Kids Can Act: Why did you act at such a young age?

 

Hui Lu: Basically, I have passion for acting ever since young. I remembered that I really like watching MediaCorp dramas and I would actually sing along with some of their theme songs and I’m a very visual person, to begin with, I think that’s part of my nature. So I’m very attracted to what’s on the TV and I’m actually very curious to know how people actually act onscreen. So I was very interested to try out acting and that’s why I think I started acting at such a young age because I thought the idea of acting was very cool to me.

 

KCA: Can you share with us how did it started, like how did you get scouted, or did you join any acting classes or auditions?

 

HL: Basically, the first film that I acted in was this film called Homerun, directed by Jack Neo in 2003. At that point of time, I was still a Primary 3 student. So I remember the reason I got in touch with acting was because my teacher actually selected a few of us to go for audition, so the audition was actually held in school. I remembered from there I went through several rounds of audition and I finally got the role in the movie. And that’s when after that, my profile stayed with the production company and it got circulated around to some of the other talent management companies, and I got called up then and now, so I will go for audition for any available roles that they have called me up to audition for.

 

KCA: What do you find most meaningful by starting to act at such a young age?

 

HL: What I feel about acting at such a young age is that, it really helps to train a person’s discipline. For example, the difficulty lies in trying to struggle, trying to handle acting and academics at the same time, and plus, if you have CCA, that will be like three aspects which you need to juggle with. So I thought that contrary to what a lot of people think actually children are able to excel academically as well, because I think acting at such a young age actually trains your ability to manage your time well, and actually trains you to be more focused to what you want to do.

 

So actually I do know that a lot of actors who started acting at a very young age actually go to very good schools and because contrary to what some of my friends think, they think that because they don’t have time to study that’s why they act or things like that, so I think that is the real benefit of acting at such a young age because it really trains you to be a more focused and disciplined person. And to hold up to expectations of what the director wants, you’ll also be entrusted with a sense of responsibility which I think is very vital to your personal character development.

 

KCA: What were your most memorable/favourite moments?

 

HL: One of the most memorable incidents I had during acting was, to me, crying scenes, because at that point of time, as a child, our thoughts are very pure, much innocent and we haven’t really been through a lot of life experiences to actually understand what is pain and what are tortures in life and things like that. So to me, crying scenes were very challenging, everybody will be on set waiting for you to cry and though you know sometimes people use their teardrops and things like that, some of the directors actually prefer you to invoke your true feelings out.

 

So to me, at a young age, I thought it was very stressful, it was definitely a very stressful experience to go through, because the kind of tight schedule to adhere to, and everybody will be waiting for you to cry, so for example, if you spend one hour or something trying to develop your feelings, you might actually pull back the whole schedule of the shoot. So you’ll feel that kind of stress and that kind of expectations that people are judging you according to how well you can act and things like that. So that was one of my more memorable and pretty much unhappy incidents when it comes to acting.

 

KCA: So how did you really cry actually?

 

HL: I thought that I needed more life experiences, so I actually adapted some of them by watching films and movies, like my favourite soap movie is actually My Sister’s Keeper because the show really made me cry from the start all the way till the end. I think movies like that actually help me to accumulate that... I don’t know how to explain, but this memory place where you can actually kope it from, then you can actually apply them and try to act in some of your personal feelings as well.

 

Or another way is to actually understand the story, which means be absorbed into the story. For example, someone dies in the story or something like that. Two things you can do luh, one is to relate from past events or similar events, or another thing is to really relate yourself into the character’s shoes. That’s how I learned how to feel sad and cry.

 

KCA: If you choose one word/phrase to describe your childhood, what would it be?

 

HL: My childhood? Hmm, I would say my childhood was vibrant, as in vibrant in the sense that I had the opportunity which a lot of children then didn’t have, which is to get involved in acting, and to know more about how people in the working industry actually do their business. For example, in acting company, in the media company what do people actually do, some of the productions, some of the video editing, and how onset the props and lighting are really being done in real life.

