(courtesy of Sophia Latjuba)Sophia Latjuba apologizes from her Los Angeles home for a tardy email response. Her former husband, Michael Villareal, is out of town and she is on mommy duty 24/7 for their young daughter.

“I am a walking zombie at the moment, which kind of fits the whole Halloween theme,” the model and actress jokes.

There is a lot to occupy the 42-year-old at present. Apart from raising Manuella, 7, and her older daughter, Eva Celia, 20, who is studying music at college in Hollywood, the Indonesian-German is also pursuing her love of yoga and penning what she calls a no-holds-barred autobiography.

Oh, and she is also changing her famous name.

A couple of months ago, she quietly revised the surname on her Facebook account and BlackBerry profile to “Mueller”, her Austrian-German mother’s maiden name. Except for her friends, few members of the public know about the change.

Sophia’s explanation of her decision could be called a complicatedly cosmic one. She cites the approaching end to the Mayan calendar and tremendous shifts in the world. The new cycle dawning is an alignment of the feminine and masculine, she believes.

“To celebrate this, I want to honor my female ancestors and therefore use my mother’s maiden name,” she said, adding it is not a rejection of her paternal descent.

“I am extremely honored for having used my father’s family name for 42 years, and people will always remember me that way. My grandfather, [diplomat] Mahmud Latjuba, was a wise, intellectual, honest and honorable person, and so was my late father, and the name Latjuba has opened so many paths for me.”

She acknowledges the “rather impulsive decision” is proving a much more complex bureaucratic process than she expected. But adopting a new name is also an opportunity to start afresh at this new point in her life.

“The name has become so attached to myself, the fame and all, and I am in the middle of detaching myself from all these layers. It’s like shedding half of my ego. I’m finding my true self. It’s a new beginning.”

Starting over also comes with her recent divorce from Villareal after seven years of marriage. She says they remain good friends in jointly raising Manuella.

“Of course, it’s a huge adjustment for me, so I’m trying to focus my energy on both my daughters and they’re a big help in making things easier.”

Her typical day entails waking up early at 5:30 a.m. for silent time with coffee, the daily newspapers and reflection on the previous day’s events. She then does “Mommy duty”, getting breakfast ready for her daughter, driving her to school and then taking a yoga class. For the rest of the day, it’s more of the same — pickups, cooking and homework.

She moved to Los Angeles in December 2008 to escape the stresses of living in Jakarta. Today, she calls her relationship with the city “love-hate”. On the one hand, it’s a beautiful city and brimming with opportunities, but it’s also intensely impersonal and superficial, she said.

Still, she always believes there is a reason for everything.

“This city has taught me tremendous patience and strength, especially realizing that no place is perfect. And I’m extremely proud of myself for living through the ups and downs and still holding my chin up high,” she said.

“I have also learned how to become comfortable with myself being alone, that I don’t need to be surrounded by people to feel complete.”

She seems constantly hungry to learn — about herself and the world — despite her public persona as a beauty who can sit pretty with the world at her feet. It may seem mercurial, but there is a searching, almost restlessness in her explorations. “I feel it’s driving me nuts sometimes,” she said.

The first time I interviewed her, she was cooking a roast as a confirmed meat eater; in a subsequent interview, she was studying holistic therapies and had become a vegetarian. She asks what books I like; her first choice is German literature, the complex language that intrigues her.

Moving to Los Angeles has given her the chance to nurture her passion for yoga — “sometimes I do believe that the universe brought me to this city for yoga only”.

“It has stirred up my energy so much — remember, energy can be very fierce and very gentle at the same time. I have come to know my body and own it, be comfortable in my own skin. I’m finally learning to love myself.”

It’s a statement that may sound hollow coming from many men’s fantasy woman of the 1990s, but she insists it’s true.

“What I mean is that I kind of never had a good body-mind connection. Plus I was a very insecure person to begin with. Maybe that’s why I’m comfortable being in showbiz, which gives me a great ego-booster. I can’t believe I just said that!”

She is planning to return to Jakarta in mid-November to take care of the official details of changing her name and catch up with family and friends. She misses certain aspects of life in the capital, food in particular, but says she cannot imagine returning.

“I also miss not being recognized. It’s not because I’m being narcissistic here, but being recognized reminds me of all the hard work I did in my life, and fame just came with it. I miss hanging out with my friends and having a good laugh.”

She is excited about writing her autobiography, to be written in a novelistic style and coauthored with her friend, leading celebrity biographer Albertheine Endah.

“It will be sensational. I plan to keep it real and honest, whether people like it or not.”

It’s another step in her journey of life, wherever it ends up taking her and whatever peaks and valleys emerge along the way.

“It’s a learning process. If I don’t get it here and now, I will try better in the next one,” she said.

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