BK: Is Starbucks your actual nickname?
Starbucks: No. My real name is Pu but my seniors at Silapakorn University gave me the name Starbucks. There were lots of freshmen of different ages in our faculty, so they wanted to equalize things by giving everyone a nickname that matched their personality. Starbucks is the name of a one-legged captain in Moby Dick, a classic American novel about the 19th century whaling industry [editor: oi, it’s Ahab who’s the one-legged captain and Starbuck’s the first mate].
I walked with a limp like him because I had myositis in my leg until my junior year. They even gave the name Moby Dick, the name of the whale in the novel, to my giant friend.

BK: Weren’t you afraid that it would be impossible to make a living studying fine arts?
Starbucks: Not at all. I studied it because I like it. Besides, I almost never see anyone in this city starving to death.

BK: How was university life?
Starbucks: It was like a new empire where nothing was forbidden. We just said “Do it!”

BK: Were there any extreme experiences?
Starbucks: A lot! Nudity and feces are really normal in welcoming first-year students. It’s better than push-ups. One time our senior ordered their junior male students to take their clothes off and walk on a quiet beach. While we were finding our clothes, we saw a group of familyherding their cows and laughing at us.

BK: Is there any antic that went too far?
Starbucks: We were arrested in Chiang Mai because we decided to be graffiti artists that night. After drinking at Warm-up, my two friends and I spray painted many sois until the police showed up and took us to the police station with two options: jail or clean-up. We bought nail polish remover from 7-Eleven and started cleaning the walls from 3am until 5am. People who were up early probably thought we were doing good deeds for the city.

BK: How was life after graduation?
Starbucks: I tried to sell my art pieces. I sold all my stuff for B10,000 and used the money to make a set of rings that fit together. I realized when I was selling them that I measured the size of rings too big for most women. I later gave them to friends and kept one for myself.

BK: How did you get involved with Saranair Hao Peng?
Starbucks: I heard Saranair were recruiting. I decided to give it a shot but I did the interview practically still drunk because I had partied with friends until 6am and interviewed at 8am with my junior friends. Anyway, Saranair finally picked me and did the reality show about my unusual internship, which I wasn’t aware of.

BK: How did you feel when you realized you were being filmed?
Starbucks: I was scared that my family would find out about my bad behavior, like smoking.

BK: How is it following a script in Saranair Hen Pee?
Starbucks: It’s difficult to make the dialogue feel familiar in my mouth, but being with Aum-Patcharapa shows me what a good actor is supposed to be like.

BK: What’s your biggest dream?
Starbucks: I want to build a labyrinth in my back yard. I love to walk through labyrinths and see the view changing.