Half-Singaporean Game Of Thrones babe uses Singlish and misses hawker centre food
Game Of Thrones’ newest femme fatale, Jessica Henwick, can impress you with her Singlish.
"Before you rang me, I was very kancheong (Cantonese for anxious)," said the 22-year-old British actress, her Singlish tinged with her English accent.
"I'm also very kiasu (Hokkien for afraid to lose) - I inherited that from my mother!"
Henwick, bornto a British father and a Chinese-Singaporean mother, said that part of her is "really Singaporean" and that she uses Singlish at times.
Henwick was well-acquainted with Singapore as a child and returns here at least once a year with her mother.
"The majority of my time in Singapore is spent at hawker centres," she told The New Paper in a phone interview last week.
"The biggest thing my mum misses when we are in England is Singapore food. We used to go to Newton Food Centre every other day.
"The food at the hawker centres is incredible, from chilli crab to Hainanese chicken rice. My god, my best memories of growing up are of eating."
Henwick stars as Nymeria Sand in the fifth season of Game Of Thrones, which premieres on April 13 at 9am on HBO (StarHub Ch 601).
Nymeria and her sisters Obara (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and Tyene (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers) - also new additions to the cast - are known as Sand Snakes. They seek revenge on the Lannisters for death of their father Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) in season four.
"I want to reconnect with Singapore. A lot of things have changed and there are a lot of places that I haven't been to yet," said Henwick, who will be in the Republic in a few months' time in a surprise birthday trip for her mother.
Henwick wished she had been in town last week following the death of Singapore's first prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, last Monday.
"I was very sad. I grew up with my mum telling me stories of him. My heart goes out to everyone. I wish I had been there to say goodbye."
PROUD
Henwick said she is proud of her Singaporean roots and that she admires the women here for their strength.
Strength is also a quality that Game Of Thrones fans will observe in the bull whip-wielding Nymeria, the careful, practical sister.
According to Henwick, Nymeria's lethal weapon represents the character.
"It is not about brute force, but precision and balance. Learning the whip brought me closer to my character. Oh, many, many injuries were had," she said.
Henwick had five months of training in Belfast in Northern Ireland with the stunt team - just days after she learnt that she had landed the role.
"Another TV series asked me to audition for a character that had a whip but I turned it down. I said the only character I'd use the whip for is Nymeria or Indiana Jones," she said, laughing.
The whip ended up putting Henwick in a spot. "I had taken it home to practise," she said in another interview.
"When going through the scanner at Belfast International Airport, the security just stopped. They were like, 'What the heck?'. I had a practice dagger as well. Let's just say eyebrows were raised."
Henwick is likely to see her popularity soar once Game Of Thrones' new season airs, despite receiving some backlash for playing Nymeria, who's supposedly of "mixed race".
"I had very nice people telling me, 'I can't believe you're the first Asian on the show, that's amazing,'" she said.
"But you can't please everyone. I know there are those who are like, 'Why is she Asian?'"
Henwick has also reportedly joined the Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, but dodged the question when asked about it
She told TNP: "Everyone keeps telling me my life is going to change. It's really a difficult thing to imagine because I live in London and people here don't care if you are famous."
"The food at the hawker centres is incredible, from chilli crab to Hainanese chicken rice. My god, my best memories of growing up are of eating."
- Jessica Henwick
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