If there is anything that the glitz and glamor of pageantry has in common with the eerie and frightening horror films is that both can be unnerving for the uninitiated.
From pulling off a flawless catwalk to ensuring that a scene is convincing to viewers, both pageant kings and queens as well as horror actors have the responsibility of delivering a good performance to their audiences.
For Cambodian actors Rern Nat and Leav Veng Hour, this was especially true. Being the Miss Universe Cambodia 2018 and Mister Friendship International 2023, respectively, the two of them know fully well how important it is to carry themselves confidently and convincingly on the pageantry stage and the film set.
Their latest performance on the big screen is for Cambodian director Kou Darachan’s Z-Mom, which revolves around the story of a mother and her efforts to protect her family amid a zombie outbreak during their visit to a private island. In the film, they take on the roles of the couple who went to the private island upon the invitation of a friend.
With Z-Mom being the first horror film of their careers, there were some challenges that they had to face during its production as they took on their roles in a genre that they had yet to try. However, both Hour and Nat shared how they managed to pull through by drawing from their pageantry experience.
For Nat, what she had learned from pageantry which had served her well throughout the film’s production was the importance of teamwork.
“[Because I learned] the importance of working in collaboration with other people, the work that we did [for the film] went smoothly. I was able to work with new photographers, videographers, teammates, and many more” said the actress during the media conference for the film.
Meanwhile, Hour shared how his perseverance throughout his time in pageants has played a part in how he managed to deliver a good performance in the film.
“If you have a bad first day when you go to compete, it doesn’t mean that your second day is going to be bad. It doesn’t determine your third day, your final, your prelim. It’s the same on set. If you have a bad scene, it doesn’t mean that your next scene is going to be the same. You try not to let it affect your next day,” said Hour.
With Z-Mom having its premiere in the Philippines, Sastra Films founder and CEO and Z-Mom executive producer Bun Channimol shared her excitement of having to share the film with Filipino audiences as both Cambodia and the Philippines have a shared cultural aspect of being family-oriented, which is a theme that the film explores.
Z-Mom is part of SM Cinema’s AuGhost Exclusives, a film festival that runs until today, Sept. 3, and features four Southeast Asian horror films released for the first time in the Philippines. The other films featured are Haunted Universities 3 and The Cursed Land from Thailand, and Mystery Writers from Taiwan.
