Ray Sahetapy in the Eyes of Olivia Zalianty: A Selfless Teacher Who Inspires

Kapanlagi.com - Olivia Zalianty reminisced about Ray Sahetapy as a selfless teacher who taught her a lot about acting. Olivia, who has known Ray for a long time, expressed how significant the senior actor's contributions were in guiding his juniors in the acting world.

"We have many memories, especially in Parfi 56 since '86..., there are definitely many memories. One of them is that I consider him a teacher. Because once, what was it, like a selfless teacher, right?" said Olivia Zalianty when met at the Sentosa funeral home (Gatot Subroto) Block C, Wednesday (2/4/2025).

Olivia shared a valuable experience when she was about to perform in a monologue. Ray Sahetapy specifically came to guide her, even though she did not directly ask him to.

"Once I was about to perform a monologue. In fact, in that monologue, the voice came from the production itself, meaning there was the sound of blood, there was a coach, and so on. But on the day of the performance, Uncle Ray specifically came," she recalled.

In fact, Olivia revealed that Ray arrived long before the performance started, just to train her. The senior actor provided valuable feedback that made his performance even more mature.

"And it was really scheduled to come about 5 hours beforehand. So before going on stage, he practiced, like wanted to listen, watched me, then polished me, trained me himself. Like, that's really nice, right? I mean, a senior wanted to come to see someone perform, but then backstage he continued to train me himself," he said.

1. Ray Not Only Teaches Acting Techniques

According to Olivia, Ray not only teaches acting techniques but also the philosophy behind good acting. He emphasizes that good acting is one that does not look like acting.

"What I mean is to try to be more relaxed, more relaxed, and to speak as if you're speaking normally. Because our difficulty as actors is that sometimes our actors are very good, but how acting is not acting, you know. It’s like acting, but we don’t look like we’re acting," she explained.

That valuable experience made Olivia feel a deep loss for Ray Sahetapy. She realizes that the knowledge given by Ray is very precious and will always be remembered.

"So this moment is really significant for me, that moment was a half-hour monologue, and then everyone gave a standing ovation, it was really different from all the rehearsals I did before, compared to the last five hours in Uncle Ray's rehearsal, the feedback was truly transformative, but it became better," Olivia said.

2. Ray Often Shares Stories

In addition, Olivia also recounted how Ray Sahetapy often shared stories about the archipelago. According to her, Ray is a person who cares deeply about Indonesian culture and always discusses the concept of the archipelago in every conversation.

"We were once in America too, when with my brother, with us, and talked about the archipelago," she revealed.

Ray Sahetapy's departure is a great loss for the Indonesian performing arts world. However, Olivia believes that the legacy left by Ray, both through his films and teachings, will continue to inspire many people in the future.

(kpl/aal/phi)