Michelle Chong's right index finger whirls like an electric egg
beater as she scans the screen of her iPhone.
It stops suddenly. She then thrusts out the phone and announces
triumphantly: 'There, there. You believe now?' The picture on the
screen is a close-up of her face, her cheeks littered with nasty
red pustules.
Most television actresses would rather scream and collapse
dramatically on a nearby chaise longue than allow the media
anywhere near pictures of their pimples. But not Chong, who
displays hers as though they are red badges of professional
courage.
Sitting across from the MediaCorp actress at lunch, you can see
no trace of those alarming zits on her alabaster complexion. The
acne outbreak occurred last month, she says, triggered by stress
levels which shot through the roof. Then, she had been working
24/7, as directors and producers clamoured for a piece of her
before she went on seven months of sabbatical leave.
Yes, Chong - who plays sarong party girl Barbarella, Filipino
maid Leticia, Chinese KTV hostess Lulu and a host of other
memorable characters on Channel 5's satirical TV show The Noose -
is taking a break.
Not to study, meditate or hang loose, but to direct and star in
a movie. A movie which, incidentally, she also wrote and will
produce as well as partially finance.
Filming for Already Famous, budgeted at under $1 million, began
last week. The comedy revolves around the trials and tribulations
of a young woman who sells television sets across the Causeway and
who comes to Singapore to become a star.
Her romantic interest is a coffee boy played by Alien Huang,
also known as Xiao Gui, a Taiwanese singer, actor and host. A slew
of local talents, including The Noose co-star Chua Enlai and
stand-up comic Kumar, will make cameos in the film.
Tucking into her fourth piece of beef at Carnivore Brazilian
Churrascaria in VivoCity, the 34-year-old multi-hyphenate is
candid, chatty and charming.
She says she wrote the script more than 10 years ago when she
was at a loose end. Her younger sister, she adds, had insisted that
she write it for a scriptwriting competition.
'She also said that I missed the deadline,' she says. 'My memory
is appalling, I can't remember. But it must be true.'
She is very proud of the story. It is not autobiographical, but
'is based on my own experiences and the people I've met'.
'When people write about what they know and what is real to
them, that's when it's best, right?' she asks, doing a Barbarella,
her eyes widening like saucers.
The script languished at the bottom of a drawer but she fished
it out again about three years ago. 'I read it again, it was still
very doable,' she says, adding that all it needed was a bit of
polish and a couple of updates.
With persistent prodding from friends and show-business
colleagues, she decided to bite the bullet last year to get the
movie made. Filming is expected to wrap within a month.
The decision to go behind the camera was also prompted by a
desire to haul herself out of an inexplicable funk.
'I don't know what happened along the way. It was not as though
I was doing things that were unchallenging. No one was ill-treating
me. In fact, the company was good to me and always giving me a lot
of jobs,' says Chong, who was voted one of MediaCorp's Top 10 Most
Popular Female Artistes two months ago.
'But I was emotionally and physically tired. I guess it was not
doing what I really wanted to do - to create,' she says.
She pauses, uncertain if what she wants to articulate would be
construed as hubris.
'It's not enough for me to just perform. I need to be part of
the creative process. I've been doing other people's shows but I've
not been doing my own thing,' says Chong, who formed her own
company Huat Films ('huat' being Hokkien for 'prosper') to produce
Already Famous.
Not that she does not have a say in what she does. She writes
her own lines for her characters in The Noose and is now credited
as a contributing writer on the show.
'The producers said, 'Aiyah, you might as well write your own
stuff lah since you keep changing your lines',' says the screen
bimbo- turned-film-maker.
She may make light of the situation but she is dead serious
about her work.
'I'm very particular about my characters, right down to how they
look, what they say and how they say it,' she says.
'I choose my own wigs, I do my own make-up. For example, I want
Lulu's lipstick to be orange and her eyebrows green,' she adds, her
eyes glinting with pride. Her hilarious portrayal of the saucy
mainland Chinese KTV hostess has made the character a big hit on
the show.
