We are about to step into a new year and many of you might already have your 2020 resolutions in mind. To start the year with a bang, ZALORA is proud to feature with one of our lovely uprising Malaysian star, Nadia Brian. We had the chance to catch up with the actress and new entrepreneur on giving us some scoop on how 2019 has been for her. One of her biggest achievements in 2019 was that she had shot her first film, “Ratu Kala Jengking” as the leading actress. The horror movie is scheduled to come out in 2020. She was proud that despite her dislike in horror movies, she wanted to explore her limit in the role. Not only that, she also did her own stunts for the movie from being around scorpions and a 12kg snake.

When asked what her most challenging role was that she had to play throughout her acting career journey, it was definitely from this first film. She said, “In my first film ‘Ratu Kala Jengking’, I do my own stunts where I play with real scorpions. If you ask me to do it again with RM1 million in front of me, I wouldn’t do it. At first, when I signed the movie’s contract, I thought it was going to be just CGI!”

The talented Nadia Brian was also nominated for an Anugerah Skrin last year in 2018 for Best Supporting Actress in a film which is a great achievement for any local actresses. She was undeniably happy to have been nominated in the first place, despite not taking home the prize.

“I was like OMG, all the nominees are veterans who have been in the industry for like 10+ years and I’m only three years here. So Alḥamdulillāh, people appreciate my drama and character which gave an impact to them. So even though I’m not a leading actress in that but they can still see that it was impactful. I was obviously really surprised and I’m very proud of it and it fuels my spirit to do more in the future. Since then, my job offers keep coming and I can choose my roles. I believe that good quality drama depends on the script. A good script definitely will be a good product.”

Another exciting achievement that Nadia Brian was thrilled is that she got married! We asked her about she felt during the entire process from planning and preparing for her wedding day. “The preparation, OMG, of course at first, I thought I can handle it myself. Finally, I cannot, so we hired a wedding planner who managed it very good. Alḥamdulillāh everything went smooth and I got to wear my favourite designer, Afiq.M who did my dress and my bridesmaids as well’.

Nadia Brian definitely has that newlywed glow on her and the happiness that she emits. She also shared with us how she feels about stepping into marriage life. “Actually, I don’t even know what I’m doing. But my man has been very supportive and very patient. That’s the good thing about him. He encourages me to become a better person. Prior to this, I’ve been single for like 2 years since I’ve become an actress, focused on shoots. Then I met him who is very supportive and not cliché – I know it is cliché to even say it’s not cliché – but he managed to maintain as himself. And he loves movies and arts too despite him not being in this industry, but I really appreciate that.”

2019 has been an incredible year for Nadia from being busy with her acting, getting married to the man she loves and starting a business called, NBMuffins. The business idea sparked due to her love of desserts. She came up with an idea to make muffins and improvised her grandma’s muffin recipes to include her own original touch. “We include poppy seeds in it. Sure, poppy seeds are not totally healthy, but it decreases the sweetness of it which makes it healthier. I thought, why don’t I add a little bit of healthy in my muffins, even though I know it wouldn’t affect the muffin entirely but at least you won’t feel guilty when eating my muffins knowing that there are poppy seeds in it.”

She continues saying, “Also, when you want to come up with a business, you have to have a gimmick for it. So, I came up with a caramel sauce topping that you can drip on the muffins and make it your own. That way, people can make videos when they drip it. And it’s optional too, so if you don’t like it too sweet, you don’t have to put the sauce.”

Being very business-driven and new to the entrepreneur world, Nadia Brian also shared that she is working on adding a few more flavours for her customers. Her current banana muffins with poppy seeds have been sold about 1000 pieces via Instagram orders less in a month with most of it being repeated customers.

 “Next, we’re going to come up with another flavour which is pandan and kaya. Both are out next year plus a few new flavours too. We’re targeting five flavours for 2020 which includes chocolate lava, blueberry with cheese, and some others I can’t quite say.”

This girl boss surely achieved a lot of things in 2019 and we are impressed on how she balances it all from her multiple acting projects, new muffin business and not to mention public appearances. We asked Nadia Brian to share some of her secrets with us.

“It is not easy to get that balance in life because we as humans have moments when we are too tired to do anything but when you have good time management, it will be okay. I consider myself a workaholic. I always have work to do every day. I never sit at home with nothing to do. I even postpone my honeymoon because of a shoot. And if I go for a holiday, I will bring something, like a product review which I still consider as work for me.” She continues, “Now that 2020 is coming up, you cannot waste your time. No more chilling, no more procrastinating; no. Everybody is in a rush to achieve something now. If you are still laidback about it, you will lose.”

Diving back into her acting career, we asked what her dream role would be or a genre that she would like to explore in the future. She mentioned, “You know, I like mystical and patriotic movies. I want to do something that is based on true stories, for example like ‘Leftenan Adnan’ and ‘Bukit Kepong’. I want to do one role that is meaningful to Malaysia. I want to do a movie that is based on a true story with patriotism in it. A good example would be ‘Embun’, a movie that gives an impact to society, to youngsters and show that it was difficult to achieve our independence and to also appreciate our country harmoniously. It will be great if we have one or two films like that because I am bored with romantic movies, dramas, and gangster flicks. We need some films that represent our country and I want the opportunity to represent that.”

She feels that her education from theatre school plays a part in her being more involved into the character she reads in scripts. The knowledge she attained made she realized that she needs to be smart while acting her scenes. She needs to know how to act while working well with the cameras on set to get the perfect shots as well as emotions. Nadia Brian explained, “For example, it’s a wide shot and you’re overacting with tears falling and everything, but people cannot see it, you know what I mean? If it was me, before shoot I will ask if it’s a wide shot or a medium shot or a close-up; you got to be smart about it. Acting isn’t just for the sake of acting, you must be smart too. If you aren’t smart, people will judge when you are overacting on a medium close-up; you’re out of the frame already! You have to imagine the frame like on TV, so you need to really be in the frame.”

When asked about what she thinks about the Malaysian entertainment industry and the ability to reach international level, Nadia Brian touches on the aspect of society’s mentality and cultural differences. She believes that Malaysian actors and actresses are already on a Hollywood level but there are limits that restricts them from going far into Hollywood especially for Muslims due to certain types of scenes.

Being a celebrity also has its own challenges and one of them is controversies. Controversy is bound to hit any Malaysian celebrity and here is a take of how this talented young actress deals with it. “I’m very blessed because my controversy has nothing to do with my job. There is no controversy of me not delivering the job or like I hang out with someone’s husband. To a point where journalists say to me that I’m a good actress, but I do not have any big controversy to boost my name. This was like 1 or 2 years after I entered the industry. I told them that I am not looking for cheap controversy. A lot of my controversy is about my fashion, but this is me and people are looking up for it. And I do, I love fashion and beauty and I have a good relationship with the designer, never had a problem with them because I can deliver their fashion pieces. I never fake it; I can carry it.”

Before ending the interview, Nadia Brian also shared on some of her projects and plans for 2020. Apart trom the ‘Ratu Kala Jengking’ film coming out, she is also in progress working on 3 film projects which she could not reveal yet and a few dramas along the way too. This girl boss is definitely ready to take 2020 by storm and we bet her fans cannot wait for it!

Photographer – Nadzirul Afif Omar & Faiz Basroh

Photo retoucher- Novem Lai

Stylist – Syakila Samsudin

Makeup & Hair – Yuki Wong