The Little Nyonya cast reunion: Who got slapped the most, who got hit for real?

The Little Nyonya cast reunion: Who got slapped the most, who got hit for real?
(From left) Ng Hui, Jeanette Aw and Xiang Yun.
PHOTO: Instagram/Jeanette Aw

Acting is often all about realism — but not when it comes to getting hit for real.

Unfortunately for Jeanette Aw, that was exactly what happened to her while shooting a scene for The Little Nyonya.

During a recent episode of meWATCH show The Reunion with the cast of the popular 2008 drama series, the 43-year-old actress said: "We sometimes faked it with the camera angle, but I remembered that scene with Eelyn (Kok), her second slap actually hit me. Then she went (gasps), 'Sorry!'"

Jeannette added: "There's more pressure on the person slapping," to furious nods from castmate Xiang Yun.

The cast members tried recalling who got slapped the most and they initially reckoned it would be Ng Hui, who played faithful and oft-abused servant Ah Tao. While Ng Hui did get slapped a record four times, a showcase of scenes revealed Jeanette, who played Juxiang and also her adult daughter Yueniang, matched it too.

Actress Joanne Peh, who played Yuzhu, didn't recall if she was on the receiving end of any slaps and had to be reminded by Zen Chong, who played the villainous Robert Zhang, that his character did lay hands on her.

"You didn't just slap her across the face, you beat her up," Qi Yuwu, Joanne's real-life husband, said.

Jeanette's character Yuening also had the most number of near-death experiences on the show — six times, to which host Lee Teng joked that she wasn't popular.

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"Everyone wants you dead," he laughed.

Yuwu, who played Yuening's star-crossed lover Chen Xi, recalled one of those scenes, where Yuening falls into a well and has to be rescued by him. Though the water was heated at the beginning of the shoot, it cooled down rapidly.

He said: "I remember filming that scene with her in the studio. The studio had air-conditioning, and she spent the whole day in the water. First of all, she had to do a lot of performing in the water, struggling and stuff. By the time I came in, I remember her hands felt icy cold."

Jeanette said: "I was in the water for 10 to 12 hours" to which Yuwu, 46, added: "She was trembling."

However, Jeanette clarified in an Instagram post on Jan 11 that the set was actually outdoors and they had misremembered the details in The Reunion.

She wrote: "We filmed from day to night and as we went deeper into the night, it just got colder and colder. There were underwater shots, and some stunts involved."

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'He may look like a baddie, but he'd often worry that he'd offend or upset me'

Jeanette's character isn't the only one who had to face immense hardships. Joanne's character Yuzhu gets raped and married off to her abuser Robert.

The 39-year-old said: "I honestly didn't know she would be so tragic, because the scriptwriter only described her character roughly. I only found out what would happen to her when I read the script, but the director communicated with me clearly.

"For example, he'd tell me how he'd film the scenes of Robert assaulting me, taking off my clothes, and what he wanted me to do. The communication was very clear."

Another thing that made shooting the harrowing scenes easy, Joanne said, was that Zen, 44, was "actually a very kind man".

"He may look like a baddie, but he'd often worry that he'd offend or upset me by accident," Joanne said. "Thanks to that, I actually felt at ease because I thought he had a sense of propriety and wouldn't mess around."

Yet, Zen said: "When you're portraying a villain, even when you're not in character, you tend to accidentally display some villainous behaviour — it's odd but true."

It seems that Zen was so convincing in his role that he has even been scolded by strangers on the street.

He said: "My other name has become Robert Chong, not Zen Chong," a name he gets called even to this day.

ALSO READ: 'Makeup artist, standby!' Former actress Ng Hui appears in The Little Nyonya reunion, leaves Jeanette Aw crying

drimac@asiaone.com

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