Elaine Daly won the Best TV Actress award for her gritty portrayal of the heroic Sybil Kathigasu in the TV series Sybil...Apa Dosa Ku?...

Elaine Daly's gritty win

By Steven Patrick

Elaine Daly won the Best TV Actress award for her gritty portrayal of the heroic Sybil Kathigasu in the TV series Sybil...Apa Dosa Ku?, at the Anugerah Seri Angkasa 2010 awards on Feb 19.

"This award is a great pay off. Taking on the role was very rewarding but was also very draining emotionally," said 34-year-old Daly.

So much so that after the project, the former beauty queen could not do anything for six months.

Daly was on an emotional rollercoaster while playing Kathigasu, a nurse who was tortured for supplying medicine to the resistance forces during the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

Daly refused a stand-in for the torture scenes, as she really wanted to get into the role.

"Ï did a lot of research. I read her memoirs and spoke to her eldest daughter, Olga, to get a sense of her demeanour," said a visibly-moved Daly.

Kathigasu also happens to be Daly's grandaunt in real-life.

The director of the series Bernard Chauly, also won the Best TV Drama Director at the awards for the eight-part TV series that aired on Astro Citra.

Published Feb 20 2011