When we arrive at IKAN Glampsite — the ‘hidden gem’ villa nestled in the forest of Bentong — we find Tracie Sinidol sprawled on the open field, an elaborate picnic laid out in front of her. And perched behind her is the new JAECOO J5 EV, the brand’s latest offering in its fully electric (BEV) range and the first of its kind in Malaysia. Tracie is the picture of comfort, basking in the early morning sun as a breeze flutters by. I vaguely recall the last time we spoke with her for The Z List back in 2024. She’d carried that same grace with her, but she was still wide-eyed then, a small town girl still fresh in her post-Dewi Remaja fame. And she has certainly mellowed a lot since.
“I think as I grow older, I’ve become more reserved and more quiet,” Tracie tells me. “I prefer peace over any drama. I like to have my own time, and sometimes I even feel like isolating myself. I don’t know, maybe it’s the age or that I feel like there’s too much going on in the world right now. I just want to have my own peace and work on myself, focus on what’s better for me and what’s really helping me grow.”
Since we last spoke, Tracie has done a lot for herself — this year alone, she’s starred in two TV dramas and a major film, where she plays the heroine role for the first time. She believes this is well and truly her year. “The moment I stepped into this new year, I felt it,” she shares. “I was shooting for my drama, Dendam Seorang Mentua, currently airing now. It was 1st January and I was doing a scene for Episode 1, Scene 1, Take 1. And my scene was stepping into a new world. I was like, ‘Wait…’ It felt like a sign. I could really feel something was about to happen.” She recently became the ambassador of Carlo Rino. And on top of that, she’s also making her debut as a singer. For the second season of her drama series Hilang Dalam Rindu, which aired earlier in March, she and her co-star Jazmy Juma performed the theme, “Ku Tetap Ada”.
“They [the producers] approached me, and they said, ‘Hey, I heard you can sing. Why don’t you and the Jazmy [Juma] do a cover together for your drama?’” Tracie recounts. “It was quite a heartfelt moment for me lah because when you’re singing for your own drama, you know the storyline. So, to bring out the emotions and the drama in the song… it’s actually something that I never even thought I would be doing.” According to Tracie, she knows how to sing, and though she wouldn’t call herself a singer, she has deeply engaged with music from quite a young age. “Since I was a kid, I learned music, singing, playing instruments. I took music classes. I know how to play the guitar, gamelan, a lot of things, even the recorder. But I never thought that one day I would want to let people hear my voice.”
The composers of “Ku Tetap Ada” is from Indonesia, and they had flown all the way to KL to train the pair in singing the song, and also to film the music video. And at the meet-and-greet event of the second season of Hilang Dalam Rindu, they also performed the song live to their fans. “It’s kind of growing on me, to be honest,” Tracie says, when I ask her what it’s like to embark in her singing. “For me, I always love to see Mahalini [Raharja] sing. She’s one of the great singers for me, I can say. And she’s also from Indonesia. I always look forward to her singing because I really love how she puts her heart into it. When she sings, you can feel the soul is there. And when I see her perform, I always have this mindset of, like, I wish I could perform. Because I’m the kind of person that doesn’t really know how to express myself to other people. If I feel sad or angry, I can’t really express it well. But music helps me with that, so I’ll keep repeating music if I feel like it’s relatable to what’s happening in my life. And I’m also kind of an introvert, so I want to let people know how I feel through music and song.”
Music could be her main outlet one day, but for now, Tracie is still pretty set on growing within the acting scene. Lately though, she has found herself yearning to explore the behind-the-scenes of it all. “When I’m acting, I’ve also realised I really love to create stories,” she muses. “I’m thinking maybe one day I can be a producer or maybe a director, and produce my own drama. Because you can learn a lot actually. When you are behind the camera watching everything, it’s different. I really look forward to being maybe just like an assistant director, so I can really see how people act and I want to learn from it.”
We’re cosy in one of the tents at IKAN Glampsite — The Grove, which became the makeshift makeup room for the shoot — secluded from the sunlight now that our cover shoot is done. I ask what kind of stories she’s been thinking of telling. “I love a story that involves sportsmanship,” she says, “but I feel like it’s kind of hard for a first-time producer. So, I would maybe go for a rom-com first.”
As we talk a bit more about sports, Tracie launches into her latest passion in life these days: golf. She first got into it about a year ago because of its flexibility — since it’s not a team sport, you can get into it on your own, and what first started as a rent-and-play turned into a full-fledged golf club membership. “Also, I feel like a lot of artists have picked up golf, including Jennie,” she adds, laughing. “When I saw that she’s playing golf, I was like, ‘Okay, I need to fix my golf [game] right now.’”
