Lam Thanh My: The "ghost baby" of Vietnamese cinema sacrificed her face to play the role of Cam

Although she is known as the "ghost baby" of Vietnamese cinema, the role of Cam in the film project of the same name can be said to be a completely new color for Lam Thanh My. She shared the difficulties when playing a character with a deformed face.

Actress Lam Thanh My was born in 2005 to parents who are not in the arts. When she was 2-3 years old, Lam Thanh My loved to act out characters every time she heard her mother tell stories.

At the age of 5-6, Lam Thanh My had a knack for acting. When she participated in Soul Snatch by director Ham Tran, Lam Thanh My began to attract attention. Thanks to the success of this horror film, Lam Thanh My suddenly became a sought-after child star of the Vietnamese screen.

After Soul Snatching, Lam Thanh My was continuously invited to act in films: De Hoi Tinh, Ma Dai, Scandal 2 - The Return of the Glory. The actress became more famous thanks to her role as Man in the film I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass directed by Victor Vu, released in 2015.

In particular, because she has participated in many horror films such as Soul Snatching, Shadow De..., Lam Thanh My is called by the audience with the titles "ghost baby of Vietnamese cinema", "the scariest child ghost on the screen"...

Lam Thanh My studied public relations. In an interview with Dan Viet in 2022, Lam Thanh My said she had no intention of applying to the University of Theater and Cinema.

'I will take the university entrance exam for another major to study economics. At the same time, I want to continue my acting career. I think studying another major to study economics, and at the same time, being an actor with knowledge will be more supported. I am a first-year student at Van Lang University, majoring in Public Relations. Luckily, the school, faculty and classmates are very supportive of me during the semester so that I can balance studying and participating in films,' Lam Thanh My shared.

Lam Thanh My shared that she is shy, quiet and doesn't have many friends. 'When we first met, I was usually quiet and didn't talk much, so people often thought I was snobbish. However, with close friends, I revealed my humor and talkativeness,' the actress confided.

Recently, Lam Thanh My played the role of Cam in the movie of the same name by director Tran Huu Tan.

In the movie Cam, the female lead was cursed by her family, so when she was born, she had a deformed face, half of her face had rough skin full of large spots, and her left eye was also deviated to one side, looking very scary. Therefore, Cam always had to wear a scarf to cover the left half of her face, so that others would no longer avoid her.

Just looking at the behind-the-scenes photos, the audience shuddered when seeing Cam's appearance. As for Lam Thanh My, to transform into Cam, she had to go through a lot of hardship. The biggest challenge for the makeup artist was to create a distorted half of the face that had to be kept consistent in the scenes, as well as sturdy enough for the actress to move comfortably. Every day, Lam Thanh My arrived at the studio nearly two hours earlier than the filming schedule to do the makeup.

Because half of her face had to be made up, Lam Thanh My could only act with one eye. "The Ghost Sister" said that on days when she had to film many scenes that required crying or moving her eyes, she would find the covered left eye very uncomfortable.

The producer revealed that the research and creation of Cam's appearance alone took 3 months, from measuring the proportions of the actress's real face to taking a silicone mold to cast the mask. This mask was glued to Lam Thanh My's face with a special glue that does not cause skin allergies, then colored, fake eyes were attached and the makeup was completed before each filming.

Director Tran Huu Tan revealed that because the mask material cannot last more than 24 hours, the crew had to prepare 19 masks for Lam Thanh My to replace each time she filmed. "Each mask costs nearly 2,000 USD. 19 masks is about more than 38,000 USD (about 935 million VND)," the director revealed.

As for Lam Thanh My, she shared: "At first, I wasn't used to it, my face felt heavy but the most uncomfortable feeling was in my eyes. Because my right eye was completely covered, it felt a bit uncomfortable, especially in scenes where I cried a lot.

There were scenes where I cried so much that my prosthetic eye started to water because the tears gathered inside and then flowed out, while the weather in Quang Tri in March and April was hot. Every time there was a break in the middle of filming, the makeup team had to fan it and check it many times to make sure it didn’t fall out.

When I was wearing makeup for my deformed face, I was a bit worried, but luckily nothing happened. I also didn't have any allergies. After 2-3 days of filming, I started to get used to the vision of one eye and the amount of light. Covering one eye means less light, so when I take it off and look with both eyes, I feel a bit dazzled."

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