Her Noose co-star Chua Enlai lets on: 'Michelle is very driven,
she knows exactly what she wants. There's this seemingly bo chap
(Hokkien for 'casual' or 'indifferent') air about her but she's
actually pretty good at getting her own way.'
The girl who would be Barbarella displayed a natural talent for
hamming it up early on. The second of four children born to a
couple who used to run a business distributing houseware and
jewellery, she would channel different roles as a primary school
pupil.
'My parents would come home from work to find me wrapped up in
blankets and towels, pretending to be a geisha or Oshin,' she says,
referring to the lead character - a poor girl who becomes a
successful businesswoman - of a popular 1980s Japanese melodrama TV
series.
An alumna of Dunman High School, she took drama as a subject in
Victoria Junior College.
Her drama teacher was convinced she had the chops for a
performing career. On his recommendation, she enrolled in Bates
College, a top liberal arts school in Maine in the United States to
study theatre in the mid-1990s.
But the 1997 Asian crisis took the wind out of her parents'
business, so Chong came back after a year, and took up theatre
studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) instead.
In 1998, her father collected and completed the forms for her to
enter English talent quest Fame Awards where she became a
finalist.
'I just went along. I would have preferred Star Search. I think
I would have become famous a lot faster,' deadpans the effectively
bilingual actress, referring to the bigger and glitzier Chinese
talent competition.
To earn extra money, she also signed on with Carrie's
Models.
'I never bluff you. See I got com-poh- sit card,' she says in
her best Ah Lian accent, fishing out a modelling composite card
from her handbag.
Besides acting parts on TV, she soon started landing plum roles
in theatre such as the Singapore Repertory Theatre's 2000
production of Oleanna, a play about sexual and power politics by
American playwright David Mamet.
She was also the lead actress in The Theory Of Everything, a
2001 joint production between SRT and Los Angeles' East West
Players, on race, identity and faith. She performed in the play for
a month in Los Angeles and became one of the first Singaporeans to
earn herself a coveted Actor's Equity Card, which allows her to
work in the US.
'I got very busy with TV, theatre and modelling, so I quit NUS
in the second year,' she says.
She has no hang-ups about being a college dropout.
'I should have done it sooner,' she says with a laugh.
Her first leading role in a TV series came in 2001. She played a
female private eye, alongside Lum May Yee and Nadya Hutagalung, in
Paradise, broadcast on the now-defunct MediaWorks.
Widely panned, the series was canned after eight episodes. The
bad reviews did not affect her.
'I was just a small part of the whole thing. I don't feel
responsible for it,' she says with a shrug.
The go-getter even turned Paradise's loss into her gain. She
compiled a showreel, got celebrity photographer Russel Wong to do
her glamour shot, before inveigling a meeting with industry veteran
Man Shu Sum, then the chief operating officer of MediaWorks.
'He was quite impressed. He said no artiste had ever come to him
with a complete showreel. He tested me out by giving me a few
hosting gigs before signing me on full-time,' she says.
She proved to be a natural and was soon hosting variety shows
such as Happy Rules and Open Sesame.
Not long after, she left to join MediaCorp in 2004. There, her
popularity - among both Mandarin- and English- speaking audiences -
climbed steadily.
Candidly, she says she is probably at the peak of her career
now.
'I feel incredibly blessed. I've been luckier than so many other
people,' says the actress whose earnings, and astute investments,
have afforded her a two- bedroom condominium in Thomson Road and a
series of flashy cars, including the canary yellow Porsche Cayman
which she is currently driving.
But, she says with a sigh, she also feels incredibly
'guilty'.
'I feel guilty because, while I'm extremely content with what I
have, I also feel deeply unhappy,' she says, sounding almost
apologetic at the contradiction.
The negativity, which sometimes reduces her to a
hyperventilating and teary mess, has haunted her from young.
'I saw a shrink when I was 17 but I can't tell you why,' she
says.