 

And vibrant in the sense that I had the chance to try a lot of different roles, because when we act we are given different roles, so I have for example, today I might be a depressed student, but the next show I might be acting as a rich kid in the sense. So I’m given a lot of scenarios which I can play around with, in the sense that I was given, so I thought that my childhood is very vibrant in the sense that I had the opportunities to try out different roles to actually experience how I feel like in each of these characters’ shoes. Yeah basically, I think that’s all.

 

KCA: Do you think you missed out on certain things that an ordinary childhood would comprise of?

 

HL: I would say not really because to me, acting is my passion. I do not know of children who are being forced to act because of their parents’ expectations. For me, acting is something that I really liked to do so I thought that it is part of my childhood, but perhaps some compromises that I need to make would be is, I might not be able to go on play dates with my other friends because I have to act, and some of them might think that it is like a child labour, which you are exploited because you don’t get to... you’re being paid, I mean acting is a job and you’re working at such a young age.

 

But for me, I think there’s another part of childhood in the sense that when I act, I’m exposed to a lot of different things as well instead of the normal play dates which normal children do. I involve myself in another kind of childhood whereby I work onset and interact with actresses and actors, to know more about the acting industry. So I wouldn’t say that I lose out a lot on say, good childhood memories because to me, my childhood memories with respect to acting, was very memorable and enjoyable as well.

 

KCA: No regrets?

 

HL: Not really, because I do not know of child actors who act on a frequent basis. Maybe for that, they might at some point feel they are being exploited in the sense that they don’t have the freedom to go on play dates with friends and things like that. For me, I don’t act on a very frequent basis, perhaps just a few productions, two or three productions in a year, so the rest of the year is actually quite free for me.

 

But I thought that there was once I really felt quite exploited in the sense that I felt that I was pulling myself too thin, because my exams were coming up and I had to juggle with acting and sometimes the expectations there is also pretty high, then expectations in school is also really high, so there were a few moments like that which I felt that I would have survived, I would have fared better if I didn’t act. But besides all these little moments of feeling stranded, I enjoyed acting overall.

 

KCA: How would you describe the environment in the past and now? Are you still acting?

 

HL: Because of my current commitments and I’m a university student now, and the workload of the business school is quite taxing, so I only do acting in a part time basis, that means like small roles. So I’m still acting luh, I have a recent one coming out in January. Sorry, your question again?

 

KCA: How would you describe the environment between the past and now? Is there any difference between now and then? Like how you were treated compared to the past and now?

 

HL: Okay, I don’t know how to qualify this because I cannot really compare between the past and now, because in the past I was still a child, but now I’m being viewed as an adult even though some of them might know me as the child actress who acted years back. But most of them who do not know me because after years in the industry because people change and fresh faces are being seen, so they might not recognise me as the young actress, so they might just recognise me as a person who is of a certain appropriate age, as an adult basically.

 

Because when I was a child, I remembered I received a lot of nice gifts from my director and I really liked... As in you know from time to time, I would get some chocolates from my directors, and they are really very sweet and very nice to me and they really helped me a lot. For example, with regards to trying to tackle the role, so one of the reasons I actually thought was because I was a child then, maybe to work at the same environment as the adults might be a little too demanding for me, so that’s why they actually give me some special rewards to motivate me in the sense.

 

So I wouldn’t really know how to compare the past and now, but how I will compare is; now when I see young children act on scene, they are more... It is more... How should I say? It used to be more of a family type of thing to me in the past but I think as the thing develops, more children now are actually given less attention to.

 

KCA: Given less attention in terms of what?

 

HL: In terms of maybe... Because their parents will be together with them, so I don’t really feel much affection from the directors whom are being invested towards the children as compared to what I think I had in the past.

 

KCA: Is it because the directors change or...?

