SWEET is one of the words many viewers would use to describe actress Siti Saleha Mohd Baharum.
The 31-year-old artiste has been winning fans over since beginning her career with 8TV's drama series 5 Jingga back in 2008.
Along the way she's taken on somewhat delicate and virtuous roles, as well as dramatic and troubled characters that viewers could easily sympathise with.
But the England-born actress, who is of English and Malay heritage, is happy to give viewers something very different to contemplate with her latest role as a persuasive money-laundering femme fatale.
In the thrilling 20-episode action drama series Scammer, which recently began airing on Astro Ria, Siti Saleha plays Amy, a leading criminal lawyer.
"She's bossy, fearless and smart. Amy also happens to clean her client's ill-gotten gains through the banking system," says the actress in a virtual interview.
DANGEROUS DEAL
The story revolves around Joe (played by Kamal Adli), an anti-money laundering analyst at an international bank in Kuala Lumpur who recently loses his job.
Enter Amy, an old flame of Joe's, who tempts him to join her in order to use his expertise to conduct money-laundering activities.
Motivated by the high salary offered, the desperate family man agrees to partner with Amy and the two become a formidable team.
Their success then attracts Wong (Chew Kin Wah), the head of a large criminal organisation, who enlists the two to put their magic touch of laundering money on his chain of illegal businesses on a monthly basis.
Falling down the rabbit hole of criminal activities tied to prostitution, drugs, money lending and gambling, things take a turn for the worse when Joe is hunted by a pair of police officers.
Siti Saleha says that the drama series features lots of twists and excitement that will keep viewers thrilled.
"The main story follows Joe but there are various plots as well involving the other characters. It's not your typical drama series," she says.
Produced by Radius One Sdn Bhd, Scammer also stars Fasha Sandha, Arash Mohamad, Hasnul Rahmat, Jay Iswazir, Didie Alias, Brian Chan, Muaz Fitri, Megat Sharizal, Tony Eusoff and Faizul Syaharin.
UNCOMMON SIGHT
"I'm somewhat the antagonist and very different from what the fans are used to. But the script and dialogue are great.
"Although Amy's tough and persuasive, my character also has her own reasons for why she's doing what she does," says the award-winning actress.
Siti Saleha adds that the edgy drama's director Norhanisham Muhammad a.k.a. Labu was very focused and had a specific look for each of the characters as well.
"Amy is elegant, poised and stylish. Labu wanted her to have a very dark and bold colour palette, so I was the only one allowed to wear red, for example.
"I'm usually quite casual but for this I had to get my hair all done up with heavy make-up on. For the first time, I also wore eyelash extensions and fake nails," she says.
Labu apparently asked the cast to watch American crime drama series Ozark, which also centres around money laundering, as a reference.
Talking about the uncommon topic in a local drama, Siti Saleha says that she is always on the lookout to take on distinctive roles and different genres.
Her previous drama series Black, which streamed on Viu, had a supernatural slant and was based on the popular Korean series of the same name.
CREATING AWARENESS
"Scamming is a crime and it does happen often, which makes it relevant. Although this drama goes into detail about it, it's not about giving people ideas or enabling criminals.
"It's to educate ourselves since people need to know what's happening, so I hope that viewers will watch with an open mind," she says.
Shot in 65 days around Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the initial filming schedule in January had to be pushed back to the end of February.
"We started after MCO 2.0 and finished just in time before the third one was enforced," she says.
Siti Saleha laments this year will be another scary and challenging one.
"I've got quite a few projects lined up but one has been pushed back to September while the others are up in the air since there's no telling how things are going to go."
During the current MCO, the star of Nora Elena, 7 Hari Mencintaiku, Mandatori and Langit Cinta says that she has been watching Netflix, reading, drawing and learning French on YouTube to relax.
"Aside from that, I do a lot of collaborations with brands so I've been pretty busy making content for social media.
"The fans do like to see these kinds of things," she says.
Catch Scammer on Mondays to Thursdays at 11pm on Astro Ria 104 or stream it on Astro Go.
