Words Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak Photos Jerry Adiguna

Karina Salim did not take any shortcuts on her way from a backup dancer to reach center stage. Instead, she took her time and learned.

Although timid and shy is the first impression upon seeing the actress standing at the top of the stairs at her wax bar and beauty salon in South Jakarta, it is quickly lost once the conversation starts.

She intently makes eye contact, to avoid being misunderstood rather than to impress.

The interview is interrupted a couple of times as she greets each customer arriving at Sucré, established two years ago, but Karina returns each time to share her many dreams in life and how she plans to achieve them.

“I wanted to become a professional photographer,” she said of an old dream. “I always think of it as a cool job that brings you to travel all over the world.”

She has collected SLR cameras for a while and has a private photo blog containing her projects. She designed the salon’s website and took the pictures for it herself; despite her tight schedule, she also makes time to interact with customers online.

“I receive feedback from the customers that way and I always try to make sure they can meet the owners most of the time.”

Her online presence has caught the attention of many companies who send her emails asking if she can run their social media accounts, photo displays and websites.

“They obviously don’t know I’m an actor, but they all think I have a certain taste that fits their company images I would have said yes if I had the time, but that gave me an idea of what I could do next in the future,” she said.

Her talent in visual art is also seen in the interior design and décor of the salon. She and her business partner had the furniture custom made and shopped around for the decorations; they recruited an artist to paint the pictures on the wall.  

While her graceful and poised movements may come from years of ballet lessons, her intelligence and multi-talented prowess (yes, she sings, too) are her birthright as a descendant of intellectual Agus Salim — the first foreign minister of Indonesia.

Karina, born in Jakarta on Aug. 24, 1991, is the daughter of the late Djohan Iskandar Salim, who was the nephew of economist, environment activist and statesman Emil Salim.

“I kind of signed a contract with the entire family as soon as I entered the entertainment industry, requiring me to always hold on to the family’s values and to not take roles of certain characters that may taint the family name,” she said.

 
HIGH CLASS ACT

Karina is no stranger to the stage, having trained in classical ballet since the age of 5 at the Namarina Dance Academy. She would perform with the school every year, and as she also learned hip-hop, contemporary dances and joined a theater group, she basically mastered the skill of stage blocking.

When the auditions for Joko Anwar’s musical Onrop started in 2010, Karina applied for a position as a dancer.

“I was the only applicant who had to audition six times. I wasn’t sure what they saw in me, but they thought I could perform as one of the main cast. They finally decided I was still lacking for the character.

“But Bang Joko later told me: ‘You may be an ensemble dancer, but you have talent.’”

She enhanced the basic acting skills she learned from Joko during the production of Onrop when she joined Sakti Aktor Studio acting school led by Eka D. Sitorus. She performed in plays besides as well as being the main cast of the Dream On dance musical by Namarina Dance Academy.

She returned to Joko and asked him to test her. It required her to perform with actor Sadha Triyuda without a script and by only using the props on the table between them.

“Joko told me separately that I had to be able to attract Sadha’s attention, and he gave different direction to Sadha. The rest was our improvisation. It was more like an action-reaction kind of acting,” she said.

It became the 11-minute film Durable Love that was aired via social media platforms on Valentine’s Day in 2012, to praise from viewers and critics.

So when filmmaker Mouly Surya set about looking for a 17-year-old performer via Twitter for her next project, What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love, Joko recommended the youthful Karina.

“The cast that was ready at that time was only me and Nicholas Saputra. I was so nervous that I would have to act opposite a senior actor,” she said.

Tara Basro joined for the pre-filming, but after it won the NETPAC prize for Asia Pacific films at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam in 2013, she was replaced by Ayushita.

In the story of two visually impaired young women and a mute man, Mouly introduced the cast to a new dimension of acting that required them to pay attention to the minutest details.

“It was so hard. For weeks I had to train moving my eyebrow just so lightly but according to Mouly, it was still too much. I’m a dancer and stage actor and I am used to grandiose gestures, and from Mouly I learned subtle moves.”

The film traveled to many international film festivals, including becoming the first Indonesian film to compete in the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. Karina’s performance was acclaimed by foreign critics and she also won the Best Newcomer Actress honor at the Indonesian Movie Award 2014.

She was later involved in the omnibus Pintu Harmonika (Harmonica Doors) produced by Luna Maya, Ilya Sigma and Sigi Wimala, as well as Nia Dinata’s Kebaya Pengantin (The Wedding Kebaya) with her seniors Lukman Sardi and Atiqah Hasiholan for International Women’s Day that was screened in Kuala Lumpur in 2014.

“I’m grateful that I could learn first-hand from the respected people in the film industry so I wouldn’t have gone wrong on this path. What I am today is all because of them.”

Photos Kapanlagi.com 
FUTURE PLANS

Karina has released a single titled “Dalam Hati Saja” (Unspoken) written by Yovie Widianto for Sony Music Indonesia, followed by her remake of “Antara Anyer dan Jakarta” (Between Anyer and Jakarta).

“Since childhood I always thought I could have a career as a singer. But it seems God made me take a turn in life and opened door after door of opportunities,” said the brand ambassador for a hair care product from 2014-2018.

She is still holding on to another dream: to become a successful entrepreneur.

In attempting to follow in the entrepreneurial footsteps of her late father, Karina graduated in business management studies and established Sucré as her laboratory.

“I have read business books since high school. The salon represents my love of fashion and where I learn resources management. But it’s only a stepping stone as I’m aiming at doing something bigger in my long-term plan.”

Working with Nia Dinata piqued her interest to become a film producer as she knows her real strength is in management.

In the meantime, Karina is looking for the chance to be in a biopic, the new challenge of embodying a real-life character of the past — their facial expressions, gestures and language that is no longer familiar today.

“The judge would be all Indonesian people should I make even a slight misinterpretation of the character. Another genre I would love to do is a psychological horror movie. I’m good at being scary. You’d be surprised.”