Asanee "Art" Suwan, born 1980, is a Muay Thai fighter from Chiang Mai. He lived like many other Muay Thai fighters for his first 22 years: training, fighting, living away from home, trying to support his family. By age 23, however, he was unable to walk down the streets of Thailand without being recognized. Asanee "Art" Suwan was no longer just one of the thousands of Muay Thai fighters in Thailand. He had become a mainstream actor. So for all who dream of using martial arts abilities to reach the big screen, here's a road map:
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1. Learn how to fight.Asanee Suwan, known to friends and family as Art, first got his teeth knocked loose in fighting when he was 8. Art's big brother, only three years older than he, did it while the two were play-sparring at home in Chiang Mai. It was their father who encouraged them to fight; he loved Muay Thai and, hoping to pass on that love to his sons, bought them their first pairs of gloves.An athletic child by nature, Art participated in soccer, volleyball, and track and field. Art's curiosity about Muay Thai was sparked by listening to his friends brag about having fun and making money from fights. At 11 years old, he began training Muay Thai too.He was thrust into his first fight later that year while still in primary school. His coaches cheered as little Art leveled the other kid in the ring with a hard right kick. The ref declared him the winner by K.O. Art was ecstatic—he'd won his very first Muay Thai fight, by K.O. in the first round, no less.Then he was handed the purse of 120 baht (about US $4). He couldn't believe it. Train with friends, have fun fighting, and get money? As far as Art was concerned, Muay Thai was obviously the best sport in the world. He gave up soccer, volleyball, and running, and threw himself into Muay Thai full-time.Within a few years, Art had won a 29.5kg-championship at Nong Mon Chonburi Stadium. The owner of famous Bangkok gym Sor Ploenchit had been in the crowd that night. He approached Art's coaches after the bout, offered Art a spot at his gym in Bangkok. Art was 13 when he left his family and moved to the capital.
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2. Build character through suffering.Sor Ploenchit was a top-quality gym known for developing elite fighters. But the management's method of control over fighters was harsh. When Art was late to training, he was made to strip down to his underwear and roll on the gravel road until his skin was rubbed raw."Every camp knew about my boss," Art says now, more than 15 years after he left Sor Ploenchit. "It was a very hard camp back then. The boss was strict." Art tried to switch to the Kiatpetch camp, but Sor Ploenchit refused to sell his contract. Art was doing well in Rajadamnern and Lumpinee and the gym owner didn't want to lose him. Other gyms inquired about buying Art's contract, but again, the rich boss refused to sell.Art had been at Sor Ploenchit for five years when he received bad news from his parents—their business was failing. The store his mother and father had been operating in Bangkok had been bleeding money. They told him they'd decided to return to Chiang Mai, where the cost of living was cheaper and they had more options to make a living.Art left Bangkok with them. He'd been at Sor Ploenchit since he was 13. Now 18, Art returned north.The family struggled to make ends meet. They rationed their money and some days had only 50 baht (less than two dollars) to feed themselves. Luckily, Art was able to get a part-time job as a trainer at local gym Lanna Muay Thai (Kiat Busaba). Unable to fight in Bangkok due to contract complications with Sor Ploenchit, Art took matches through Lanna around his home in northern Thailand.
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Lanna's Canadian owner Andy (a "very good person with a very good heart," according to Art) found Art his first international fight. At the age of 19, Art boarded a plane for the first time in his life, destination Denmark. "It was my first time out of the country and it was very exciting," Art recalls. "I won my fight in Denmark, and it wasn't big money, but it was good, so I gave it to my parents. They opened a noodle shop near Lanna Muay Thai and our lives got better and better." Art went on to become a Chiang Mai northern champion at 126 pounds, and his parents were able to live off their business.Later that year, Art got word that he could return to Bangkok to fight. Sor Ploenchit had finally agreed to sell his contract. He now belonged to Sitmonchai, a well-known gym a couple hours west of Bangkok in Kanchanaburi Province. He changed his fight name from Seemok Sor Ploenchit to Petchseemok Sitmonchai and jumped back into the Bangkok rings. Soon he was ranked at both Lumpinee and Rajadamnern.
3. Get a lucky break.A couple years later, Art heard rumors of auditions for a new movie, a biopic featuring the life of Parinya Charoenphol, better known as Nong Toom, a famous transgender fighter who recently transitioned from male to female. The director of the upcoming film was looking to cast professional Thai fighters into a large range of roles, from extras at training scenes all the way to lead characters.
