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cting and the theater are nothing new for Tengku Rifnu Wikana. The 31-year-old actor has been in love with art since he was a child.

After landing a small role in the 2004 film Mengejar Matahari (Chasing the Sun), he ventured on to different films, from Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Warriors) to Hati Merdeka (Free Heart), in which Tengku plays a Balinese man, Dayan, whose tongue was cut during a battle with the Dutch.

“There is a big difference between a person who is born dumb and made dumb. In a hope to understand Dayan’s condition, I looked for information from doctors to learn about the condition of a person whose tongue was cut. From them, I found out that in that case, any attempt to speak would severely hurt that person and when he or she gets very emotional, sound could be produced despite the pain.

I practice my acting skills in the theater. It helps me stay grounded, guarding me against a tendency to judge a role easily. To me, theater and everything related to acting have become my hobby. I love literature, poems, writing scripts and all the practices we do in the theater. I even consider myself exercising when doing vocal training.

Some people may separate their job and their hobbies, but not me. My hobbies and my job are one, united. Sometimes this makes me confused too because it is not clear whether I am doing my hobby or working. I feel very grateful to have a wife [Aida Fuady] who understands me and has the same hobby as mine. She used to be a director and theater actress in her college years before she became an executive editor at a private television station.

At home, our conversation usually revolves around my new script. My wife will ask about my progress in writing the script, reading it and will ask my permission to edit it. Editing the script is also part of her job in television media. Again, I am thankful to have a supporting partner like her.

My path to get to where I am now was not easy. I searched for my true passion for years, sometimes taking the wrong path. I started on the radio and later studied the wrong major — planology — at a university in Medan, North Sumatra.

Some people may think that living in Jakarta is stressful because of the traffic and pollution. To tell you the truth, I am not stressed at all living here because I can see and meet many people with different characters. I am an artist. In this capital city, I can learn many things by observing people’s characters. It’s as if I am facing an open book of characters.

My wife and I have some time to get relaxed too. We both consider any free day as our weekend since sometimes we work on the real weekend. During our free time, we will go on culinary adventures, trying various delicious food in the city. She will pick the place after getting a recommendation from friends or reading a media review. I just follow her. Luckily, we both like spicy food. I cannot eat sweet food at all because I don’t like it. Gudeg, for example, is definitely not my choice.

If we have more free time, we will go to our friend’s house in Bogor or my parents-in-law’s house in Bekasi. If there is traffic, we will simply go to the cinema to enjoy new movies.

— As told to Indah Setiawati