Bold "old" move by TV Princess

ONE MediaCorp Princess has willingly agreed to transform herself into an older woman and mother of a 7-year-old girl.

This makes Rui En the first among the Seven Princesses to leave the castle and move on to playing mature roles.

Yes, we know she is the cool, strong-willed and unconventional one among the Jeanette Aws, Joanne Pehs and Felicia Chins.

This career move will certainly differentiate her even more from her 'royal' peers, who are still playing young single girls.

We wondered if the decision was deliberate. Why take such a big leap forward, Rui En?

'Why not?' she shot back. 'I think it's good to have something fresh. It's a huge risk, but without risks, you can't move forward.'

Then she laughed and added, as she leaned forward to squeeze this reporter's arm, 'Eh, I'm 29 years old this year!'

Turning serious, the 1.69m-tall actress - whose previous roles in The Dream Catchers and My School Daze saw her tackling mostly strong, independent and highly educated single girls - said: 'I can't pretend to be a teenager or a teenybopper any more. I'm also not about to start lying about my age. As I grow up, the characters I take on have to grow up as well.'

And how they will grow.

Next project

In Rui En's next project, tentatively titled I'm With You, she will play a wife and mother for the first time.

It is supposedly a very dark drama, where a succession of tragedies befalls her character Siqi - one of which is the sudden death of her husband (Chen Hanwei) in the first episode.

His spirit, however, lingers in the human world and pesters Adrian Pang's character, the only person who can see and talk to him, to help his family get over his death.

You can expect some flutterings of romance between Rui En's character and Adrian's, but nothing too much for a recently-widowed woman.

Rui En will begin filming the drama later this month.

Although wading into new territory makes her jittery, and it is way out of her comfort zone, she says she is looking forward to it.

But if you have a mental picture of Rui En as a frumpy aunty in I'm With You, think again.

Her character Siqi is a fashion designer in her early 30s and a modern mother.

Rui En nevertheless cringed a little when she described what her alter ego will look like.

'She's quite feminine and always wears skirts. I also have to wear hair extensions to make my shoulder-length hair longer. It's been a long time since I had that image,' she said.

But isn't she concerned that there'll be no turning back to playing young-ish characters once she's stepped into mature roles, currently hogged by 30-something actresses like Cynthia Koh and Ann Kok?

Rui En pondered for a while before saying: 'I'm honestly not worried about this yet. I hope that I perform sufficiently well to prove to people that I can play a role like Xiaodong and also a mother. I have to rely on myself to prove it.'

Xiaodong is her uneducated, simple-minded and happy-go-lucky character from the Channel 8 drama Happy Family, which premieres at 9pm on 19 Jan.

In that role, which was filmed from August to October last year, the usually aloof Rui En replaces her trademark don't-mess-with-me attitude with a wide toothy grin.

Even her co-stars joked that she smiled more in those three months of filming Happy Family than she usually would in a year.

However, there's one other role that this reporter hopes to see her take on, one that's certainly out of her comfort zone.

How about playing a damsel in distress, I asked her. It is so unlike the self-reliant and strong actress.

'Can I?' she asked incredulously, breaking off into laughter.

'Okay, that would be quite challenging. Hmm, I do have something in me that's quite independent because that's the way I grew up and lived my entire life.'

Take note, scriptwriters.


The rest of the princesses

These are the distinctive images and the kind of roles audiences remember of the other six Princesses...

Jeanette Aw

Friendly but private. Best remembered for her kind and self-sacrificing roles in The Little Nyonya and the currently-showing Together.

Though she played a mother in The Little Nyonya, it was only for a few episodes and we hardly consider that a move into motherly roles.

Joanne Peh

Go-getter and media-savvy. Audiences regard her as the youthful happy-go-lucky woman, though her pitiful character in The Little Nyonya won her the Star Awards Best Actress trophy last year.

Felicia Chin

Sweet girl-next-door. Audiences still remember her as the kind-hearted Baobei (aka Mermaid) in Portrait of Home. Occasionally plays petulant girls, like her recent outing as a young unwed mother named Apple in Baby Bonus.

Jesseca Liu
Mature and down-to-earth. Though one of her most memorable roles was of a soft-spoken and easily-bullied girl in Portrait of Home, her recent roles are mostly the strong, silent and mature kind.


Dawn Yeoh
Saccharine sweet. The youngest of the Princesses can corner the market for ditzy yet adorable roles like the one in Crime Busters X2.


Fiona Xie
What else but sexy and controversial? The semi-retired star often played cheery and excitable characters on TV like Just In Singapore and Maggie & Me.