 

HL: I don’t know if it’s just a personal feeling or is it because the culture of the working environment has changed. Nowadays they treat child actors like adults or they don’t really show much affection towards child actors because of the work environment which requires people to be much focused and things like that. For that I’m not too sure.

 

KCA: What kind of training did you undergo?

 

HL: I didn’t really undergo training luh, in the sense that I wasn’t handpicked because I joined any of the acting skills course or things like that. I was selected purely because I was selected by my teachers in school to go for audition. But I guess after that I realised that I need to build up on my acting skills in the sense that I joined Chinese Drama Society in my secondary school. That’s when I got the chance to actually... Yeah, my drama teacher actually taught us some of the specific skills we can use to evoke our feelings to bring out certain perspectives that are very relevant when we act. So training in the sense that I think to me was to join the correct society which actually... to join the Chinese Drama Society which helped to actually hone my acting skills even further.

 

KCA: So actually when you acted last time in MediaCorp, they just handed you the script?

 

HL: Yeah, you just use your own interpretation to act. So maybe for example, you act, from the first time you receive the script, so the first time you act is purely based on your own interpretation on how you should act the role out. For example if you’re acting as a rich kid, how would you want to take out the wallet? For example you’re paying for something, how you would want to spend the money in the sense. So you can take out a wallet in a very fashionable, like you know, you can actually flick or swing out the wallet or something like that. It’s based on your own interpretation on how you want to sculpture your whole character.

 

Then the next cut will be if the director thinks it’s not appropriate, he’d advise you on maybe you shouldn’t be so flashy about this, or he’s a rich kid, but he’s a kid of good nature even though he’s rich or something like that. So he’ll give suggestions, then the second take will be your second interpretation together with some of the feedback from the director. So you just keep on building on it luh, until the director feels that the take is acceptable then he’ll actually take that version of yours. So actually a lot of the time the interpretation relies a lot on the actor himself. Different people might interpret the role differently. The directors can only advise you on what to do, but they can’t really change much on how you want to sculpture the character.

 

KCA: How did you deal with the fame?

 

HL: The fame? I’m not much fame to speak of. But I thought for example the first time after I acted ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, I was in secondary one, I just entered secondary one I remembered, because the thing was actually screened before the June holidays, I remembered the very drastic change when I came back from June holidays.  Then suddenly you know like people don’t really know you, but then suddenly after the June break, you came back and everybody started to stare at you. Like, isn’t she the girl who blah blah blah blah blah you know that kind of thing? Then everybody was like “Oh so you mean all along she has been in our school? Why didn’t I see her before?” that kind of thing, and trying to deal with the fame like when I walked on streets, people would just glare. There’ll be like stares and whispering and things like that. Or people who walk up to me telling me that I acted very well. Or people who don’t like me might write in their forum, discussing about me. You know the attention thing, the whole attention, and the whole thing about gaining all the attention.

 

At first, I felt really awkward, but I thought that if next time that’s what I want to do, I must take compromises. But it’s really not a very good feeling to undergo all these attention because many the times you don’t really get very good... when negative feedback comes to you, it actually affects you pretty much as compared to good feedback that you’ve actually garnered from some of them. Negative feedback is more damaging to me personally because I tend to be more pessimistic in the sense.

 

KCA: So you just don’t care about them?

 

HL: Yeah, for a period of time, I was quite depressed.  I didn’t want to go out because I didn’t want people to stare at me.

 

KCA: But you still have to go to school right?

 

HL: Going to school was necessary but besides that, there was a period of time I didn’t really want to go out. I felt like I can just stay at home because when I go out, people are going to stare at me and maybe say something good or bad about me.

 

KCA: But after some time...?

 

HL: Yeah after some time because I stopped acting for quite a while, here and there luh I mean. But as in the after effects right after the show, and that was the first time I actually felt the tension because my first role in Homerun was very small, but in Rhapsody in Blue, it was a major role. I appeared in every single episode.

