ACTRESS Ruby Faye is looking forward to her next role, as a woman who suffers from a severe panic attack over losing her beautiful looks and her wealth, and who eventually ends up in an asylum.
“I love my role very much,” says the 29-year-old award-winning actress, who will be playing the iconic Blanche DuBois in klpac’s upcoming adaptation of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play titled A Streetcar Named Desire.
“My character faces a roller coaster of emotions. It will be challenging to play her.”
The popular work from legendary playwright Tennessee Williams has been adapted to several stage and screen productions.
Many talented Hollywood actresses, ranging from Oscar winners Vivien Leigh to Jessica Lange have played Blanche, one of the greatest tragic characters in theatre history.
One can definitely expect Ruby to put her own touch on the character. The play will likely be staged in Mandarin during the first quarter of this year.
Besides working on this theatre project, she is also hunting for investors for several projects she wants to produce in future, ranging from family dramas to crime thrillers.
“I want to be a producer,” says Ruby, whose favourite actresses include Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Frances McDormand.
She wants to create shows that tackle “the ugly truth of human emotions and the dark side of humanity”, something similar to the 2019 thriller Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
“I am interested to show the human struggle in my works,” she says.
When asked what has been the hardest challenge she has faced as an actress, she says: “When I started my acting career, I only had to worry about nailing my audition and playing my role convincingly.”
But now, she finds acting has become a totally different ballgame, where the ability to give a good audition and play your role convincingly has come second.
“Your first priority is now to worry about the number of followers you have on social media,” she says.
“In fact, in some cases, you get hired for a role based on the large number of followers you have.
“I do not think it is healthy for the industry to hire someone based on their followers.
“Honestly speaking, I am not crazy about social media. But I have to change myself and make a serious effort on social media platforms if I want to continue to be an actress.”
She jumped into acting when she was 18. Her first role was as an extra on a television series, with no spoken lines.
She says: “I cannot remember the name of the television series. I remember I was just a customer who was in a restaurant, enjoying a meal and paying for my meal and leaving the restaurant. My ‘role’ took hardly two minutes.”
Since then her career has blossomed, with her getting more speaking parts and playing challenging emotional characters.
She also made a successful transition from screen to stage. Four years ago, in 2016 she walked away with the Best Actress award at the 13th Malaysia Asli Drama Awards (ADA) for her performance as a female soldier who is trapped in WWII in a stage play called The Dawns Here Are Quiet, based on the novel by popular Russian author Boris Vasilyev.
In 2013, she left a well paying job in the corporate world to fully focus on acting.
“My mother was worried about how I was going to support myself, and my father was worried for my safety as he had heard so many rumours of the ‘bad men’ in the entertainment industry who loved taking advantage of young girls like me,” she says with a laugh.
“I do not blame my parents. I fully understand their concerns. They do not want anything bad to happen to their daughter.”
Now, her parents are proud of her success, and cannot stop singing her praises to their friends and relatives.
She also had the opportunity to act in Hong Kong films, including Nick Cheung’s directorial debut The Hungry Ghost Ritual and Sampson Yuen’s masterpiece Million Loves in Me.
The latter film shot her to stardom, earning her international awards including the Award of Merit for Supporting Actress at the IndieFest Film Awards in San Diego, California in 2017, and the Best Supporting Actress award at the North Europe International Film Festival in 2019.
If given the chance, she would love to work with Taiwanese filmmaker and two-time Oscar winner Ang Lee.
“He is the most versatile director I know,” she says.
“He can direct all kinds of genres, from the romantic drama Brokeback Mountain, to a magical film like Life of Pi.”
She believes he could mould her to become a better actress, and we have no doubt she will be a wonderful student who will make him proud.