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Art showed up to the audition and read from the script. His acting experience was minimal, but the director noted his impressive boxing credentials. The director also noticed Art's slight resemblance to Nong Toom, as well as the way he and Nong Toom, both natives of Chiang Mai, spoke with the same regional accent.A few weeks later, after auditions were held in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Khorat (Isaan), Art received a call. The film's director, Ekachai Uekrongtham, asked him if he'd like to play the lead role of Nong Toom in a movie that was to be called Beautiful Boxer.Art was thrilled, but his bosses at Sitmonchai weren't. "You can't take this role," they told him. "You won't have time to train and fight." They gave him a choice—continue fighting for Sitmonchai, or leave the gym and star in Beautiful Boxer.The young fighter, only 22 and with over 10 years of his life already invested in Muay Thai, called up the director and accepted the role.
4. Learn how to act.Before Beautiful Boxer, Art's only acting experience had been when he was 13, starring alongside Olympic gold medalist Somrak Khamsing in a short music video in which young Art loses a Muay Thai fight and the Olympic medalist tells him never to give up.On the set of Beautiful Boxer, Director Uekrongtham gave the Thai fighter a crash course in the acting craft. "Don't try to copy Nong Toom," the director said. "Perform from your heart."
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Art was instructed not to think of Nong Toom as a ladyboy, but as a woman who happened to have been born a man. "When you play Nong Toom, you have to believe you are a woman, not a ladyboy," the director said. "If you think to yourself that you're playing a ladyboy, your body language will be flamboyant, over the top. But if you approach it as if you're playing a woman, you will be natural. Your acting will be sincere."The filming process was challenging. The most difficult part for Art, an experienced fighter but a green actor, was conveying Nong Toom's emotional turmoil. In one scene, the character of Nong Toom looks at herself in a mirror and is distraught over what she sees—not a soft woman as she wishes to be, but a man with hard muscle definition brought on by life as a fighter. Conflicted in identity and losing hope, she begins to cry. Now, more than 10 years after having filmed this scene, Art remembers it as the most challenging of the movie. "That scene was very hard for me because I had to bring out what's inside, really think about internal struggles. If we [as actors] don't think deeply about it, if we fake our way through acting and don't use real emotions, the audience won't feel real emotions either."Art was not only new to acting, but also to the physical process of getting ready for the camera. Makeup was worst. Scenes depicting Nong Toom as a Muay Thai fighter weren't too bad, but Art dreaded getting ready for scenes that involved Nong Toom's transitioning into a woman. "It took hours to get ready," Art reports, but laughs that he developed a new appreciation for what many women go through on a daily basis. The makeup artists did something right, though—Beautiful Boxer won the Thailand National Film Association Award for Best Makeup.
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Fight scenes were where Art felt most comfortable. As a professional boxer who had been fighting since he was 11, this was what he did naturally. In fact, he was so comfortable with fighting on camera, that in one fight scene, he accidentally knocked out the actor playing his opponent.The director had recruited other professional Thai boxers and told them all to make the fight scenes look real, "but just go 60 percent." With the 60% rule in mind, Art threw one swift, choreographed kick at the actor playing his opponent and took him out. Thinking it was part of the choreography, the audience of extras sent up wild cheers, then quieted down when handlers rushed in to check on the fallen actor, who was stunned but still conscious. The actor recovered in moments and they finished filming the scene, this time with Art kicking a little lighter.After six months of filming in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Saraburi Province, and Tokyo, Japan, shooting wrapped and the film went into post-production.
5. Find success.Director Uekrongtham told Art he was happy with the final product. He believed Nong Toom had led a remarkable life, putting aside her deep desire to be a woman and fighting in order to help her family financially. The director applauded Art for the life and complexity he brought to Nong Toom's character.Nong Toom herself was pleased with Art's portrayal as well. "She told me she thought I did a good job," he recalls. "She said she trusted me and the director."
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Beautiful Boxer was released in Thailand in 2003 when Art was 23. The next year, it was released abroad. He went on press trips to promote it, places like Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. International audiences loved it, loved him. The film won several awards, including Best Feature Film at both the Milan and Torino International Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals. Art himself won Best Actor in Thailand's version of the Oscars.
