PRIM FOR PRIMETIME

Chanikarn "Prim" Tangkabodee reminisces on her journey from a child actor to a superstar in-the-making.

- MILA WENIN

"When I was a child, I remembered doing a few auditions a day not knowing whether they would land me any job," says Chanikarn Tangkabodee, more commonly known by her nickname "Prim," of her early start in showbiz.

The former child star recounts her journey to stardom, "Initially, I was very shy and couldn't use my face or body to express myself at all. But my mother, who took me to these auditions, never pressured me. She believed I would be able to do it and always said it was fine because there was always the next time. She continued taking me to so many auditions, to the point that I started to learn that you couldn't achieve a different result by doing the same thing. I learned to muster up the courage to express myself and perform more in order to get the job." After overcoming her shyness, Prim started getting jobs in commercials and taking small roles, such as the child version of the female lead. Her first leading role came in 2020, when she was only 16, in the sciencefiction fantasy The Gifted: Graduation. In a supporting role in the mega project, the Thai version of F4: Boys over Flowers, she earned international recognition as well as 27th Asian Television Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

"I was very happy and honoured to receive the award. It meant a lot to me because I felt like I was being recognised as an actress and that all the effort I have put in along the journey until then wasn't for nothing... there were people noticing it. It was a shame I couldn't attend the ceremony as it overlapped with my exams."