Indonesian actor and model, Ario Bayu, age 29 started his acting career in 2004 where he played a small role in the Indonesian horror film, "Bangsal 13". His name then started to become well-known when he acted in the 2007 Indonesian film noir thriller, "Dead Time: Kala" as a cop named Eros. Ario is also known for acting in the 2013 Hollywood action film, "Java Heat" as Captain Hashim. His most recent film involvement is the Indonesian biographical film, "Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka" as the protagonist, Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia. Directed by Hanung Bramantyo, written by Ben Sihombing and produced by Raam Punjabi, the film tells the story of the Soekarno from the day he was born and how he became the founding father of Indonesia. In a recent interview with Cinema Online, Ario Bayu explained his character and the hardships he went through to perfect the role of Indonesian most beloved and inspiring first president, Soekarno. Hi Ario! Tell us a bit about your prominent role in "Soekarno". I play the most loved and most brilliant, first president of Indonesia. It wasn't an easy job. Soekarno is a man that has a lot of substance and edge. A great diplomat I think, in most cases politically. He is very intelligent, smart and articulate. On the other side, he is also very eccentric, flamboyant, woman-ish and also quite promiscuous. I have to play all of traits well in the film. What did you feel when you were offered the role? It wasn't an exciting feeling, in fact I think it was kind of weird. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure. Not that I think I can't do it, it is because sometimes for shooting purposes, you need a lot of time for research and I have roughly less than a month to do my research and absorb everything in. That was my only concern, it was time. Explain the process of your research. I researched for about three weeks prior the shooting. I read books and used visual aids, I also watched videos from old Indonesian archives and I had discussions with a few historians.
Do you ever worry that you wouldn't be able to deliver the right character for Soekarno? All the time. But you kind of take those feelings away once you're on set. Also, when you are shooting from 8am until 10pm, physically, you are exhausted and you forget about all the worries. You just perform the best you can and push your character through. Was it difficult for you to immerse yourself into the character? There is always a way, a formula for you to use. So what I did is that I tried to apply the same concept and methods as I did in my previous films. I ask myself questions; "if I am Soekarno, why do I want to free Indonesia? Why do I want to make this country a better place? What is the requirement and aspects needed to perform it." So with all these questions I had in mind, I try to associate them with the books that I read about him and find the similarities between him and me. That's how I try to fuse everything together. Apparently, some people disagree with you playing Soekarno, what do you have to say this? To be honest, I'm the type of person who really doesn't care about the whole celebrity-favourism and image issues. My main objective is to play my part and deliver my character, that's all.
Do you have any comment on the issue brought forward by Soekarno's real daughter, Rachmawati? It is rumoured that she wanted someone else to play the role of her father. I'm not at liberty to say. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure what happened, I was just there to be focused with my work and this pandemic suddenly got loose. Since I don't know anything of this, I had just let our producer and Hanung to sort it out. It's not really my fault, I was dumbfounded when it happened.
How do feel about the end result of the film? I don't know really, it was a really good experience; I got to learn about Soekarno's and Indonesia's history where before I had no clue at all. It was great working with the director, producer and the other cast. It was really fun! "Soekarno" is distributed in Malaysia by TGV Pictures and is now showing in cinemas in Malaysia.