KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Actor Zul Ariffin has finally spoken out about steamy scenes involving him in a local drama which caused a stir earlier this year.
The 36-year-old in an interview with Harian Metro shared that the scenes involving him carrying an actress in suggestive positions, “was set by the local drama production industry” and claimed that it was part of their “game”.
Zul revealed that people in the industry had been teasing him about the scenes even though it was not even his decision to carry his co-star.
“I need to highlight this, in the span of my whole career, never have I requested to carry an actress. It was all either from scripts or from the director.
“Even when I’m on set, I didn’t even shake hands with the heroine, let alone carry her. But now, I’m being teased for it.”
The Sangkar actor questioned why he had to face backlash over the scenes when there were similar scenes in another local drama involving a married actor and a young actress that was aired.
“They (the actors) could’ve said no but they chose to go on with it. But why am I the only one (being teased).
“When people talk about things like that, I just keep my mouth shut because I respect other actors and actresses.
“Even when people are bad-mouthing me, I would still respect them. But what do they want from me? This career was given to me by Allah.”
As a result of the controversy, Zul announced that he will be refraining from acting in local TV dramas for the time being and will instead focus more on exclusive dramas, premium contents as well as Over The Top (OTT) platforms.
Zul who has been acting in TV dramas for over 13 years said that he felt that the slots for local TV dramas should go to young and fresh talents as it could help them a lot.
He added that his decision to focus on more premium content was also because of the lack of seriousness in the local drama production industry.
“I have to back off because of the lack of seriousness on set sometimes. The people and the work are not taken seriously.
“For example, when I was shooting for the Sangkar film, we set everything during the ‘script reading’ or ‘script development’ stages.
“But when it comes to TV dramas, they just shoot, once they get paid, they’re gone.
“When the series doesn't make it, the actors and actresses are the ones blamed. I can see how they’re playing this game and I’m not blaming anybody.”
In March, Zul faced backlash after he shared a promotional clip from the upcoming local drama, Perempuan Itu on Instagram.
Apart from the “carrying” scene, social media users were also riled up as newcomer Siti Hariesa’s character in the drama was seen feeding Zul’s character whipped cream.
The now-deleted clip that has been widely shared over social media, was heavily criticised for being inappropriate and was even called out by the deputy religious minister and the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