 

So the impact, the impression that I leave on people’s minds were very deep and that was my first time experiencing this kind of attention, so I thought was very traumatising to me in a sense. But slowly after that I sort of got used to it. I don’t know if I’m aware or unaware I don’t know, because sometimes people can just look at you, but you don’t know that they are looking at you because they know that you act or they are just you know like, normal staring or those awkward stares on MRT.

 

KCA: What do you think about the state of the television industry in Singapore?

 

HL: Wow, this is a very, very hard and challenging question. Okay, I’ve been watching television programmes all this while. I remembered that there was a time where the seven princesses were introduced in the MediaCorp. Some of them whom I pretty much adore like Rui En and Liu Zhi Xuan (Jessica Liu) who I acted alongside with in Rhapsody in Blue. Then after that, they started to have a lot of overseas dramas, they started to screen a lot of overseas dramas,

 

I think that was the time where there were a lot of adjustments in the company. There were lesser local productions and more of overseas films which I don’t know why they bought over so many of them. There was this sort of talent-devoid time where I see a lot of same old faces and then, some of the actors were actually leaving the industry and ending their contracts. So, there was this time when I don’t really see new faces and not much productions. But now I can feel that the industry is trying to find new faces now, and more and more people who are younger and fresher in the sense that they are people with stronger personalities.

 

KCA: Younger? You mean as in child or...?

 

HL: Yeah, like for example last time when you enter the industry, you have to be around 20 plus, but now you see some of the new teenagers acting in MediaCorp dramas are only 17, 18 and they are actually receiving much acclaimed recognition in the industry already despite their young age. So I guess that is the thing they are actually moving towards to, like embracing younger people into their acting industry, in the earlier stage. As for drama themes-wise, there’s actually lesser revolving around the history of Singapore.

 

There was once I thought that the themes are quite saturated in the sense that they all revolve around family problems, lawsuits over assets of their parents and things like that. So I thought generally the creativity for the themes is quite saturated, there’s no breakthrough in a sense. But now I see more innovative themes, for example themes that revolve around... there’s this show called 千方百计 (Game Plan), I don’t know if you’ve watched it. It’s about how professional liars/cheaters do their businesses. I think it’s very innovative in the sense that they are trying to be more open about more themes that are generally out of the normal context as compared to those normal family problems. And they are even looking into some very relevant themes like marriage, shows revolving around marriage, shows revolving around... they are even bringing back more history themes like The Little Nyonya and things like that, which I think are pretty rare back in 2006.

 

KCA: What kind of value or contribution do you think child actors bring to the production?

 

HL: Ah well, child actors are very adorable I would say, because when I watch shows, I would actually look forward to how the child actors act because I think they present a very raw and very pure image of how one person would actually interpret their respective roles when it comes to acting. So I think the role of child actors in TV shows is that they add flavor to a show, because you are so used to seeing the working adults and romance and things like that, but when you’re seeing a child, you’re seeing the very true innate personality from the children. Sometimes they might not act as well as the adults, but they are cute in the sense that their interpretation is very down-to-earth.

 

For example, when little children cry they’ll just use their hands to wipe their eyes to pretend they’re crying, even though professionally you might think it’s not considered good acting but they still made your day in the sense that you think they are so adorable because that’s the way they interpreted their roles in the sense. So I think child actors are quite important because once you get tired of normal concepts in those... adult issues like romance, relationships, family problems, you want to see another aspect which is more light-hearted whereby I think children can bring out this aspect even better.

 

KCA: What do you envision the future of Singapore television to be like?

 

HL: I think the future Singapore TV might involve more collaboration with overseas actors and actresses, because right now we see some of the shows like 花样人间 (Joys of Life), they bring in a lot of Taiwanese actors and actresses which gives some originality to the usual themes whereby you don’t see the same old faces so there’s a lot of collaboration here and there. I also think that besides actors and actresses, there may be more collaboration overseas in terms of production team, for example, collaboration with China and Singapore to come up with a show, to come up with a drama serial. I believe that globalisation has taken its place in today’s world so we might see a lot of movements with respect to either talent or production in the TV scene, cross-countries, and cross-borders.

