September 17, 2007

For the girl who started out in modeling running in a Singtel ad and whom you will soon see chasing down baddies as a crime-busting cop in new drama Metamorphosis, Rui En confesses to be a serious slacker during the 2.4km runs in school.

Text by Kwok Kar Peng
Photos by Bernice Hoh

The wheels of déjà vu are turning. Seven years ago, freshly out of junior college, Rui En received her first modeling job for a Singtel ad where you might remember her sprinting to top up her Singtel phone card so she could pick up a call from a cute hottie.

Now, numerous dramas later, Rui En is again running, this time for her new drama Metamorphosis where she hunts down law-breaking criminals. On the contrary to her sporty and gungho image, the 26-year-old singer-actress confessed to be a terrible student during the Physical Education (P.E.) classes.

“I always ‘siam’ (avoid) the 2.4 (km run)! Always!! I hate running! If I run, I have to force myself, so back in my school days, my friends and I were infamous for finding excuses not to do the 2.4 haha! We were really slackers when it came to P.E. until it got to a point where the P.E. teacher got so annoyed with us that we got a ticking-off in front of the whole school,” she chuckled.

Teacher would be sniggering in secret now as Rui En paid the price for her school day truancies during the filming of Metamorphosis: she pulled a muscle and went limping for about close to two weeks!

“And before filming started, I told the executive producer (EP) that I needed training because I had never done anything like this before, so the EP arranged two sessions with the martial arts choreographer for me. After the first three-hour session, I was aching so badly that I seriously couldn’t get up the next day! I had problems walking, but I was very lucky that I had those two lessons, so after that, I would ache a little bit but not as bad as the first time,” she winced in recollection.

The experience wasn’t all that bad; Rui En has now discovered something new about herself: she loves to fight! As she complains about how there wasn’t enough fight scenes in Metamorphosis to whet her appetite, she is also making plans to stay active to take up muay thai lessons.

“After filming Metamorphosis, I realized I like punching and kicking so much! It’s very stress-relieving! Maybe I’m just a violent person but I really like the fight scenes. I’m trying to keep active so that if I do take up the sport, I won’t, like, die of exhaustion.”

Metamorphosis begins tomorrow Sept 18 at 9pm on Channel 8! The drama also stars Chen Hanwei, Terence Cao, Thomas Ong, Yvonne Lim, Brandon Wong, Cavin Soh, Ng Hui, Julian Hee, Chen Guohua, Bryan Wang, Ix Shen and Chew Sin Huey.

Source: Channel 8 Archives

Categorised in Channel 8 Archives, Metamorphosis 破茧而出.