Beauty queen. Model. Television personality. Actress.&nbsp;Lynn Lim knows a thing or two about reinventing oneself and the&nbsp;long journey of discovering one&rsquo;s true passion. Nearly a decade in&nbsp;the industry, she has finally found her place in the world.

Cinema may not be dead but neither is it alive. It&rsquo;s barely&nbsp;holding on. While there are a mountain of reasons driving&nbsp;the slow decay, a disposable culture driven by cheap&nbsp;thrills and the spectacle of metahuman mythologies has&nbsp;opened up the floodgates for other established IPs to reign&nbsp;supreme, leaving little to no room for original content to&nbsp;prosper. Lynn Lim is not one to turn her nose up at such&nbsp;fare, but even she acknowledges the preferences of local&nbsp;moviegoers. The Penang-born model who first burst into&nbsp;the scene in 2014 via the Miss Universe Malaysia pageant&nbsp;swiftly made her transition into acting with a number of&nbsp;television shows shortly after, taking on one demanding role&nbsp;after another&mdash;from a sullen &ldquo;bar girl&rdquo; to a sophisticated&nbsp;Nyonya lady in a period piece&mdash;with aplomb. She seeks to&nbsp;once again reinvent herself, venturing deeper into the world&nbsp;of filmmaking.
On a rainy day in Cherating, occasionally interrupted by the&nbsp;howling wind interspersed by the sound of crashing waves in&nbsp;the background, we spoke to Lim about her acting work, the&nbsp;world of movies, her vision for the future and getting away&nbsp;from it all.

Read on to get a glimpse into Lynn Lim's journey of discovering one&rsquo;s true passion:

WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

What is life like for a Malaysian actress like yourself?
You know, in Malaysia&mdash;I&rsquo;m not sure whether I can say this&nbsp;or not&mdash;the scene is quite sad. Moviegoers don&rsquo;t appreciate&nbsp;the kind of work that I do. They appreciate something else&nbsp;and it&rsquo;s not something that I believe in. In the end, our effort&nbsp;is only seen by a handful of people.

What attracts you to a project?
I appreciate something that is down to earth, true and&nbsp;real. I strongly believe that when you act, you are actually&nbsp;channelling a real person&mdash;someone out there is living&nbsp;that life. So, you have to be truthful and so does your&nbsp;performance. I&rsquo;d be very excited if the director believes in&nbsp;that kind of story-telling and performance. That is the kind&nbsp;of opportunity that I&rsquo;ve been waiting for.

Is there a difference in the way you approach TV and film roles?
When it comes to TV, more often than not, the kind&nbsp;of performance that&rsquo;s required of you tends to be more&nbsp;exaggerated. Ho Yuhang, a director I had worked with who&nbsp;also took me to the Busan Film Festival this year, used to tell&nbsp;me to not overdo it and be subtler. I keep reminding myself&nbsp;of that whenever I&rsquo;m on set.

Speaking of the Busan Film Festival, what was your&nbsp;experience like?
It was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career.&nbsp;It felt like your efforts hadn&rsquo;t gone to waste. I got to meet&nbsp;other filmmakers from around the world who put in a lot of&nbsp;effort into their craft and I felt very motivated because they&nbsp;too work hard to overcome their own unique obstacles. They&nbsp;still believe in the industry and in film as a medium.

And one of them was Hirokazu Koreeda&hellip;
Oh my god, yes! Have you seen his movies?

I loved Shoplifters and Our Little Sister! So I was really excited to&nbsp;ask you this: what did you guys talk about?
We actually didn&rsquo;t talk much because I was so excited and I&nbsp;went crazy. We were at this after party event where my friend&nbsp;told me, frantically, that he was there. I looked over and my&nbsp;first thought was &ldquo;Oh sh*t, I have to&nbsp;take a picture with him&rdquo;&nbsp;and I did. I went straight to him.

What was he like in person?
He was very friendly. But I was in such a daze that I couldn&rsquo;t&nbsp;string two words together &lt;laugh&gt;. The only thing that I could&nbsp;say was &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big fan&rdquo; and I kept repeating that to him several&nbsp;times. I loved his work La V&eacute;rit&eacute; (The Truth) and I couldn&rsquo;t even&nbsp;tell him that. It got to the point where my producer had to step&nbsp;in and introduced me to him!

Speaking of which, aside from Koreeda, who are your dream&nbsp;collaborators?
There are just too many to mention. "at being said, one of&nbsp;my biggest dreams is to work with Taiwanese director Hou&nbsp;Hsiao-hsien. And how could I forget Pedro Almod&oacute;var? I really&nbsp;enjoyed Parallel Mothers and his other films like Volver. I love&nbsp;him so much that I took a trip to Madrid for the sole reason that&nbsp;most of his films were shot there.

That sounds like a fun trip. What other memorable trips have you&nbsp;had so far?
Probably my recent trip to Bali. I was riding a motorcycle,&nbsp;without a license, and I was making this uphill turn before I&nbsp;lost my balance and fell down. My boyfriend who was on the&nbsp;pillion seat even told me to stop and let him down beforehand&nbsp;because it&rsquo;s quite dangerous but I didn&rsquo;t listen to him. I feel&nbsp;that that was quite funny and memorable.

Do you keep a souvenir from each place you visit?
I always buy (fridge) magnets whenever I&rsquo;m in different cities.

What does your ideal vacation look like?
There are two types of vacation that I take: detoxification and&nbsp;developmental. The former is when I go on island trips to&nbsp;cleanse myself of negative energy whereas the latter is when I go&nbsp;on city trips where I&rsquo;d go to museums and galleries, and explore&nbsp;different kinds of things to enrich myself with new experiences.&nbsp;It depends on which kind of vacation I need at the time.

What&rsquo;s next for you?
There&rsquo;s one upcoming project that I&rsquo;m quite excited about. I cannot&nbsp;disclose any information about the film just yet but I can tell you&nbsp;that we&rsquo;ll go into production at the end of February or March&nbsp;and the principal photography will take place in Singapore. It&rsquo;s a&nbsp;joint collaboration with a number of countries so we&rsquo;ll have a cast&nbsp;consisting of actors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and more.

COVER CREDITS:
Words: Nikita Nawawi
Creative Direction &amp; Styling: Ian Loh
Photographer: Chee Wei
Makeup: Chufan&nbsp;
Hair: Chiaki Sabata
Styling Assistant: Amelia Tan
All outfits &amp; accessories: Chanel Cruise 2022/23
Special thanks to Club Med Cherating

Interview: Lynn Lim on finding her place in the world

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