SINGAPORE, Nov 20 — In the follow-up to 2013’s hit drama “The Dream Makers,” Zoe Tay returns as head honcho at a television station. But her old nemesis, played by Chen Liping, has been replaced by a new work rival, played by Huang Biren.
Anyone seeing Tay and Huang bantering for the first time might think the two Caldecott queens held an actual grudge against each other.
“The Dream Makers 2” also sees the return of Rui En, Jeanette Aw, Qi Yuwu and Dennis Chew, with new additions to the cast in the form of Li Nanxing, Romeo Tan, Ian Fang, Julie Tan and Zhang Zhen Huan.
For Tay, who said her scenes were exciting, “it was more exciting behind the scenes”, especially when she and Huang get together. “I like teasing Biren. The director doesn’t know what to do with us because we keep talking. We squabble a lot. And we are from the same generation, which means others don’t understand what we’re talking about.”
“Romeo was the first one to see us squabbling and be shocked,” Huang said.
Tan explained: “It was my first time working with two ah jies (“big sisters”). I seldom run into Biren and every time I see Zoe, I just say hi and run away. Seeing how they interacted in private, I was even more scared. I asked the director, ‘Are they really quarrelling?’ They are next-level — there’s no way I could ‘infiltrate’ them.”
“We had such good chemistry that it surprised me,” Huang smiled.
On top of sharing good chemistry with Tay, Huang also shared her beauty secrets — and beauty products, such as her facial mist.
“I stole some of her miracle water essence,” quipped Zhang.
“Everyone did!” Huang said, adding that after the others saw her misting her face before each take, they grabbed the bottle from her to try it out for themselves.
“Even the director got misted,” Tay said.
Things were less jolly for Jeanette Aw, whose character takes a darker turn in her development and faces more challenges this season.
“Over the four or five months of filming, I felt like I was living in darkness,” Aw shared. “I’m usually the one to burst out laughing first during a scene, but while filming for this show, I didn’t find things as funny. And I found that my smiles diminished. There were times I couldn’t distinguish between Zhao Fei Er and Jeanette Aw.”
Similarly for Rui En, who also plays an actress and her rival in love, there were a lot of “heavy scenes”. “The (scenes) I enjoyed most were the ones with my husband (played by Qi Yuwu) and brother (played by Dennis Chew),” she said. “I saw a different Qi Yuwu — he loves to laugh and dance!”
“If we made our behind-the-scenes clips into a show, I think it would be even more popular than the drama, because it would be a mash-up of musicals, Teochew opera and Bollywood dancing,” the usually deadpan Qi quipped.
If you’re hoping to see Rui En dance, though, you’ll be disappointed. “I only contributed by laughing,” she said. — TODAY
