芮恩第一次在电视剧《考试家族》曝光时，便让人对她稳健的演技刮目相看；再次见到她，是在周杰伦《暗号》的MV；接着，她便以周杰伦师妹的身份，踏足乐坛。
为了进一步认识这位本地新人，记者随芮恩回到她的母校莱佛士初级学院（Raffles Junior College），打听她的过去。
“坏学生”芮恩重返母校，最想见的竟是当年常“捉”她的训导主任！
芮恩笑说：“我迟到、逃课、上课不专心，老师都拿我没办法。”
芮恩的两年高中生涯过得精彩，让她至今仍怀念那段和同学一起疯的日子。“我们一群死党共六人，上讲堂课专选最后一排座位坐，然后就叽叽喳喳说个没完。”老师能忍受这么不专心的学生吗？“当然会被骂啊，可是久了老师也放弃了。”
Categorised in No Problem 考试家族.
By Karen Yip
Local R&B honey, RUI EN, may have ruffled some feathers among Jay Chou devotees. But between celebrating her English drama debut in Ch 5′s Chemistry and preparing her second Mandarin album, who has time to worry about other people’s jealous fans?
LIME: How did your friends react the first time they saw you on TV?
RUI EN: I was the girl running to the ATM machine in SingTel’s pod hi!Card commercial. Nobody thought much of it ‘cos I was already modelling then and appearing in ads. It was the Chinese drama, No Problem, that was a big deal to my friends. They know my Mandarin sucks. They watched it just to laugh at me.
You were Chen Hanwei’s love interest in No Problem. Now you play the main character in new Ch 5 drama, Chemistry. Is it easier working on a Chinese or English production?
English, because of my comfort level with the language. In Chemistry, I play Rachel, the type of girl your parents warn you about! She’s a lot like me, so there’s no acting involved. (Laughs)
For English productions, everything has to be shot very precisely before we move on. The filming process is kinda faster for Chinese productions.
What’s Chemistry about?
Basically, it’s about love and relationships and revolves around four young working adults. Rachel is a radio DJ and her love interest, CK [played by Howard Cheung] is a fitness instructor. Both put up brave fronts and pretend they aren’t looking for love, when they really are. Rachel’s best friend, Stephanie [Mavis Cheong] is dating CK’s friend James [Christian Koh]. Things become complicated when James starts getting slimy with Rachel and Stephanie gets angry.
We hear that in an interesting twist, Rachel and CK wake up one morning in each other’s bodies.
Hey, that’s supposed to be a surprise! Essentially, Howard and I had to act like the opposite sex. I practiced sitting and standing like a guy, even going to the toilet and scratching my crotch! The weirdest scene is the one where we first realise our bodies have been switched. I had to act like a guy who suddenly discovers he has breasts! It was very funny! Filming Chemistry helped me remember that everyone’s got a soft and fragile side – even guys.
Do you have a boyfriend?
No, I have absolutely no time.
You graduated from Raffles Junior College and are now in your final year studying finance at NTU. From experience, are guys afraid of intelligent girls?
No, guys like intelligent girls. They are intimidated by the fact that I’m a celebrity more than anything else.
Do you have any siblings?
No, I’m an only child, a spoilt brat. If I want something, my Dad gets it for me. And he always sides with me against my Mum! When I’m tired from filming and school and I wake up the next morning looking like s***, my dad feels bad. He told me to take a longer time to finish my degree if I can’t cope. My parents are really cool about my showbiz career. They just want me to be happy.
Having entered the working world earlier than your peers, have you become more cynical?
Definitely, especially since many things are fake in the entertainment industry and you do things just for the camera. There are also added responsibilities, like making sure I do my job well. It has made me grow up faster.
Hype Records talent scouts spotted you filming the SingTel ad and auditioned you without knowing if you could sing. How did it feel knowing looks were their first priority when it came to making you a pop star?
I’ve tried modelling and that’s even more based on looks, so I wasn’t surprised at all. The voice and looks matter nowadays for pop stars. That’s just the way it is. I realised that early in my career and it’s just one of the things you learn to accept. I don’t feel comfortable ‘cos I’m a very practical person. If this is what it takes to get things done and to succeed, then okay.
Does it freak you out to hear your songs as ringtone tunes?
You know what? I saw my song ‘Who’ advertised as a ringtone and I paid to get it! I was like, ‘Oh so exciting! Let’s just hear what it’s like!’ You wanna hear? It’s actually very gross!
