SINGAPORE, Sept 26 — We all know what it feels like: That physical sense of awkwardness on your first day on the job, at school or a painfully hipster cafe. Well, for newbie actress Carrie Wong, just being on the set of the television drama "Against The Tide" was one big awkward moment.
She plays little sister to Christopher Lee’s crime novelist character — a sizeable role considering that this is only her second television drama. The Hey Gorgeous 2013 finalist appeared in last year’s Scrum! and will also be in The Journey: Tumultuous Times, airing later this year.
“It’s already awkward for me on set because I’m very, very new and I don’t know anybody,” lamented the 20-year-old. “People are usually very familiar on set. They know what to do. But I don’t feel like I belong there. So, I just sit in a corner and read my script until somebody calls me.”
She recounted: “When I started my first day (of filming) Against The Tide, I walked onto the set and was, like, ‘Awkward!’”
It didn’t help that her first scenes were with MediaCorp legend and regional star Christopher Lee. “I was quite afraid of him when I first saw him and I didn’t really know how to approach him,” she said. “I wanted to ask him, ‘Can we practise our script?’ I was trying to tap him on the shoulder but he was talking to somebody and obviously, he was ignoring me. People were looking at me, like, ‘What are you trying to do? What do you want?’ I was holding my script and going, like, ‘Er, so what do I do now?’”
But don’t cringe too much for Carrie — she and Lee quickly built a rapport and “then I started to joke around with him”, she said. “After that, when I had a problem with crying scenes, Christopher explained and taught me how (to get it right).” May Seah
Catch "Against The Tide" on weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. — TODAY
