Rebecca Lim gets sexy as bar hostess in new TV show
Rebecca Lim is best known for being the sweet, charming girl next door on our small screens.
But in Channel 8 blockbuster series The Journey: Our Homeland, the 28-year-old local actress shows her flirty side as a bar hostess who is "hard to get" and often clad in sexy, revealing dresses.
Premiering on July 16 at 9pm, the period drama set from the 1960s to 1980s is the third and final season of MediaCorp's nation-building trilogy.
It also has stars like Felicia Chin, Rui En, Romeo Tan, Andie Chen, Shaun Chen, Ian Fang and Julie Tan.
To prepare for her role as Wan Feifei, a factory seamstress who becomes a bar hostess to cover her mother's hefty medical bills, Lim recalled the research she did when she portrayed a prostitute in 2009 Channel 5 drama Fighting Spiders.
Lim told The New Paper at the press conference of Our Homeland yesterday that she was "excited" to see herself in a new light on screen.
She said: "It's very different from my usual roles. I become a bar hostess and go through a lot. It's one of the most difficult roles I've done."
Of her character, she said: "I won't voluntarily touch the clients and I'm not overly vain. That's why the guys all want me. I drink with them, but I don't sleep with them."
Lim added: "We had our shoots at the older bars in Singapore and it was an interesting experience.
"I was fine with it when I was filming, but when I went home and thought about how men treat these women in a disrespectful way, I felt uncomfortable."
TRAUMATIC
But what was more traumatic was re-enacting the collapse of Hotel New World in 1986 for one scene.
She said: "We were filming in total darkness and I was trapped in the rubble for three to four days. I'm quite claustrophobic in real life, so filming it was quite bad. I kept wanting to pee all the time."
She added: "I thought about what the people must have gone through back then, it must have been terrifying. For two to three weeks after filming that, I didn't dare to park in the basements of carparks."
Lim, who recently bagged the highly coveted Best Actress title at the annual Star Awards in April, gives herself more pressure these days when it comes to work.
She said: "If a scene requires me to cry, I really hope I do. If not, I'll feel like I don't deserve it. But I know people don't expect me to be perfect so I try not to be too hard on myself."
Lim, who had a health scare last month, also wants to reassure fans that she has recovered.
On the night of June 7, she went to Mount Elizabeth Hospital after experiencing sharp pains in her ribs following a three-week bout of flu.
Lim uploaded a picture on Instagram showing her lying on a hospital bed in the wee hours of June 8. It shocked and worried fans and colleagues and caused a stir online.
"I had a viral infection and there was no air going through my right lung, making it very swollen and it pressed on my ribs," she said.
"I have finally been sleeping well for the past two days without coughing much. I'm feeling much better now."
"It's very different from my usual roles. I become a bar hostess, and I go through a lot."
- Rebecca Lim
"I think I am pretty lucky to have four kids who are so good-looking."
- Felicia Chin, 30, on her role as a mum to four grown children played by Romeo Tan, 30; Jeffrey Xu, 27; Cheryl Wee, 28; and Ian Fang, 25.
She plays mum for first time
Cast: (From left) Cheryl Wee, Ian Fang, Felicia Chin, Romeo Tan, and Jeffrey Xu in The Journey: Our Homeland. Chin plays a mum to the other four in the show. PHOTO: MEDIACORP
She may be around the same age as some of her co-stars, but local actress Felicia Chin ended up playing their mum in The Journey: Our Homeland.
Chin, 30, portrays Zhang Min who ages into her 50s in the show. She is also the mother of the characters played by Romeo Tan, 30, Jeffrey Xu, 27, Cheryl Wee, 28, and Ian Fang, 25.
It is her first time playing a mother on screen and to get into her character more easily, she addresses the three male actors as her "sons" whenever she meets on set and in the make-up room.
She told The New Paper: "I would call them 'sons', and make them call me 'mum'.
"At first, it felt a bit awkward, but a simple exercise like this made it easier for us to assimilate into our roles."
She joked: "I think I am pretty lucky to have four kids who are so good-looking."
On the show, Zhang Min hates Zhang Yan (also played by Tan) as he raped her and fathered her child in the previous instalment of the trilogy. In one scene, she hunts down Zhang Yan with a crowbar after she learns that he killed her husband Dang Yong (Andie Chen) .
INTENSE
Chin said: "The scene was kind of like a psycho thriller as you see me walking down the corridor dragging a crowbar.
"My character was overcome with hatred and had lost all common sense - it was the craziest scene I've ever done.
"I had to be very careful when swinging the crowbar as any mishap would have killed Romeo..."
The multi-tasking star, who opened The Mama Shop cafe last November and seafood stall Wholly Crab in May, admits that she is "someone who cannot sit still".
She said people have asked her for franchise opportunities for Wholly Crab, but she has not had time to work on that as she will be filming another long-running drama from August till next February.
She said: "I will pass the (business opportunity) to someone whom I trust to handle my business."
I think I am pretty lucky to have four kids who are so good-looking.
- Felicia Chin, 30, on her role as a mum to four grown children played by Romeo Tan, 30; Jeffrey Xu, 27; Cheryl Wee, 28; and Ian Fang, 25.
She takes lessons for opera role
UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE: Local A-list actress Rui En recalls being drenched in sweat while playing a Chinese opera singer. TNP PHOTOS: CHOO CHWEE HUA
Local actress Rui En piled on thick make-up and donned four layers of clothing for a Chinese opera-singing scene for The Journey: Our Homeland.
The 34-year-old described her image overhaul as "scary", adding that "it's not something I would like to see again".
In the drama, Rui En plays a junior nurse whose mother is an opera singer. In one scene, her mum cannot perform so she takes over for the day.
Rui En recalled: "We filmed for two days and by the time I took off the layers of clothes, the first layer was all drenched in sweat. It was as if I had just showered."
She added: "It was a nightmare trying to remove the make-up - my skin felt so irritated."
Ever the perfectionist, Rui En went even further.
"I took four singing lessons to learn how to sing opera songs and also requested to record the songs on my own," said the actress, who is filming another Channel 8 blockbuster series, The Dream Makers 2,
But the dream role she would really want to snag is one in a superhero movie.
The self-confessed geek said: "I grew up reading and collecting comics and I am always excited whenever a new Marvel superhero movie is out."
So what kind of superpower would she want to have?
"Invisibility. People can be very different when they are on their own and I want to see them in that state."
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