 

KCA: So does that mean that the child actors will go overseas also?

 

HL: I don’t know. If you’re handpicked, like for example the Korean acting industry, you can see some child actors who are very highly priced, very highly valued, for example the child actor for Dong Yi, I don’t know if you’ve watched it. She’s now very highly valued in the Korean TV industry even though she’s just a child. So I mean there might be a possibility that Singapore have the intention to do some cross overseas collaboration, you know find her, find child actors who are highly valued to collaborate their upcoming drama. I don’t think that’s not possible. It’s a possibility.

 

KCA: “Recognition, Remuneration and Reward” what are you views on these three?

 

HL: I definitely prefer recognition because as an actor, to gain recognition of the others means you have fulfilled your task of a good actor/actress per say. I believe that acting is a profession, people who are really passion about acting, do not work for the money or the reward. They actually work based on... for example you see Huang Wenyong, he spent his life acting all these years. So I think people like him are true actors, who really take pride in acting as compared to the remuneration or the reward he actually gets from acting.

 

Because if you’re talking about remuneration, there are actually much better jobs that give better remuneration as compared to acting. Like if you’re doing banking and investment, you could jolly well get as much rewards as you want. I think acting is a profession and in a profession, you would want to gain recognition as compared to anything.

 

KCA: Do you have any happy/funny episodes during your child acting stint that you can still remember (that are) close to your heart?

 

HL: Not really, but the thing is I remembered that when I acted in Rhapsody in Blue, Christopher Lee was quite a humorous guy. I was acting as a little depressed child in the show so he actually gave me pretty stupid suggestions like asking me to like, pretend I’m autistic in schools or something like that. He’s quite a nice guy who teases me and Jessica Liu quite a lot. We had a really fun time over jokes and things like that.

 

I remember after the whole thing ended, the director treated us to a buffet at some pretty posh hotel and I had my fill. So that was why I really liked acting because of the environment then. I don’t know about now, but then at that time, it was very warming, I feel very warm and comfortable to be inside that big family.

 

KCA: Can you talk about your award winning show Rhapsody in Blue? How old were you?

 

HL: I was secondary one. Actually I got nominated in 2010 as well but I didn’t win then. So that means I got nominated twice, but I only won once and that was in 2006. At that time it was pretty unexpected because that was my first time, like right after I acted in the film. I was Primary 3 then when I first acted. I remember then my screen time in the movie was only less than 5 minutes. However the next show I acted in, I had screen time in every episode. It was quite a substantial one, so I didn’t expected it because I would consider it as my first onscreen experience if you disregard the movie. So, it was like a nice surprise.

 

KCA: Are there a lot of shows featuring kids in the prime time slots (7-9pm) dramas?

 

HL: Not really, frankly speaking. It depends, if the theme of the show is about Singapore’s education system, they might feature a lot of children. However if they are not, normally we don’t really see many children in the show. For example, if you’re not dealing with problems between the parents and the children, probably not because the main theme for Singapore TV shows is still much focused on adults’ problems, maybe in the business world, romance or things like that. And less focused on the children, perhaps one or two show on the education system where they at one go will feature a lot of children.

 

KCA: So is there like a trend because recently there was one about rebellious kids.

 

HL: So like what I said, these show, there’s not really a clear trend. These shows only come up once in a few years I think. I remember in my year 2010, I acted in My School Daze. The show actually talks about Singapore’s education system because in the show I was a depressed kid and I had a scene where I almost committed suicide, so from 2010 to the recent one I’ve seen, there’s a gap of around 2-3 years before I see such similar themes coming out again. So it’s not a trend per say, but it’s just something that they have to do once in a while to bring out the issue, to gain awareness of that issue.