Opening Smart’s heart, a man with many sides
Pappayon Bunterng Magazine: Issue 1616
Date: January 9-15, 2008

Ever since he entered the entertainment business, many people knew the new pra’ek, Smart Krissada, as a quiet and polite man because of his role. Today, Smart changed his role and accepted the role of “Pinitnai,” a fast mouth man, from the lakorn “Likit Kammatep.” This lakorn changed many people’s perspective about Smart and they are beginning to wonder whether his real personality is like Pinitnai or not.

When we got the chance to meet and talk with Smart, we felt that even though he’s not very good at talking and doesn’t reveal himself to anyone that easily, but he has a very high sense of independence. He’s also a straight forward person, but does he know that he is now a popular pra’ek?

“Um..I’ve heard a little about that, I’m happy that people like my work but if you ask whether I’m famous or not, I don’t think I am. If I’m famous, you have to compare me with Anne Thongprasom, that’s what you call famous (laughs), I’m only more well known. Most of the time, people would compliment me by asking why I’m so mean in the lakorn, they really believed I was that character. I’m happy that people are following my work and they said that it’s good, this makes me gain more fanclub. My fanclubs are from different ages, most of my fans aren’t kids, they’re usually working people and older people. (Are they a ‘Mae Yok?’) Not really (laughs), but they’re older people.

**’Mae Yok’ are older women who supports and follow an actor. They’re like a fanclub, but consisted of older women.

How do you check your own ratings?
For me, most of the time I don’t check it that often, I don’t read or follow any news. Mostly, someone will tell me about it, so that’s how I know or else I wouldn’t follow or ask about it. (Why not?) I don’t really want to know about it, well, if my works is good, then it’s good, but if not, then I will try to develop it. I don’t really walk around asking people how my lakorn is doing and if they like it or not.

What kind of women is attractive for you?
If it was back then, when I was a teenager, I’ll see if she’s cute, I have to look at her face and see if she’s pretty or not. When I got older, I have to find someone who can be my wife, someone who can take care of parents and my children. She also has to be able to help me think about different things, which in real life, I haven’t met anyone like that yet.

Are there any funny situations that happened with a quiet guy like you?
Oh, I have a lot, for example, a while ago, I had to film 2-3 lakorns at the same time, so I was a bit tired and confused. During one of my rehearsal, I was able to say all of my lines, but when it was time to do the real filming, everything just disappeared, I couldn’t remember anything. Another incident happened recently and I lost face too. Well, I had to run across a camera and because I was tired, I ran into a mirror, so they had to put a scotch tape on the mirror to show that it’s a mirror, they were afraid that I would run into it again. For my life right now, I rarely get to see anyone, even my dad, I only get to see him in the morning because I get home late, and with my friends, I get to see them once every two weeks for lunch.

Talk about yourself
My name is actually ‘Smart’ which means intelligent. When I was little, a monk gave me that name because he said that my face looked like a westerner/caucasian so he thought it would be best to give me a western name, but the truth was, my dad is Chinese and my mom is Thai.

People who know me would know that I like plants/trees, trees are like me because I’m a quiet person, I like to be independent, so I like to be in the garden. Trees doesn’t talk but I can stay with them, it’s a calmness that’s comforting, I feel happy being with them. On my free time, I would be in the garden, back then when I’m not busy and before I started acting, in the morning, before I go to work, I would stay in the garden first. I would be in the garden for 30 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes in the evening everyday.

I’m an easy and straight forward person, if I like something I will say it, but if I don’t then I will tell, I might be mean sometimes. If I don’t know someone, I won’t talk that much, and I sort of have a thick wall for myself (smiles.)

What makes you create such a thick wall to protect yourself?
It’s not that I’m using it to protect myself, but I grew up looking over myself, I was the only Thai student at school (Georgia, America) and I didn’t live with my parents so whenever there’s anything, I have to deal with it myself. I don’t really bother my friends or anyone else and I’m not attached to my friends either, therefore, I have to do everything myself. Although, with the news reporters, whenever they ask me something that I can answer, then I would answer them, but if they kept asking the same thing over and over again, I would just say that’s really all there is to say (laughs.) They would then asked why I answered so little, so I told them that there’s nothing else to answer (smiles.)

The positive feedback about you is getting better, have you prepare yourself for future news and fame?
For this, I have to get used to it because I saw other people as an example, so of course there has to be something like this. I have to understand them because they have to do their job of providing news that has both true and false stories. If someone is interesting and should be concentrated on, they will have to find news about that person. When I got into the entertainment business, the worst rumor I met with was about the ‘ghost blanket’ (going out with girls/playboy stuff) but I understand it.