6. Remember your roots. And remember to hustle.Despite having won an award for best actor, Art returned to professional Muay Thai. Sitmonchai management welcomed him back. Sure, they had been a little irked when he first left to star in Beautiful Boxer, but they forgave him. After all, he was part of their Muay Thai family, and he had a few good years of stadium fighting still left in him.Art lived the quiet life of a Muay Thai fighter for a few months before the calls started coming in, offers for TV drams, Thai soaps, stage shows, more movies. He dropped out of an Omnoi Stadium tournament right before the semi-finals to act as a policeman on a Channel 9 TV drama, a role he landed largely because of his martial arts background. Once again, he faced an uncomfortable conversation with Sitmonchai management over the conflict between fighting and acting. Sitmonchai let him go again."My boss P'Ae said, 'If you have time, then you can continue training and fighting for us, but with acting you won't have time,'" Art recalls. "So once again I chose acting. P'Ae and the other Sitmonchai bosses were very angry again because I did it again, picked acting over fighting, but they forgave me two or three times over the years, and so I have a very good relationship with them."
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Art returned to Sitmonchai as a fighter again after the Channel 9 TV drama wrapped. He trained and fought for a while until Director Uekrongtham called him up and offered him a spot in Boxing Boy, a fanciful stage show combining Muay Thai and breakdancing. The b-boy/Muay Thai concept was innovative and slightly bizarre, but the schedule worked well for Art, allowing him to perform while still having time to train. Two other Sitmonchai boxers, Thepnimit and Apilat, enthusiastically accepted roles as well.
7. Put family first.Art finally retired from professional Muay Thai at 32. Muay Thai acting in stage shows, Thai soaps, and movies gave the aging fighter an easy transition away from his pugilistic career.Now in 2015, Art is starring in the confusingly-named stage production, Muay Thai Live: The Legend Lives, also directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham. By 6pm every night except for Mondays, his one day off, he arrives at the Muay Thai Live theater at Bangkok's Asiatique center and performs alongside a troupe of other Muay Thai fighters, actors, gymnasts, and stuntmen.Every night, he returns home to his Japanese wife, who reportedly first fell in love with him when Art's parents screened Beautiful Boxer for her while she ate lunch at their Chiang Mai noodle shop years ago. Together, Art and his wife sing songs in Thai, Japanese, and English to their year-old daughter Emiri. Art's parents often come down from Chiang Mai to visit, and dote on their new grandchild.
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On weekends, Art plays soccer on a team that includes a few other Thai movie and TV stars. Sometimes his wife and daughter come out to cheer him on, yelling his team name: the Godzilla Superstars.
8. Stay humble.It's been over a decade since he starred in Beautiful Boxer, but Art is often reminded of his modest fame. People on the streets of Thailand still recognize Art and ask for autographs. Art tries not to let the attention go to his head. "There are so many Thai superstars that just come and go," he says. "It's not like in America, where you have actors like Liam Neeson or Russell Crowe, who are old but still famous because they're excellent actors. Here in Thailand, it's more important to be young and beautiful than it is to be a good actor. So many Thai superstars come and go. They don't stay famous for long here."Now 35, with a growing family and an enviable performance career, Art is thinking about the future, dreaming of opening his own gym in Bangkok, or maybe in Chiang Mai, or even in Japan. He doesn't have many regrets; the only thing he'd do differently if he could live is life over is not cause so many problems for his bosses at Sitmonchai, of whom he speaks with the utmost regard.He knows some boxers look up to him as a role model for what kind of life is possible after fighting, and he encourages young boxers to develop more than just their Muay Thai skills. "I think the dream of every Muay Thai fighter is to be a champion, but many fighters don't know what to do when they finish fighting and the money is gone. But if a Thai fighter can be responsible with his money, he will have options. If he has the chance to fight in another country or the chance to learn English, then he should take those opportunities. If you can fight, act, speak English, do gymnastics, sing, then you have so many choices for the future."Occasionally, Art is reminded of the impact his acting may have had on the lives of people he's never met. A few months ago, a woman from Hong Kong shyly approached him in the lobby of the Muay Thai Live theater after his stage performance. She told him how much she loved Beautiful Boxer. "When I saw that movie, I wasn't in good shape," she told him. "I was fat, I was weak, I never exercised. But it was your movie that inspired me to start training Muay Thai." She told him how she found a gym in Hong Kong, and how she now saves up vacation time to come train in Thailand.Art related this story to me over lunch near the same Muay Thai Live theater in Asiatique. "I think you might have changed some people's lives," I said. Art took a bite of his burger. The famous fighter-turned-actor chewed thoughtfully. "Her name was Cynthia," he said. "When she told me she had started Muay Thai because of me, it was one of my proudest moments."