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EXCLUSIVE: Cindy Sirinya Bishop talks about modern storytelling with F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, working Bright Vachirawit and watching Indian movie Minnal Murali with her kids
Remakes aren’t an easy affair especially if previous adaptations have been quite impactful in popular culture. But, it’s the way to depict the same story in a new way that makes these remakes a special one. And that’s exactly what F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers has achieved. Based on the Japanese shōjo manga series “Boys Over Flowers” by Yoko Kamio, this modern storytelling serves as the Thai counterpart of the elaborate series franchise from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and China. With F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, the story becomes more human, raw, flawed as they let the teenagers make mistakes, learn, grow as the story progresses. You can’t say it’s perfect in every form but the perspective to see these teenagers have changed.
Launched in 2021 December and set to end in April 2022, F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers brings back popular Thailand actors Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree, Win Metawin Opas-iamkajorn who became popular with the 2gether series and are two of the F4 members. Tu Tontawan Tantivejakul marks her leading role debut in the remake. While it features two popular faces, it also marks the mainstream introduction of actors Dew Jirawat Sutivanichsak, and Nani Hirunkit Changkham making the rest of the two F4 members and Prim Chanikan Tangkabodee as the second lead. Amidst the new lot of actors, popular supermodel-turned-actress Cindy Sirinya Bishop takes over the role of lead actor Bright’s character Thyme Paramaanantra’s mother Rosalyn Paramaanantra.
Cindy Bishop is born and raised in Thailand but has one-quarter of Indian roots too from her mother's side. This is also why you often see her cook Indian meals on her Instagram stories. Popular in Thai dramas, the stupendous actress has starred in several projects including All I See You, Gossip Girl: Thailand, City Of Light (The OC Thailand), Clueless, and From Dreams to Eternity to name a few. But, as Rosalyn Paramaanantra, she takes over the iconic role of Domyoji Tsukasa in the manga but makes it even more ferocious, and headstrong. As F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers heads into episode 14 tonight with only two episodes away from the series coming to an end, Cindy Sirinya Bishop spoke to Bollywood Hungama about her character and working on this adaptation.
We have seen Boys over Flowers in many languages. All adaptations have had massive responses and with each version, it felt there was a new way to present it. But, with F4: Thailand, it seems more like modern storytelling, but also, in a way redemption story. So how did you connect with Rosalyn in this adaptation? Did you ever happen to watch any of the previous shows as well?
To be honest, although I've heard of F4; I remember I think the 90s was like the first one, the Taiwanese version, I remember seeing them but not really understanding. I was not really into watching dramas at that time. So to be honest, I came into this project from a very fresh perspective. I could have gone and watched everything, but I prefer not to because if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it my way and it's going to be my interpretation of Rosalyn. I'm going to go with the direction of what has been written for this. So for me, it was like, I don't need to see what other people have done. I want to do it my way. As much as you people want to hate her, she does have her reasons for doing what she does. She and I think, in some ways, I would resonate with her because I'm a mom and I'm a bit of a tiger mom but I won't be going to this extreme. I do have a heart but I can understand her point of view because she's built herself up. This is her empire. She has very high expectations of her son and sometimes it leads her to make not the best decisions. We'll see what happens. But, then the other side, I'm also very not like her like I do like to dress up and but I'm honestly just much more of a mess than she is.
Each character has a back story and something the audience can relate to. F4 are trying to find themselves amidst their grand upbringing whereas Gorya is carving her way into the chaos. There is this immense tension between her and Gorya. Interestingly, the trajectory in the show for each character is pretty intriguing.
Well, I think Rosalyn is used to getting her way. She's not used to having people really stand up to her. So when she has this young girl, who really in her eyes has nothing to fight with her, and yet she's standing there defiant and it's a bit like, hang on! She needs to kind of figure out her next game plan like this isn't as easy as she thought it was going to be. I agree with you, the character development was very well done, and you discover it as you go along. It is a nice layer to it as well when you're following the story. I think it's just very well done and well thought out. I've done a lot of dramas, in fact, most of my acting, work has been high dramas, and they can be very stereotypical. It's very – the good versus the bad. That's just kind of entertainment as useful as it always has been. Now, the viewers are more selective, I want to say more refined; I guess, in some way, we have so much to choose from. So to really capture the viewers, you have to do your homework; you need to put out a quality piece of work. This is why so far, it's getting really good reviews not just from like the people who are fans of Bright and Win, but like other people that may not have watched it [previous adaptations]. I'm really grateful to be a part of this project. I am excited that the fans are excited.
The characters were problematic in previous adaptations but F4: Thailand gives them a place to be as flawed as possible since the first episode and shows the growth in their character development. The teenagers are allowed to make mistakes, they understand the repercussions of it and that’s how it feels like a redemption story. So, when you were offered this project eventually, were you hesitant?
To be honest, I almost turned it down. Yeah, because of exactly what you said there. The storyline is problematic. It's because it's an old story. It's a remake. It's based around sexist chauvinist bullying folks. I was like, ‘I am a woman's rights, activist, I campaigned heavily about sexual assault and harassment, and I have my own movement called Don't Tell Me How to Dress.’ I read it, and then I was just checking it on Twitter and I felt like I don't want to be a part of this. But, I had the director and the producer, both said, ‘Let's sit down and talk about this version.’ The part of my campaign is not to have these stereotypes portrayed in the media, especially if it's in a popular TV show. We need to be moving away from that narrative; we need to be championing women empowerment. [I said] I have a problem with the storyline. But after they showed me, they said ‘Okay, no, we're going to be doing it differently’. I actually had them waiting for quite a while. But then again, it was like, they're going do it with or without me. So perhaps, if I'm in on the ground level, I can at least know what it’s going to be like; how the impact is going to be. I can still use it as my as a way to say. But so far, I feel like they've handled it with precision, and they're taking very big responsibility in terms of how they are going to portray this. They are not just doing it for the sake of it. There are some pretty good moments.