Your position in doing your work
I’m still having fun with the work that I do and I want to accept more diverse roles because I don’t expect too much from my works, I just want to do my best and want my fans to like it. Before I came into the entertainment business, I was an architect so I worked with houses. Currently, I’m still working on some architecture work, but I haven’t been doing it for about 8 months now (laughs). (Will they fire you?) Actually, I’m helping my colleague, he opened a new company so I’ll help on some jobs.

Have you fallen for the attractiveness of the entertainment business?
Um…My main job right now is being an actor which has both a good and a bad side. The good side is that I’ll get a chance to try new roles, I get to go film in places I’ve never been to, and do things I’ve never done, so it’s pretty fun. Although, the other thing is that by being here, more people will know me so I’ll have to be more careful and privacy is less, it’s like a tradeoff. Up until today, I’m used to it because I think that if we want to be alone, stay somewhere in private, or go to places that we want to go, then it’s up to us, we can choose to do that. Before I became an actor, I thought that being in the entertainment business is an easy job, not tiring, and fun but when I got the chance to be here, it’s more tiring than my previous work at the office because there are no time limits, like at the office we would start work at 9 AM and get off at 5 PM.

Right now, what do you see in your future?
I want to continue acting so everyone will accept me as being a good actor, when I reach that point and people still want me to act, then I would, but if not, then I’ll be happy with where I’m at and that everyone has accepted me. After that I would do the work that I wanted to do, I might do architectural works, which I’m still doing because it’s something that I like, I won’t leave it behind. Right now, I didn’t entirely leave it, people still want me to go talk and explain my perspectives about architect and how it’s like being an actor.

What does your family say about their son coming into the entertainment business since you are quite successful now?
At first my parents didn’t really like the idea, but during that time my mom was hospitalized for three months so my dad closed down our company and I quit my job to come take care of her. The timing was right because I was free from work so when I got the chance to know P’Off Pongpat and P’Dang Tanya, they asked me whether I wanted to try acting in a lakorn because the filming would only be 2-3 days per week. Since it was only 2-3 days, I saw that I would at least get some money and get to take care of my mom at the same time, so I agreed to act.

Between being an architect and an actor, which job gives you the best salary?
If being an actor doesn’t include commercial works and going to events then architect is better. Right now if I have to choose one job, then for me, I’ve come into this acting field more than half way so I have to continue on, and if I’ve reached the end, then I’ll have to decide again of whether I want to keep going or go back to the work that I love.

Will you keep going if you don’t get to be a pra’ek?
Yes, I would because like for the lakorn ‘Nimit Marn’ that I acted in, the one where I was a ghost, I wasn’t a pra’ek or a good person but I was the antagonist. I was a very bad ghost, but his character moved the whole lakorn forward. Also, personally, there are many roles that I wanted to act in but never got the chance to yet, such as being a prince or a garbage man.

Your next lakorns
It’s ‘Yootakarn Huk Karn Thong’ from Broadcast Thai Television, it’s a comedy that will be airing pretty soon. Another lakorn is ‘Nimit Marn’ from TV Scene production, for this lakorn, my character is mean and horrible. Most of my lakorns will air one after the other, maybe about three weeks apart.

So this is why many people think that you’re being pushed to be the top actors
Um…It’s good that I have continuous works so I can improve my skills, I haven’t stop or else I’ll have to warm up my engine again. Although, I’m a bit afraid that people might see my lakorns after another and be bored with me.

Ever since you’ve been acting, which role do you like or is proud of the most?
I like the lakorn ‘Likit Kammatep’ because some parts of the character is similar to me. This is because I’m a hot tempered person like in the lakorn, whatever I don’t like, I will say it out directly. Although, for the character, there are some things that he’s suppose to know but he doesn’t, so if it was me, I would know. Another reason is that in other lakorns I don’t get to do what this character does, like in this lakorn, I can be violent, fight, and I say any insulting things, but sometimes it is too harsh, so I wouldn’t say those things in real life. It’s like I get to release my stress, there are times when I forget myself and I wanted to say an insult that wasn’t in the script so I added it in. I do find it funny sometimes and Aunt Jaew (the director) is the one encouraging me, in my mind I would think that it should be this word and he said that if it was him, he would have said this other word instead (smiles).

If you’re successful playing in this kind of role and someone asked you to act in this role again, would you accept it?
If it’s this kind of role and the role is the same, then I don’t want to accept it right now because every lakorn that I’ve accepted isn’t the same. If I act in the same character, then it’s just the same character, there would be no challenge or improvement for me. I want to act in diverse roles, but all of the lakorns that I’ve been in, I like all of them, every bits and pieces of it.