast because the production wanted a strong female to lead the movie.
Tharoth has had experience working with a Hollywood A-lister. Not only that, she also got praised by the said A-list star! So moved was she by the experience that she even wrote down what Angelina Jolie said to her and kept the words close to her heart. How did she come to meet Jolie? It was because she made an appearance in Jolie's Netflix movie "First They Killed My Father". She admitted that playing a Khmer Rouge leader was not easy for her as the merciless character was a complete opposite to her real-life personality. In spite of that, she must have done better than she expected if even the director herself was more than pleased with her performance.
Getting the chance to be more comfortable in front of the camera is proving to be a good step up for the MMA champion. She has travelled the world to various film festivals, not only to promote "Jailbreak" (the action movie was picked for the 7th Cambodia International Film Festival just weeks after its release in Cambodian cinemas, she also travelled to Italy's 19th Udine Far East Film Festival for the movie), but also for the documentary "Surviving Bokator" by American filmmaker Mark J. Bochsler. Being one of the star students of Master San Kim Sean, of course Tharoth is featured in the documentary that focuses on the master. Just last month she was at the 5th California Town Film Festival (where Jolie's film was also screened) to talk about the documentary. So after "Jailbreak", fans just might be able to see more of the actress on the silver screen.