Exclusive, Christian Sugiono Maintains Existence By Staying Relevant To Himself

JAKARTA - Actor Christian Sugiono returns to acting alongside Luna Maya in one of the horror films produced by Hitmaker Studios, entitled Panggonan Wingit. In this film, Christian Sugiono or who is familiarly called Tian plays Ardo, who is a journalist at a media outlet in Semarang who is assigned to cover a mysterious incident at a hotel in the city.

The funny thing is that while he was carrying out his duties, Ardo accidentally met his ex-girlfriend, Raina, played by Luna Maya.

“So in the film Panggonan Wingit I play the role of a journalist named Ardo. Well, Ardo also happens to be Raina's ex, played by Luna. Well, in Semarang there was a murder at a mysterious hotel, so Ardo was assigned by his office to go to Semarang to investigate and make coverage about this case, then he met Raina accidentally at that hotel because the hotel belonged to Raina's family so then meet again," said Christian Sugiono at the VOI office, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, recently.

Tian explained that his role as a journalist was not his first, but he had previously played this character several years ago, therefore he already had a little experience regarding this character.

However, even so, Tian explained that the time setting of this film, which was set in the late 80s and early 90s, meant that he had to make some adjustments, where at that time, journalists still used their equipment manually.

"Incidentally, this is not my first film in which I play a journalist, so there have been several previous films, a long time ago, and I also worked in a magazine office, in the past, so I more or less know how to be a journalist, how to be a reporter, how do media offices operate," continued Tian.

"Perhaps what I adapted more to this film, Ardo's character, is that this film is set in the late 80s, early 90s, where journalists at that time did not use gadgets, but rather used notebooks, pens to take notes, or when talking to the police or investigating something, they must looking while chatting but hands keep writing. So maybe there will be more adjustments in details like that," he said.

Titi Kamal's husband really appreciates the hard work of the production team who were still able to find these traditional houses for the smooth running of his latest film.

"So our team looked for a location that had a house like that, and I was quite amazed, I mean, 'Oh it turns out there is still no electricity', but on the other hand we appreciated the artistic set, 'Oh this house is beautiful', that's how it was," said Tian.

Tian explained that the village still has very authentic traditional houses like rural houses in Indonesia in general.

"But yes, I think it's very unique, it's good in a village that is still authentic, so it's in an original village house," said Christian Sugiono in the Tanah Abang area, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, November 14.

Not only that, Tian was amazed because it turned out that there were still houses in the village that didn't have electricity. He even explained that people there still cook in the traditional way, namely with firewood.

"What I can probably say is that there are 1 or 2 houses that don't have electricity, people who cook still use firewood, and that's real, and that wasn't set up by our team," continued Christian Sugiono.

Not only that, Tian was amazed because it turned out that there were still houses in the village that didn't have electricity. He even explained that people there still cook in the traditional way, namely with firewood.

Most of the filming process was carried out in Semarang City, to be precise in a village called Kopeng Village, Central Java. Christian Sugiono had the opportunity to stay there for 1.5 months. He admitted that he fell in love with the city of Semarang. Usually Tian, his nickname, only visits Semarang for one day because of work.

"I told him that I fell in love with the city of Semarang. I went to Semarang for 10-15 years, usually just working for one day, then going home. Having the opportunity to film, I can say that I fell in love," explained Tian.

"Eating spring rolls is standard, try tripe fried rice, soto bongkoran, it's delicious and there are also complete places to hang out if you want to listen to music, why am I like the governor of Semarang?" he said.

Christian Sugiono has played several times in horror films such as Sabrina and Rumah Kentang, Tian still has to learn to process his emotions when performing scenes. Not infrequently, during the filming process, Tian tried to recall the things that made him afraid to act out the Ardo scene.

“That's one way for players to, for example, in certain scenes we need certain emotions. For example, seeing a ghost, he should be afraid, but not being afraid (screaming) would definitely be different. Well, coincidentally, I've never seen a devil, so I can't know what to do if I see a ghost," he explained.

To get a sense of fear, Tian remembered the trauma he had felt. The emotions that Tian presents in the film are tried to be as natural as possible.

"At least, as a player, I have to be able to have a large bank of emotions so I can try to, 'Okay, what kind of fear do I want to express?' So I tried to recall, for example, at that time I was afraid of seeing mice, I saw a mouse and I could scream, I might just run away, that's an example. That's what it means, so I can try to remember that time when I was afraid of seeing or feeling something. Well, that's an emotion that you want to try to feel again and then let it out like that, that's how it works, explained Tian.

CHRISTIAN SUGIONO MAINTAIN HIS EXISTENCE

Not only processing emotions, in Christian Sugiono's third horror film, he also does physical processing for several scenes. Moreover, Tian admitted that there were several scenes that required him to do physical scenes as well as dialogue, which he said was a challenge in itself to do in this Panggonan Wingit movie.

