What's in... Constance Song's Sony Cyber-shot QX100

Constance Song's slim and svelte figure seems at odds with her appetite for good food. Whenever she wakes up, she immediately craves something to eat.

"I would think of what to eat for the rest of the day," said Miss Song, 38, a self-confessed gourmet. A model before the Star Search competition led her to join MediaCorp in 1997, she has acted in numerous local TV dramas.

She wants only good food, not just something to fill the stomach, she said, adding: "If I have a bad meal, I get grouchy and unhappy."

So, it seemed quite natural for her to move into the food industry after leaving MediaCorp at the end of 2012. With friends as partners, she opened a restaurant last December.

"I was quite tired after being in the entertainment industry for so long," she said.

One of her partners worked as a chef in a Marina Bay Sands restaurant which she frequented. They became friends. "He makes you feel like he is your private kitchen chef," she said.

Then one day, he told her he was thinking of striking out on his own. It was what she had in mind too.

So they opened Bam! Tapas and Sake Bar restaurant in Tras Street.

"There are lots of things to learn in running a restaurant. I have to start all over again," she said.

It suits her because, as she said, opening a restaurant keeps her on the move and she is the kind of person who needs to be on the move all the time.

She still thinks of herself as an actor. "The passion is still there," she said, but she will do it only on a part-time basis as she needs to run her business. She also has a fashion blog shop (www.w-i-shop.com).

As a freelance actor, she gets to pick and choose roles; something she was not able to do in the past. "I just accepted whatever roles were given to me."

When she was approached to act in Grace, an HBO Asia original mini-series, she hesitated.

"I was quite doubtful because I had done very few English dramas previously. But it is HBO, so I thought I should give it a try," she said.

In fact, she said, she did not even know she was going for an audition. She thought it was just a meeting with the director.

"At the meeting, I was given a script and 20 minutes to memorise the lines and act out the role," she said.

Although uncomfortable that she was not prepared for an audition, she gave it a shot.

"I was very shocked when I got the role."

It was a "fantastic" experience acting in Grace, she said.

"The acting was more subtle and natural than what I used to do. And I like it so much."

If you want to catch her in action, you can watch the entire Grace mini-series - four episodes at one go - on Friday on HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601) at 11.30pm.

WHO:

Constance Song, 38, is a Singaporean actress who has appeared in many local TV dramas since 1997.

She has also acted in plays and recently made her HBO debut with the mini-series Grace.

HER CAMERA:

I bought the Sony QX100 because it is very small and handy. You just connect it to your smartphone and the image quality is very good.

In fact, when I used this to take a photo with football star David Beckham, he was so impressed with the picture quality that he asked his manager to get one for him.

This article was first published on Oct 29, 2014.
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