Jay Chou composed the song ‘White Feathers’ on your self-titled debut Mandarin album and appeared in your album commercial. You’ve played his love interest in his ‘Secret Signal’ music video and was a special guest at his concert this year. Are you riding on his popularity to get noticed?
If you’re familiar with the Asian music industry, you’ll know it’s very common to have an artist take on a ‘junior’ from the same record company. It’s just that I’m a girl and Jay Chou is Jay Chou. He’s so famous, that’s why people tend to notice and wonder about us.
Does that bug you?
(Sighs) People are saying a million and one things about me. I really can’t be bothered. But to these people, I say, “If you wanna judge me, listen to my album first.” At least be fair, don’t get personal without giving me a chance. Generally, Jay’s fans haven’t been nasty. Only once, when some of them went on our company website and warned me to stay away from him. The Taiwanese press blow that up really big, like oh…his fans were gonna murder me or something. It wasnt such a big deal but when I came back home, everyone kept asking me about it.
So what’s the relationship really like between you and Jay?
We are friends but I barely see him ‘cos I stay here in Singapore. We get along when we’re together and he treats me like a boy. I’m very, very sarcastic to him and he always says if I was a guy, he would have beaten me up long time ago! (Chuckles)
Is your image as Rui En, the singer, far off from the real you?
In Taiwan, people think I’m sweet. The marketing campaign for my first album was a bit un-me. My clothes were too sweetie-pie – all dresses and short skirts. I’m looking forward to my second album where I get to be more myself. Style-wise, I’d say I’m a cross between Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani. I hate clothes that are tight, short or low-cut!
What will you be doing next?
I’m almost done with the lyrics for the second album. I’m writing them in English and then we’re gonna translate it to Chinese. It should be out end of this year.
You wear glasses in public so people won’t recognise you. Does it actually work?
Yes, especially if I don’t wear makeup, too. Once, I said hi to an acquaintance in school and she just went blank. When she realised who I was, she went, “You look very different.” I don’t know if she was being nice. Anyway it’s okay if I look gross, that’s the point! I just don’t want people recognising me.
Source: Lime
Categorised in Chemistry, Lime, No Problem 考试家族, Rui ∑n vol. 01.
A new singer has emerged from the sunny shores of Singapore, and her label HYPE Records has wasted no time dubbing her with the tagline of ‘Hai Pa Ping Fan De Nu Sheng’ (the girl who fears being ordinary).
“I’m a bit embarrassed by that, it sounds arrogant,” says Rui En laughing, “I hope to express to people who listen to my songs, that I have ideas and viewpoints of my own and that they can understand them you know, everyone wants to be special and be their own individual,” says the 22-year-old.
Just what distinguishes the 1.69m tall Aquarian, who dropped her surname Lu and picked up a special ‘S’ sign for branding sake?
Is it the fact that 1 of the hottest names in Chinese pop, Jay Chou, writes songs for this newcomer? Or the fact that she shops largely on the Internet in a conscious effort to own things not easily found in local stores?
Or maybe her poor grasp of Mandarin, which resulted in a funny incident in Taiwan last month when she was there for album promotions. She kept refusing to order food because the menu were not written in the simplified Chinese script taught in Singapore schools.
Besides how many Mandarin pop singers do you know are avid fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth and dig books like The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy?
These less than hip reading materials are what occupy her time apart from her shopping, surfing the Internet, sleeping and watching TV- if she manages to find any time at all.
“I guess in terms of lifestyle [I have] changed dramatically, I don’t have time and have no social life, it’s zero,” laments Rui En.
Call back
Her rise to fame though, was pretty run-of-the-mill. Like a plethora of local models-turned-singers like Shirley Yee, Fann Wong and Celest Chong, Rui En was picked from obscurity to star in the memorable Singtel ‘Hi!Card’ commercial in 2001. In it, she ran like the wind to top up her Hi!Card just to receive a call from a guy she’d given her number to the previous night.
From that promising debut, she landed commercials for MPH’s online bookstore and did some photo shoots for magazines. She got her first celeb break when she acted in a MediaCorp Channel 8 drama serial called No Problem opposite Chen Han Wei, after an audition at HYPE Records.
HYPE Records saw Rui Sn’s X-factor in the Singtel commercial, “[it was] her confidence and energy level that captured our attention, but her unique vocals took us by surprise during our face-to-face audition,” said Yvonne Lim, 27, Promotions Manager at HYPE Records. “These days an artiste has to be multi-talented and Rui Sn fits our requirements to a T.”