"Indeed, when we shoot horror, especially Hitmakers, the story has adventure, there is action, so it really requires more physical actions. Especially when you have to do action scenes plus dialogue, wow, that's difficult, you really have to practice many times and indeed in this film there are quite a lot of portions and the shooting is also quite tiring," he added.

Therefore, this 42 year old man really takes care of his physical condition when he is filming. Warming up is one of the important things that Christian Sugiono must do before starting the action scenes in this film, because he doesn't want the entire shooting process to be delayed due to unprepared physical conditions.

"Yes, of course you have to take care of yourself physically, especially if, for example, we know that tomorrow we are filming, so I get enough rest for shooting and before doing the action scene, stretch or warm up first so that I don't get shocked, especially for example, for action scenes we need to jump or fall, or all kinds of things, in order to not suddenly get cramps, right? Later, if players get cramps, they can't continue shooting, the shooting will be delayed," said Tian.

Fortunately, the carefulness of this Bumi Manusia movie star is supported by safety equipment and a team of substitutes who are able to provide examples for them to carry out action scenes more safely, relaxedly, but still look as real and natural as possible in front of the camera.

"And also, when filming in the field, we are equipped with safety measures, which is very, very good from the stunt team. So there is a special team to work on the stunts where we as players practice first, they give an example of how it will fall like this, hit it here, or where it goes mentally, we watch him practice it, then I look at it, then I repeat it, again, slowly and continuously rehearsing until we're ready, then we'll shoot, like that," he concluded.

Christian Sugiono last played in a horror movie was in the movie Rumah Kentang in 2019. After that, for approximately 4 years, Tian indulged himself working behind the scenes as a businessman. Returning to playing movies, Tian admitted that he was quite happy because he could finally get back to working on a big project, namely shooting a movie.

“Oh of course happy yes, happy. But yes, I don't forget how to shoot like that, because even when I'm not doing filming, I'm still shooting commercials, still shooting all kinds of things. But when we get a film project like this for a month, we feel happy, because filming this film like this with Mr. Rocky, also with Luna again, with friends, with the crew, so it's like we meet again in more or less the same team and we are working on a new project. Excited, fun and not really like feeling 'oh crazy' or anything, no, it's actually fun, like, 'wow, we're shooting again', it feels like that," explained Tian.

Even though he has been involved in acting for many years, Tian said that acting is not the main thing he has to do in entertainment. He never targeted himself to be able to play a number of films in one year, now he wants to be more relaxed in taking on film projects according to the offers that come to him.

"Because in general I don't really pursue entertainment too much. Like a target of so many films a year or something like that, I'm more relaxed in the sense of 'oh, there's a film offer coming in', I read, if it's good, let's shoot it, if not, that's fine. Yeah, it was like that before," said Tian.

Choosing a path in life to be more relaxed about his career does not make this 187 cm man feel competitive with the talented young actors who continue to emerge all the time. According to Tian himself, something like this was bound to happen and had been predicted by himself because Tian had already felt that, where he replaced the actors who were ahead of him.

“No way. Not at all, because I already know that when I played films in the 2000s, I already knew, like, 'this is my time'. At that time, I got lots of roles easily, all kinds of things, I just take them all off, because I knew everything would happen. There will be a time when it will be replaced by the younger generation. Because in the 2000s, I also replaced the generation above me, so the wheels keep going, so when you're in the carriage, you just get on, when it's time for you to get off, you're done, just get off," explained Tian.

Therefore, Tian has his own way of maintaining his existence in the world of entertainment, namely by being relevant to himself. He explained that what is meant by relevant is being aware that he is no longer in his prime anymore, he is married, has two children and a family. Seeing this, Tian had to adjust his position as a family man to remain 'in' the world of entertainment.

"To maintain existence, the standard is just being relevant, in the sense that one of them is taking part in a film project, taking part in any project so that the term appears and people can see it, yes, but for me what is important for me is being relevant in my age. Sometimes there are people who are my age who want to be relevant at the bottom, want to follow the young people, want to be like young people, which is fine, but I can't be like that, so I have to be relevant," he explained. .

"If I had become a father with two children, I was already in my 40s, I would definitely be different from Christian when I was in my 20s, not yet married and not having children. I can make myself like before again, oh like this, like this, it must be strange," said Tian.

"So I'm just being myself, just being relevant, I already have children, for example I appear on YouTube or something as a parent, yes I talk about parenting, I like to talk about my children, I take my children to soccer practice later in the vlog or whatever, yes, that's who I am now to maintain the existence of the Christian that you know is already done, he already has children, has become a father," continued Tian.

Apart from that, having the desire to learn from the younger generation is also one way for Christian Sugiono to always be able to adapt so that in every project that is being carried out together they can be at the same level to adapt to each other.

"Studying with young people is more important at this time, they have certain languages spoken or certain terms or jargon, what do they mean? I forget, it just comes up often and I want to know, but in general, we learn together, they, Bianca also said they learn from me, I also learn from them, actually it's not learning, it's more like adapting that we work on projects together so we need to be on the same page in everything, so we have to adjust something, they also adjust, we meet in the middle," explained Tian, closing the interview with VOI.