'But it was a very bad experience. The shrink didn't screw me up
but I was very screwed up and he certainly didn't make things any
better. This guy's always on TV, you know,' she says with a
chortle.
Last year, she tried hypnotherapy. It did not help.
'You know what, I did not even go to sleep,' she says. 'And of
course, they said, 'That's because you don't believe in it'.'
Her voice rises with indignation: 'But I do, that's why I went
and paid good money. Therapy is expensive, you know.'
The fact that she does not have a religion, she offers, could be
part of the problem.
'Maybe if I had one, I would be calmer and more centred,' she
says. 'But these things can't be forced. If you don't like blue
flowers, you can't tell yourself to like them.'
Asked if relationships were part of the equation, the actress,
who says she has been single for the last couple of years, shakes
her head.
'I've been in good relationships and I've been in bad ones, but
even when things were good, the negativity never really went away,'
she lets on.
'By the way, can you please put down that I'm single and
actively looking,' she says. 'I don't ask for much, just for
someone humble and kind and someone who has a talent or quality I
can respect.'
Her bubbliness suddenly gives way to an uncharacteristic
graveness.
'I have no real wants, that's what's scary,' she says.
Really? I challenge.
'I guess the approval of my mother,' she says quietly.
Shockingly, she suddenly starts tearing when asked if things
were strained between them.
'It's just something we have to accept. She always gives
unsolicited advice, as all mothers do, I guess. I understand that
and am grateful but...,' she says, trailing off.
'She hasn't done anything wrong. Maybe I'm just hard on myself.
Maybe it's a negative gene,' adds the actress whose parents are now
semi-retired, and whose siblings are all graduates holding
professional jobs.
Indeed, Chong is increasingly convinced that she is suffering
from some 'chemical imbalance'.
She has been prescribed anti-depressants, 'but I don't like
taking medication because it makes me sleepy and I can't work'.
To keep the blues at bay, she throws herself into her work.
'When I don't work, my mind starts to wander and that's when I
get breathless. My mind needs to be constantly engaged. That's why
I don't like showering or going to the spa,' she says.
'These activities do not engage the mind. I will go mad.'
Her mind will be more than just engaged over the next few weeks
as Already Famous is being shot.
More than anyone, Chong, who has pumped in a six-figure sum and
is zealously roping in sponsors for the project, knows that the
movie is a huge risk and a big gamble.
'Just think of the opportunity costs - no pay for seven months,
no hosting gigs, no endorsements. Just do the maths, hello,' she
says, putting on an American accent.
But surprisingly, she says she is not 'that scared'.
'That's because I micro-manage, I will be on top of every single
thing so that nothing goes wrong.
'It's not just because my money is in it,' she pronounces. 'It's
because it's my vision and I can't bear to see it go any other
way.'
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my life so far
'Unlike my peers, I knew what I wanted to do from a very young
age. It's my first and only job, and I've pursued it all the way.
Even when it seemed I was not going anywhere and my parents were
getting a bit worried as this is such an unpredictable business, I
stuck with it'
Michelle Chong, on choosing show business
'I ask to be involved all the time. I pitch ideas and show
concepts and sometimes, the company doesn't know what to do with
me. When you work in a big organisation, it gets difficult. I
totally understand when they say, 'If you're an actor, you act lah.
If you also write, how do we count the number of shows you have at
the end of the year?''
On wanting to do more than just act
'If I didn't do it, I would die. So, last year, I told myself
that even if it means turning down dramas, leading roles,
dinner-and-dance hosting gigs which pay a lot of money, I would
have to. If not, it would just be job after job, day after day, and
it will be forever and it will never be done'
On making her own movie
'We get allegations of political incorrectness all the time. But
we have absolutely no political agenda. When something happens and
everybody's talking about it, it makes sense to spoof it. But that
doesn't mean you are making a political statement. Some people say
I'm racist when I put on my Filipino accent and play Leticia. But
Filipino maids tell me they love Leticia very much. Why should
Singaporeans get upset when Filipinos don't?'