School blues
Things are a lot less peachy in her day job as a 3rd Year Banking undergraduate in Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
“No, I don’t like what I’m [studying] now, it was a mistake. If you give me a choice now, I would choose to do Arts in NUS (National University of Singapore), because I like writing, reading and especially English Literature. At that time I did pretty well for my ‘A’ levels, and I thought of going into something more prestigious and I realised after a while that I really didn’t like Math, so now I’m regretting it.”
“The fact is if I quit now I would have wasted 2 whole years, that’s quite kek sim (agonising),” she says. Rui Sn had considered quitting, but decided to be practical instead, heeding friends’ advice to avoid regretting her rashness later. “What to do, pia lor (just grit my teeth and strive harder).”
She’ll be the first to admit that balancing work and school is easier said than done. “I tell you honestly I don’t cope (laughing), I try my best…because once you become an artiste, you think it’s so fun and you go get your pictures taken, you perform in front of a lot of people, and after that you go back home and you realise that you’ve got homework to do.”
After a tough initial period of adjustment, “now it just takes a lot of determination and will power, I basically sit down and force myself to do homework.”
Family ties
Even though the self-confessed tomboy grew up with an independent streak, playing with boys, watching wrestling and riding bicycles, as an only child, her parents were understandably apprehensive about her entry to showbiz. “My dad is very liberal, he gives me a lot of freedom but my mom was a little bit worried about me being cheated by all these terrible men, now she’s pretty okay and [my parents] are pretty proud of me.”
“I have always known I like performing [previously] I was in this Singaporean mindset, where I have to graduate and get a proper job, get married and have 5,000 kids, [then] this chance came along and I realised I really want to perform.”
“In Alfa Music, a very small music company in Taiwan, there are very few artistes, so Jay [Chou] and Landy [Wen] really took care of me…especially Landy…[who was] really cool, and I hung out with her. Jay was really nice [too], he helped me a lot and gave me a lot of [criticism and praise]. It’s like having a big brother and sister, it’s really cool for me, because I’m an only child”
The long haul
“In Alfa Music, a very small music company in Taiwan, there are very few artistes, so Jay [Chou] and Landy [Wen] really took care of me…especially Landy…[who was] really cool, and I hung out with her. Jay was really nice [too], he helped me a lot and gave me a lot of [criticism and praise]. It’s like having a big brother and sister, it’s really cool for me, because I’m an only child”
The long haul
She doesn’t have to have the mind of a banker to know it’s a competitive market out there. “It’s really tough, but I think [the path I'm taking] is worth it, I can’t see myself doing anything else at all. I think I would die of boredom.”
Heavy efforts were certainly invested in Rui Sn’s debut album, RuiSn vol.01 album which was released in January here. Singer/songwriter Jay Chou, famed lyrist Fang Wen Shan and composer Lin Mai Ke were roped in to contribute to her album too. She has gone to Hong Kong last December for a brief appearance and toured Taiwan after that, with Landy and Jay giving her pointers along the way.
Her promotional activities include attending countdown shows, appearing on TV programs and conducting radio interviews throughout Taiwan. Though she has yet to achieve success similar to Kit Chan and Stefanie Sun, she is slowly gaining popularity judging from the fans that queue up as early as 6am to attend her autograph sessions. It’s no wonder she’s bound by a 10-year contract with HYPE Records.
“I trust Hype [Records] a lot they explained to me their initial capital outlay is a lot and it takes that long to establish yourself and make sure you are making money for the company I figured it benefits us both ways because I’m really serious about my career. I really want to have a career in showbiz and if they really want me for 10 years to push me, they get their money and I get my career advancement. It doesn’t really scare me because I know I’m being serious about being a singer and actress.”
So far, she has completed a MediaCorp TV Channel 5 English comedy/fantasy/drama serial called Chemistry where she stars as someone who is bitter and jaded about love initially. But after going through a whole series of events, her character Rachel realises that she should give love a chance. “All the characters were written for us, so our characters were very much like what we are [in real life]. Rachel is more sharp, mean and more sarcastic then I am, [but] I’m like her in a lot of [other] ways.” The show is slated to air next month.
For now, however, acting has taken a backseat and it’s just album promotions in Singapore, which is her last stop. She will have to concentrate on her studies soon after. A 2nd yet untitled album is underway which will see her composing lyrics for a few songs. There is no official word on the date of release yet.
Her parting advice is simple, “Don’t fake anything and just be yourself, have your own style.”
If she’s as enduring as she is insistent about being anything but ordinary, we’ll be hearing of her for a long time to come…
RuiSn vol.01 album is available in stores.
Source: Urbanwire
Categorised in Chemistry, No Problem 考试家族, Rui ∑n vol. 01, UrbanWire.