Tracie’s growth can also be traced in the way she speaks about where she is in life. In just the span of two years, her mindset has changed. She’s only 25 but she’s thinking far ahead. “You know how when you were still a kid, you did not think about a lot of things?” Tracie says. “You just think, ‘I want to be an adult faster.’ But when you’re an adult, you have to think about a lot of things. Suddenly, you have to learn about tax. You have to learn how to sustain yourself in this life. You start thinking, when I hit 30, will I still have a job or not? You think about a lot of things.” She’s sharply aware how fast the entertainment industry moves, and how easily people — especially women, as they age — can be replaced with yet another a brighter, wide-eyed version of themselves. Plus, she also has her future to think about. “I’ve already set my goals [in life]. I set my target. I know I will not be doing this forever. So, by the time I hit a certain age, I want to get married, have kids, fully focus on my family. But I still want to have money coming in. I just want to enjoy my life and spend time with my kids. That’s what I’ve been thinking about right now. Because it all goes by super fast, you know? Like, I blink and I’m already 25. And the year is almost finished, too. I’m gonna be 26 next year.”
Still, in the meantime, she has also been learning to take it slow and enjoy what she’s got right now. She recently reunited with her frequent co-star Syafiq Kyle on the film Malaikat Malam, which opened in theatres earlier this year and is set to hit Netflix very soon. My first on-screen encounter of Tracie is on Gadis Masa, playing the naive ingénue alongside the world-weary Syafiq Kyle and Mira Filzah — and later Blood Brothers; Malaikat Malam however is the first time Tracie carried the role of the leading woman. That alone is a big enough challenge, and on top of that, her character is blind.
“I actually did have an experience where I was temporarily blind, back in 2024,” Tracie opens up. “At the time, I was playing badminton and the shuttlecock hit my eye and I just couldn’t really see. I couldn’t even move my eyeball. You know how we, as human beings, always take for granted that we can see every day? I think that was a reminder for me as well lah. Because it really changes everything. I think it truly humbled me at the time. The full recovery took about a year jugak. I took the time to really take good care of myself. I think it just really humbled me and slowed me down. Because maybe, you know, you were moving too fast and you forgot about a lot of things, you forgot to even be grateful to God. When that happened, I think I was inside the car and I just said, ‘It’s okay. If God wants to take away my sight, just take it. I’m ready.’ I think it was the deepest connection [I had] with God. I just trusted Him fully. I said, ‘God, just give me strength to overcome it and for me to live this life with this one eye.’ Yeah, I don’t know where I found that inner peace.” Here, she gives a short, mirthless laugh. “But I used that experience for the Malaikat Malam shooting because I understand how it feels when you’re limited in terms of that kan. You can’t really do a lot of things, and you really learn to appreciate life.”
While shooting Malaikat Malam, Tracie also reached out to the Malaysian Association of the Blind (MAB) to understand their everyday lives in detail. “When you get to know their lifestyle, it’s really interesting to see the way they show their emotions — it’s really obvious,” she shares. “Because they can’t see your emotions too, right? If you’re mad, they cannot see that you’re mad. They can only hear it. They can feel it. And they also told me that when you approach a blind person to help them, they can sense if you are a bad person, or if you’re nervous or unsure about helping them. They can feel that. I learned a lot of things. I even learned how to use the walking stick, how to read the Braille. I feel like that is one of my greatest experiences. And that whole time, I felt grateful to God. There must be a sign why He was asking me to do these things.”
The whole experience also made Tracie realise just what she’s capable of. While she’s still able to be active in her body today, she also longs to be in action films. “I do appear in action stuff right now, but it’s not me doing the action,” she explains, laughing. “I kind of want to really push myself and build up my body just for that one character, you know? Where I need to be fully fit and do some action scenes, like fighting and all. It’s something I really want to learn. Even though I know it’s very tiring, I want to see myself grow in that way. And I feel like I really want to learn how to drift well.”
She admits that while she used to be scared of fast cars once upon a time, she has grown to love F1. “When I see a girl drifting, like for example, Suki in 2 Fast 2 Furious, I’m like, ‘I want to be like that girl.’ It looks so cool! And I don’t want someone to stand in for me. I want to do it myself. I want to learn how to shoot, like, for real shooting, like at a range. It’s just the kind of character that I want to try, to challenge my own body. Because I will not be forever young. While I still have the stamina, while I still have the energy to do it, I want to do it now.”
creative direction MARTIN TEO | interview PUTERI YASMIN SURAYA | editorial team RONN TAN | photography EDMUND LEE | videography JACKIE MAH | hair styling CODY CHUA | makeup artist KEVIN LEE | styled by BIRDY LEE | featuring JAECOO J5 EV | wardrobe COACH, HERMÈS, RALPH LAUREN COLLECTION, SANDRO | special thanks IKAN GLAMPSITE
Find out more about TRACIE SINIDOL in the latest issue of LSA Digital Cover Vol. 047 HERE.
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
