A shot of Van Anh (C) in a scene from Bong Dung Muon Khoc.

The loveable Tran Van Anh is now playing a devious and promiscuous bad girl on a hit TV show.

But with her new role as a scheming seductress on the hit TV series Bong Dung Muon Khoc (Suddenly wanna cry), Anh has made sure she’ll never be typecast.

Before taking the role as her debut acting job, Anh turned down several opportunities to play virtuous, well-behaved girls.

She says she didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a boring actress that could only play innocent or meek girls.

Bong Dung Muon Khoc, directed by Vu Ngoc Dang, is about a romance between Nam, a rich but good-for-nothing young man, and Truc, a pretty but illiterate and stubborn girl who sells books on the streets.

By a twist of fate, Nam moves into Truc’s house.

Their diametrically opposed personalities and lifestyles initially clash, but the longer they live together, the more they understand each other and they eventually fall in love.

In the series, Anh plays Ngoc Diep, Nam’s ex-girlfriend, a pretty but mischievous and heartless girl who loves nothing but money, shopping and dressing scantily.

Diep is a perfect opponent for Truc, a beautiful, kind-hearted girl who always wears a white ao dai (traditional Vietnamese tunic) when selling books.

Diep harbors a grudge against Truc and often plays nasty tricks on her.

At first, even Tang Thanh Ha, who plays Truc and is also Anh’s best friend, said director Dang should not have chosen Anh for the part.

But the director stood by his choice and the rave reviews for Anh’s performance have so far proved him right.

“I’m lucky to have gotten the role,” Anh said, adding she had wished to have a chance to work with Dang ever since she saw his smash hit Nhung Co gai Chan Dai (Leggy girls) in 2004.

Dang, known for trademarks such as always having at least one rat in his films, has been true to form in Bong Dung Muon Khoc as he made Anh faint by making her re-shoot a scene 10 times in which a real dead rat gets stuffed down her shirt.

Makings of an actress

Twenty-three-year-old Anh was born in 1985 in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

She began her modeling career at the city’s Tay Do fashion club before working for P.L-Hoa Hoc Duong modeling agency in 2002.

She came to prominence when she nabbed the Mekong Delta region’s Hoa Hoc Duong (School Beauty) beauty queen contest and became Miss Fujifilm Vietnam one year later.

Then it was on to become 2005’s Miss Hazeline Vietnam before she performed at the Duyen Dang Viet Nam (Charming Vietnam) fund-raising gala in both Vietnam and Singapore.

Anh has become a popular MC on Binh Duong Television’s variety-talk-show Sac mau phu nu (The colors of women).

The model-turned-actress is set to star in Dang’s upcoming film Dep Tung Xen-ti-met (Beautiful in every centimeter), slated for release during the 2009 Lunar New Year season.

Reported by Hai Mien