KUDETA –– a local play on the word coup d'état, also known as a coup or overthrow –– is Malaysia's first political thriller series. Unexpectedly taking the role of a jailed prime minister (which is a character that Malaysians will, unfortunately, relate to) in a cameo was Dr Maszlee Malik.

The 49-year-old wears many hats besides being the former Minister of Education from 2018 to 2020 –– he is also an author, lecturer, politician under PKR, and most recently an actor.

He first made his foray into the film industry last year in the Squid Game-inspired local short film ‘Taruh’ which premiered on 28 October and KUDETA marks his second show biz appearance.

The Malay-language series revolves around Mariam Imran (played by Vanida Imran), the first female prime minister of the fictional country of Masraya, who struggles to maintain power over a shaky coalition to prevent a coup d'état.

Maszlee spoke to Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai about his acting appearance and experience as a former member of Parliament as part of a social media journalism project on the latter’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Wong is a well-known personality in the media industry, a journalist, and Group Advisor of Star Media Group Berhad.

He shared how he was first approached by the producer of KUDETA, Imran Sheik to star in the series and saw it as an opportunity to “learn new things”, to get free acting classes, and to learn about the industry and as he said, “not after I lost Simpang Renggam”, referring to his inability to retain his MP seat for the area last November.

Although, as Wong said, acting comes naturally to politicians, Maszlee had to put himself in the shoes of the character of a disgraced politician, Jamal, to prepare for the role, having “Never appeared in any drama or theatre (productions) when I was in school or university”.

He had an “Intensive, brief masterclass on acting from the producers” and ironically had to immerse himself in the character even before Najib Razak was convicted and drew inspiration from real-life dictators Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi and tried to assume how he felt as a top-ranking person being humiliated by being sent to prison.

The TV series was fortuitously filmed in the same year which saw massive shifts in the Malaysian political landscape with the imprisonment of Najib Razak and the GE15 snap elections being held, and the first episode was subsequently aired on 20 November 2022.

Maszlee said, “Whatever happened in that drama series came into Astro just after Najib was being sent to prison and we had a lot of examples of the real thing.”

Maszlee also shared an anecdote about meeting Najib multiple times in the Sungai Buloh prison while helping out with counselling sessions for ISIS detainees and “Apparently he was kept updated more advanced than my staff then.” He also mentioned how Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim had been urging him to join politics since 2012 despite him being an academician then.

Check out the full video of the interview here where he also spoke on his thoughts on how education for the future generation should be mapped and about how he thinks media restrictions should be implemented by the government. New episodes are uploaded to Wong Chun Wai’s YouTube channel every Wednesday.

Watch the trailer for the series here:

Watch KUDETA every Sunday via Astro On Demand and Astro GO, or on Astro Ria Mondays at 9.00 pm.

Image credit: @kudetaseries, youtube.com/@RealChunWai