Boy Phisanu ‘s 20 years in the entertainment industry have never been easy, telling every turning point in his life, from AF to a fighter who never gave up despite facing crises on every front, adapting to change, enduring through challenges, once considering ending his life, from financial crisis, family life after separation, and co-parenting his children, to adapting to the present era, on the WOODY FM program.
How long have you been in the entertainment industry?
Boy Phisanu: A lot this year. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years, since I was in AF. It’s been very fast.
Accepting the fact that change is natural, on days when you feel like you don’t know where to go next?
Boy Phisanu: We’ve been in the entertainment industry for 20 years, and we’ve seen it since the early days when drama producers produced who knows how many, 20-30 dramas a year. And then there was an era when reality shows were popular. It’s been a while, and everything seems to be changing. Drama sponsorships are decreasing, and productions are starting to slow down. We don’t know what the benefits are of producing dramas. Other platforms are emerging, Netflix, and various apps. So how do we stay there? We can’t choose them. I’ve been through that era, and I’ve always felt like we have to do it, we really have to do it.
Because if I stayed put, I would be swallowed up by the new platforms popping up every day. I started YouTube because I didn’t earn any money due to COVID-19. At that time, celebrities had zero income. I felt like I couldn’t survive because I still had responsibilities and a family to take care of. Then, after a while, YouTube started to go down again. Which way should I go? I didn’t start using TikTok from the beginning. I only started using it towards the end. I thought, why do I have to have so many things in my life? I have to have Facebook, I have to have Instagram, I have to have YouTube, and I have to have TikTok too? I can’t keep up. In the end, I had to try TikTok to see what it would do. Because TikTok is the thing that makes young people know me the most. I have to do it. Otherwise, it’s like being stuck in the same place. It’s my life. I don’t want the life that I’ve created to disappear.
What is the mindset that moves forward?
Boy Phisanu: At that time, I didn’t feel as bad as I had the last time. At that time, I just felt that everyone was the same. Everyone was facing a giant wave, a wave of dangerous diseases. Everyone was affected equally. But I just happened to feel that at that time, I was lucky in my life to try to make the switch to YouTube, to try to change and do something new. Because if we just stayed still, it really wouldn’t work. It’s all about timing. For example, my team, who is also a YouTube partner, came in at the right time because I’d wanted to do it for a long time. But where was the balance? Because I’m not a very talkative person. What made the decision easy was that we had a good team. At that time, I felt more confident. I had more of a presence because we were really entering the platform era. TV might be starting to decline. People weren’t watching TV much anymore. People were switching from watching TV to turning to YouTube instead at any time. It came at the right time, and so we jumped in and did it.
So, after going from YouTube to TikTok?
Boy Phisanu: From TikTok, it’s been a while since then. Because my career in the entertainment industry, last year and this year, has been going downhill. There haven’t been any dramas, everything’s been going downhill.
Decided to go live on TikTok, but everything is too much?
Boy Phisanu: It was really hard because I’m the head of the family. Using up old savings isn’t a good sign. We have children, and we should be using the money we’ve earned from our current job. Savings should be savings, but they’re no longer savings. This has led to even more stress. We had to find something to do to generate income to support our family. Then we ran into some bad things. Instead of getting better, we failed again with our business. So many things came together. So we had to find new things to do so we wouldn’t be devastated. We still have to stay strong and fight. I don’t know how long this will last, or if it’s even for a short while, but at least we’re doing something.
Being willing to change and start over, what has it allowed us to see about ourselves from the past? What is the difference in the present? What has changed our mindset?
Boy Phisanu: Nothing is immortal. Nothing stays that way and lasts forever. Life has its ups and downs. But I’m actually lucky in that I never thought of myself as a star. I was almost 28 when I reached success. I’ve been through a lot. Now that I’m here, it’s like I have more opportunities than I’ve ever wanted to be my whole life. I really do whatever I want, as long as it doesn’t cause other people trouble.
What is something that Boy still wants to do?
Boy Phisanu : Actually, I want to stay here forever. One day, I want to be like Ah Ning Nirutti, a quality person who can act well and live a good life. But these days, things are getting difficult. I have to look at where I can find my niche, and then I put myself in that position.
Why do you want to be like that? And what do you gain from being like that?
Boy Phisanu: One thing I’ve gained is the opportunity to work in the career I love most in life. What I’ve gained, and I think that doing something that brings me the most joy in life, gives me the strength to continue living with what I love.
What will life be like when you get that?
Boy Phisanu: It might be a bit difficult, like, is it gone? What we’ve wanted our whole life with this career, and now it’s gone? It might feel bad. Is our life going to disappear?
“Value.” When you think of yourself as a person, what is the first word that comes to mind?
Boy Phitsanu: I’m a fighter.
Why do we value the word “fight”?
Boy Phisanu: I was born into a family that wasn’t exactly perfect since I was a child. My father passed away, so my mother had to find a new job and live with my aunt. We moved around a lot, went to school, and after school, it was like the warmth disappeared. Then I started working on my own after graduating from vocational school. I jumped right in and started working on my own, and I fought on my own. I think the struggles I endured back then are what made me who I am today. This is the word “fight.”
Is there any fatigue in the word fight?
Boy Phisanu : I’ve been tired before, but I think everyone gets tired. We can get tired, but we can’t stop. It’s something that if we don’t fight, who will? We don’t even fight ourselves. What do we have to do to get to that point? That’s why we’ve always had to fight.
If you are looking at yourself and want to encourage yourself, what would you say?
Boy Phisanu: I used to think in my mind, Boy, when I didn’t have children yet. I’d come a long way. Honestly, I couldn’t find my way home because it was so far. But I still hadn’t forgotten the path we’d taken all along. I never had. And I felt that I had already gained everything in life, both in my career and in what this industry had given me. I used to think that I didn’t want to stay anymore. I could end my life here. It wouldn’t go any further. I’d done everything. I’d fulfilled everything I’d wanted to do my whole life. I used to think that I couldn’t stay, but once I had children, my thinking started to change. I couldn’t get hurt, couldn’t get sick, couldn’t die. I had things to take care of him.
What do you think about the value of family? Is it still necessary in this era?
Boy Phisanu: Brother Woody is asking people who are not successful in their family life.
What indicates failure?
Boy Phisanu: Well, one day, we talked about it and things just didn’t work out. I think this is what we weren’t successful at. What I thought and hoped for most was to have a warm family, a wife, children, a family, living together happily. Ultimately, it’s a matter of two people tuning in. But the world may have changed. Sometimes, being alone can be happier. Or, perhaps, not having to be tied down or having to register a marriage can be happier. Everyone’s happiness is different.
When communicating with our children, how do we communicate so that they understand?
Boy Phisanu: I have to give credit to my wife for this decision. She’s quite logical when it comes to raising children and their lives. We talked about it, and she said one thing that would be better is that the child wouldn’t see the parents’ problems. They wouldn’t see that. They’d just see that we might be living separately, and we could still talk, but we’d still be parents. They wouldn’t get the energy from the arguments. If the child didn’t see that side of the story, it would be better. She didn’t want the child to grow up seeing the wrong kind of love, which could lead them down the wrong path. We’re living separately, so we’re doing our best as parents. The child needs to be the happiest child.