You’ve worked extensively in dramas and even been part of Thai remakes of some of the popular western shows like The OC and Gossip Girl. This time, it’s an adaptation done several times in multiple languages. You work with a new lot of actors and two are them are already super popular for starring in a show together. What has that experience been like for you?
When we first started, this was in 2019. That was when I did my fitting for this Lakorn [Thai television drama] and that's how long ago it's been. It's crazy. We shot all of 2020, right? No, yeah. 2020 was COVID and 2021 was good. There was an eight-month break before he got back last year for the shoot again. I flew to Singapore to do a shoot and I thought I'd have to rush back and shoot and I get back and we're still like another four or five months before. I've had my hair and that bob forever. My daughter's like, ‘Mommy, I want long hair.’ I'm like, ‘Okay, okay, now that I'm done, I'll grow it out.’ So it's been a long, long time. I'm trying to remember the first day on set. First of all, all the kids are super sweet. They're lovely. They kind of have their own character. I didn’t get to see Nani [Hirunkit Changkham] and Win [Metawin Opas-iamkajorn] so much because we didn’t have that many scenes together. I saw Bright [Vachirawit Chivaaree] the most obviously because he plays my son. They're lovely. They're just, off-screen, just kids. We laugh about it because lately I've been doing like a couple of TikTok videos with them and it has been blowing up. The other day Bright posted a picture of him with Tu [Tontawan Tantivejakul] and I went in there and I was like, ‘Go home now and study for the paper’, a whole other drama outside of the drama. It's so funny. I love it.
Has your character changed anyway since you began filming?
My thing is pretty constant. I come back and pick up where I left off, but for the kids, though, two years for them is a lot longer than two years for me. It's not the same, right? If I look back, and, in my 20s, two years is a lot. COVID just kind of put everything on hold. But, for them, it might have been a bit more of a transition and more of a long time.
Isn’t it surreal to see how F4: Thailand has taken over the internet every Saturday?
It’s crazy. I'll put a TikTok, I'll do something silly and every comment is like, ‘Please be kind to Gorya.’ and then you'll have people that are like, ‘Who's Gorya?’ Then you'll have a whole bunch of people going, ‘Can you focus on the clip? Not everything is about F4!’ I'm just like, ‘oh my god!’ Fans are huge in Latin America. I've got fans in Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and then there's like a whole Middle Eastern thread thing and Russia and I am often like ‘Oh, wow, this is this is amazing.’ I'm just here for the ride. For me, I feel like I've just done a local Thai drama, but it's taking off. It's great!
Though there are unresolved issues between Rosalyn and Thyme, your off-screen camaraderie is pretty fun to watch. You have even uploaded a few TikTok videos with him. What is Bright Vachirawit Chivaaree like working with?
For the actual scenes themselves, we don't really talk about much until we get in front of the camera and then we take the direction from the director and see what he wants. He's very professional. I wouldn't say we hang out so much but we have lunch together. Usually, the actors if we're on set, we'll all just have lunch, and we’ll joke around and things like that. If we happened to be in hair and makeup together, there were a couple of scenes where he had to speak all English; so he's like, ‘Can I practice with you with that?’ I just made sure [to help with] his grammar and stuff but otherwise, he's pretty spot on with what he does. He shows up on set. He doesn't have a phone in his hand. He knows his scripts. He's very professional. He knows what he's doing. Apart from that, he's also just like, really chill and he's like laid back. He sleeps a lot [she smiles]. Maybe that's why we don't talk so much [laughs]. But I mean, the guy works like crazy and the kind of schedules he has, wow! He’s like a big kid. So it's like very it's easy for me for him to play my son. I don't have to force the camaraderie to be mother and son.
Do you also love the fact that now there’s so much love from people all across the world for Non-English content and there’s deeper interest to bring local stories to a global scale?
I think it's great. I think, finally, we have so much talent on this side of the world. We have been producing quality entertainment. In terms of Thai production, we've done a lot of the super creative. We usually win all the big commercial campaigns. We have a sense of humor; we love to make things fun, and interesting. Speaking of just generally shifting away from non-English films, there's a lot of us out here that are doing things. We just watched this Indian film Minnal Murali on Netflix. I love that story. I watched it with the family and was like ‘Oh my gosh, guys, we have to watch this.’ It's an Indian superhero. We watched the trailer and my son loves it. Even the other day, he was saying ‘I want to dress up like Minnal Murali’. It was so entertaining, and we have no problem watching it. It was mostly in subtitles, anyway. So I think , with the internet, now there’s so much more access to different shows. It's great for diversity.
What can fans expect from the upcoming episodes of F4: Thailand?
At the expense of not saying much, I think you'll get to know Rosalyn a lot more in a way that you perhaps may not have expected. I think you're going to see a lot more from Gorya and Thyme in terms of how their relationship changes. There's another budding romance obviously with Kaning [Priimily Chanikan Tangkabodee] and Kavin [Win Metawin Opas-iamkajorn]. People who know the story can kind of tell where it's gonna go, but there are some deeper elements I think that this is going to be shown. I'm looking forward to everyone enjoying Rosalyn’s upcoming appearances and her fashion too. I think she's hot.
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