06 September 2002
WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BIG THING?
LU RUI EN, 21
Last spotted playing Chen Hanwei’s go-getting girlfriend on Channel 8 drama serial, No Problem, this NTU business undergraduate also sang its end-title track and the theme song to another Channel 8 serial, Beautiful Connections. After she clears her examinations next month, she will go to Taiwan to record her debut solo album.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in No Problem 考试家族, The Straits Times.
1. Page 17
陈汉玮结婚当天失恋！
汉玮与在籍大学生的新人卢瑞恩在新剧中《考试家族》中演出情侣。不料，在结婚当天新娘却突然悔婚，上演了一幕“逃婚记”！
怎么育书和汉玮如此不懂怜香惜玉，只顾着打手机，冷落了他们在戏里的女朋友们。
陈泰铭在戏里、戏外的老婆Andrea De Cruz与陈莉萍皆双双有喜，难怪他成天笑逐颜开啦！
Categorised in I-Weekly, No Problem 考试家族.
Categorised in Channel 8 Archives, No Problem 考试家族.
27 June 2002
WATCH IT!
HOW ironic it is that the title of this drama serial should be No Problem.
There were problems indeed, with misfortune befalling the actresses, one by one.
No Problem also sees the appearance of newcomer Lu Rui-en (the Singtel ad girl) as the girlfriend of Chen Hanwei’s Jinfu, the youngest son in the rice dumpling clan.
Her acting may be a bit raw, but at least she has no problems with her Mandarin. No Problem is shown over Channel 8 every weekday at 9pm.
Source: The New Paper
Categorised in No Problem 考试家族, The New Paper.
1. 人物 People Page 52
卢瑞恩 起跑冲刺 lu ruien
无心插柳的一支新电信广告让她闯进了娱乐圈。那个在广告片中一股劲儿往提款机奔跑的长发女生，不只让观众留下印象，更被海峡唱片的经纪公司艺人网络相中，成为旗下力捧新人。
拍完第8波道的《考试家族》，她紧接在第5波道的最新爱情喜剧“Chemistry”里挑大梁。下半年，即将推出个人专辑，向台湾歌坛全速进攻！
舞台比办公室有趣
21岁的卢瑞恩是南洋理工大学商学院的二年级学生，虽然目前是学校假期，但周日必须到一家电脑公司实习，所以专访特别迁就在周末进行。提早体验上班族生活让她大皱眉头。“这次实习确定了我的选择（进入娱乐圈）是对的，我受不了朝九晚五的工作，闷到快发疯，哈！在办公室有种被困的感觉，所以一上班就在countdown下班时间。”
迫不急待下班还有另一原因，晚上经纪公司为她安排的舞蹈课程，是她每天最期待的一大娱乐。“我非常喜欢跳舞，一跳舞就觉得开心又轻松，所以练舞对我来说是一种享受。”
要求念小学时，小瑞恩被芭蕾舞优美的舞姿吸引，要求妈妈让她学了4年的芭蕾舞。中学时代参加合唱团，又让她发现了对歌唱的兴趣。别以为瑞恩即将发行的新专辑里，会文静、规矩地唱着抒情歌曲，她想把更接近自己开朗个性的动感一面，真实地反映在作品中。“新专辑还在收歌当中，多数是比较有节奏的R&B或电子音乐，因为我觉得唱快歌比较舒服自在。”
一只困不住地飞鸟，正如她17岁往澳洲旅行时，随性于腰际刺上的纹身图案。
谈情比说华语容易
身高169公分的瑞恩属于清新耐看型，第一次演戏难得没有新人的生涩，尤其与陈汉玮演起情侣来自然温馨。“要和陌生人演情侣，起初当然尴尬，还好陈汉玮很会带新人入戏，又让人感觉舒服，所以我蛮快就适应了。”
瑞恩最担心自己的华语不达标准，使演出效果大打折扣。初时以为她求好心切，虽说在家中与父母以英语交谈，但在电视上却听不出半点洋腔洋调。不过，当她不时说溜嘴，出现把“独生女”说成“单生女”之类的用词不当时，摄影棚也充满了她自嘲的爽朗笑声。
“长这么大第一次被逼天天说华语，我朋友看了预告片都打电话来骂我，为什么华语那么烂还拍第8波道的戏，哈！不过，他们一定会看这部戏，因为觉得我的华语说得很有趣，看完了还可以拿来取笑我，哈！”
Categorised in Chemistry, I-Weekly, No Problem 考试家族.
