We get the reserved actress talking about her new role as a budding reporter who harbours big dreams and ideals

Text: Joanna Goh

When we first spoke to Rui En about taking on the role of Yan Zhi, a reporter in the upcoming Ch8 drama series Poetic Justice, the actress admitted that she was caught in a ‘Catch-22’ situation. She has a love-hate relationship with the media and you can’t blame her for it. After all, she’s constantly bogged by labels and bad press over the most miniscule things – remember the whole smiling-or-not-smiling fiasco she had during the Star Awards this year?

Post-filming three months later, when we sat Rui En down for an interview at iFly Singapore last Friday, the actress shared that her opinions and afterthoughts on the role are more or less still the same. ‘I wouldn’t say there is a huge change. I just feel a bit more aware that we’re all here to make ends meet and work for a living. That’s all we’re doing.’

As if she read minds and saw where this topic was heading to, she adds with a tinge of resignedness, ‘Unfortunately, for celebs and the press, there are times when you’re at loggerheads with each other…’

Luckily, as the topic of our interview veered towards her role and her co-cast in the show, the actress loosens up and let out a couple of grimaces and chuckles when we touched on the hot weather in Macau and her state of ‘maturity’ in showbiz today.

So, what kind of interview questions unnerves Rui En and who would she pick if she had to choose between Dai Yang Tian and Desmond Tan in the show? We find out more below!

xinmsn: Were there any personal experiences that helped you ease into this role easily?
Rui En: I guess it helps that we’re always facing reporters (laughs). Just generally being interviewed on a regular basis by reporters. We’re talking about entertainment news, and for us [in the show], we’re doing society news. It’s kind of different but just generally being surrounded by reporters all the time is something that makes it familiar.

How was the on-set chemistry with Yang Tian?
We can be quiet at times but when it comes to communicating about the role, we’re really open and he’s also open to suggestions like playing a role in a different way. We’re actually flexible. The lines of communications have always been very open, but there are times we’d rather be quiet and in our little quiet corners.

And how was the atmosphere on-set with such a young cast?
It was really comfortable, some of them – especially the ringleader, Sora – tend to have a lot of fun. Most of the time I do my own thing lah, but it can get quite infectious. It was a light-hearted set.

Your character gets caught in a love triangle between Yang Tian and Desmond’s characters. So if you had to pick between the two guys, who would it be?
I would pick… Rebecca! (chuckles) I can’t, they’re two really different [guys]. Their roles are also really different. But I like the fact that there’s a story development between Desmond and me. It isn’t your typical fall-in-love-and-happy ever-after type.

You guys traveled to Macau to film parts of the show. Anything interesting that happened?
Just unbearably hot. You can’t even imagine, it’s like going to Cambodia. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of heat at all and it was quite a nightmare to film ‘cos basically, you’d be soaked and you still have to strike a lovely pose.

Your character in the show is idealistic and a girl with big dreams, any similarities to when you first started out in showbiz?
Yes of course, when you first leave school, you think you can conquer the world and you actually believed it. You have all these profound ideas; it’s just so typical at that age where you just feel like Gandhi and all those people combined into one and then life hits you and you realise… I definitely can relate to her zest and ideals ‘cos coming out of school was exactly the same, except I think she’s more worthy of admiration ‘cos she wants to help people.

Does that mean you’re jaded with showbiz now?
Jaded? No no no no. Its called maturity (laughs). That’s a big difference. It’s not about being jaded. It’s just that when you come out to work, you start to realise things are not the way you had imagined them to be. Things are a lot more complicated.

Is there anything today that gives you that burst of excitement or adrenalin rush?
Very rarely. In the first place, I don’t really react to most things with excitement, the most happiness, but not really giddy with excitement.

What about drama ratings?
Of course you’d be happy, because after all it’s two to three months of hard work, but it’s not everything lah.

So what kind of interview questions gets on your nerves? Any particular questions, for example?
I guess open-ended questions tend to leave me a little bit [unnerved]. Yah, as a person I don’t really like open-ended questions or the ‘what if’ questions. What’s the point [of asking them]? You can imagine what it’s like but when the situation is in front of you, it could be a world away.

WATCH Rui En’s video interview below!

Vote for Yanzhi as your Favourite Female Character now!

Poetic Justice 微笑正义 debuts 11 September 2012 9pm on Channel 8.

Source: Xinmsn

Categorised in EN, Poetic Justice 微笑正义, xinmsn.