Rui En: No need “to be petty, selfish and step on others to get ahead”
Here’s to a sisterhood that some may find envious.
In an Instagram post on Sunday (Dec 5), veteran actress Rui En, 40, wrote: “In the entertainment industry, right from when we step in, we are advised to see our peers of the same sex as rivals in a life or death battle. That has never sat well with me. Yes, the Singapore market is small, but that doesn’t mean we have to be petty, selfish and step on others to get ahead…”
She ended it with a message addressed to budding star Chantalle Ng: “Mei mei (little sister), resist with all your strength being changed, chewed up and spit out by this beast of an industry. Stay you. The you with all the sunlight, innocence and joy. Your jie jie (big sister) will always be here for you.”
In the same post was an IGTV where the pair went longboarding before sitting down for a chat because “people are not watching my IGTV to learn how to longboard”, said Rui En.
She revealed that Ng, 25, had asked her advice for a new role she had been offered. The role is “very cool”, unlike the younger actress’ usual bubbly, ‘lun zun’ (clumsy in Cantonese) self.
Ng said she is about to start filming but confessed she still has not really thought of how she would portray the role. “For me, I will have a sense of how I want it to be. Then I will try to go and understand the background of the character… like the childhood.”
Rui En was full of encouragement. “The thing that I really appreciate about her (Chantalle) is that she has a lot of innocence,” she said. “She will just be like ‘look, I want to do this role well’ but she won’t get herself into a tizzy and get completely caught up in her own head about it, which is something that is very good and something I hope you are able to maintain…You may not relate to the role but I think you’re a good enough actress to make it work.”
In her own IG, Ng responded: “She (Rui En) represented strength, courage + she’s ultra cool. Now that she’s a sister to me, she represents kindness, warmth and she’s always willing to give… & I truly love her for that, because it is always honest, always the cold hard truth I didn’t know I needed. Thank you for that sis, they say to surround yourself with good people, & that’s why I’m clinging onto you.”
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