The 29-year-old actress will play a mother for the first time in upcoming drama I’m With You. Good thing she’s a-ok when it comes to kids

26 January 2010
Text: Jamie Yap | Photos: Jamie Yap | Video: Alan Yong

If you’ve bought into Rui En’s all-sunshine-no-dark-clouds chirpiness and outgoing character in current drama Happy Family — a far cry from the ice-cool and poised figure she cuts in person — then the local starlet’s next role shouldn’t take much to convince you likewise.

The wisp-thin actress, who turns 29 this Friday, is set to play a mother of a seven-year-old child in upcoming drama I’m With You — and a widowed, pregnant one at that, after onscreen hubby (played by Chen Hanwei) gets killed in an accident and becomes a ghost who bugs the only human (Adrian Pang) who can see him to help his family out.

It’s a role “totally different from what I did in Happy Family,” she admits, before adding that it also felt “very foreign and alien” to her at the beginning, especially with it being her virgin attempt at matronly personas.

Then again, there’s nothing like research to handle the apparent lack of maternal intuition.

She’s done all her homework to ensure she nails the part. “I read a lot of books and spoke to some mums about what’s it like to be a mother and being pregnant so I know more about the mannerism and emotions. Apart from these little details, the rest is up to me to immerse myself in the role to make sure I pull it off convincingly.”

More crucially, she’s not allergic to children, unlike the showbiz proverb of actors never working with kids or animals. In fact, this lass has been volunteering at a children’s home since last year. Never mind that it started out as a New Year’s resolution (for 2009).

“I promised myself that I’d some charity work because it’s something I think I should have done a while ago, but frankly I was lazy. Finally, last year, I volunteered at a kids’ home. I visited the kids and also took them on outings like to the beach and organise things like Christmas parties.”

Because she’s an only child in her family, she considered the time spent with the home’s kids, mostly of primary and secondary school-going age, to be “the first time I was really interacting with children. Before that I doubted my ability to get along with them, but after this I realize it just comes naturally.”

While we don’t doubt that her comfortableness around kiddies will come in handy as he plays mummy in the show, we’re curious as to how she feels about her first-ever collaboration with Adrian Pang, who winds up falling for her in the series. After all, the actor’s Mandarin-speaking anathema is just about as well-known as her own bête noire on filming intimate scenes.

“I can understand his apprehension and feelings,” she says good-naturedly. For my first few Chinese dramas, I started out from being a position where I’m not good with speaking Mandarin. I worked with Pierre Png before and these guys really memorise word for word, so I know it can be stressful. So I do sympathise and I’ll definitely help him out.”

Her co-star also made headlines of late when it was confirmed he would leave TV station MediaCorp (the date is set for this April) for a career in theatre, the medium with which he originally started in.

With their show seemingly being his last Chinese drama production before he bids adios to TV land, Rui En simply said, “If he thinks it’s the right thing to do, and now is the right time to go, I say go with what you feel. Then I support his decision.”

I’m With You debuts May 2010 on Ch 8.

Source: MediaCorp

Categorised in MediaCorp, With You 我在你左右.