I’m a happy actress.

I have booked a drama series that will keep me occupied till the end of June, and then some.

I have acting classes once a week (fun!).

I have many new acting books waiting to be read.

I’m happiest when my life revolves around acting. It makes me dance around and smile lots and generally make people around me go crazy putting up with my nonsense.

I thought I had lost the role because they called me like two weeks later than they said they would. So I was quite happily surprised when I was told I got the job. That’s the 13-episode drama series I mentioned in the post about measuring myself. There are plans to make more episodes if the show is well-received, which would be so cool.

Although it’s not a dream role, it’s good enough to feel happy about because it’s almost a leading role. The main leads are a boy and a girl since it’s a kids’ drama. The secondary leads are two adults, one being my character (teacher) and the other being the boy’s father. My character is also involved in a romantic subplot, so that’s one more dimension than most of my MediaCorp roles.

Me!

My teacher image. Not that different from the real me — duh — because I wore my own clothes (only for this one episode because the sponsored clothes aren’t ready yet).

This was the exact same outfit I wore to the audition. Haha. After I arrived on the set and changed into the outfit, the project manager was amused. “Hey, isn’t this the same outfit you wore to the audition?” LOL.

Fine! I’m pathetic! I have like one mature outfit in my wardrobe!

The first day of shoot went well (for me). I don’t know about the crew. I think they were really stressed out because we were filming in a primary school during a normal school day. Absolute pandemonium, especially during lunch time. Kids yelling from all directions all the time, making the sound people’s jobs very difficult.

We were prepping for a shot, and this is so deja vu-ish. I’ve been a teacher in a feature film (I Not Stupid 2), in an English drama (Like My Own) and in a TV commercial (Toyo Klic Correction Pen).

And now I’m a teacher in a Chinese Drama.

Do I look so much like a teacher? I don’t know. And the shoot came so suddenly I didn’t even have time to study the script, much less go observe real teachers in action.

I wish my dear cousin Faith were here in Singapore so she can give me pointers. I think she’s the best teacher in the world beause she knows exactly how to handle kids and kids just love her to bits. She’s got a cushy teaching job in Hong Kong now, which is great for her, but I miss her!

My kids:

Kids are so precocious these days. They are more vocal than when I was a kid myself. During the shoot, I had kids trying to talk to me even while the director was giving all of us directions.

My director (one of them, anyway):

This drama series has many directors who take turns filming different episodes, which is typical of drama serials. It’s kind of nice getting to work with so many different people. But it makes it hard to develop a close working relationship.

But that doesn’t really matter because what really matters is that I’m a happy actress!