If you head to a hawker centre at noon, chances are you’ll see office ladies (OLs) already in line for fish beehoon soup. In another life, Chantalle Ng would be one of them.
In a recent interview with AsiaOne, the local actress spoke to us about her experiences playing the lead character Li Rongjia in Mediacorp’s new drama The Grind, a professional badminton player who decides to give up the sport to find a white-collar job.
However, due to her lack of qualifications and work experience, she runs into numerous challenges job hunting – until she ends up in the same company as her boyfriend Jiang Wenkai (Richie Koh) much to her surprise. Conflict arises when Rongjia discovers it was part of a ruse to make her give up working and go back to sports.
When asked if she had ever considered a career switch herself, the 30-year-old said: “Not at the moment, because I graduated about five years ago and at first, I gave myself three years to try acting. Otherwise, I would fall back on my degree.
“But so far, I think I’m having fun and I’ve been given a lot of very good opportunities so I think I’m going to be here for a while more.”
Beginning her showbiz career in 2013, she starred in Mediacorp’s first transmedia drama series 96°C Cafe before signing a full-time contract with the broadcaster six years later.
Chantalle also initially considered giving a career in social work a try. She eventually realised she lacked the emotional capacity for the field and instead, studied Information Systems in Singapore Management University where she graduated in 2019.
On pursuing computer science, she said: “At that point, my best friend had just graduated from business school and told me that she regretted not learning a hard skill. And she said since coding’s a hard skill, if I’m in university for four years, I might as well spend those years learning how to code. And I thought it was a really good idea.”
And if Chantalle ever decides to leave acting, she said she could “really see” herself working in computer science.
Experiencing office life
Acting has remained the perfect job for Chantalle as she feels that office life is not for her. Despite many of her office-working friends having the flexibility of working from home and in the office, with one even permanently based in London, she cannot envision herself being cooped up in an office.
“I have to be running about and I think that’s why showbiz is a more suitable career for me as well,” she explained.
After playing an OL like Rongjia, Chantalle gained some insights on what it’s like to work in corporate.
Comparing her work in showbiz to that of the everyday office worker, she said: “The biggest difference would definitely be the hours, because when you’re in an office job, it’s very routine. But as an actress, your schedule is always very different, varying from day to day.
“I don’t know about other jobs but as an actress, I work with a completely new set of people in each new production that I’m in. I think in offices, the dynamics don’t change very often.”
Chantalle’s most striking takeaway about office life from being on The Grind was discovering her would-be habits. “I’ve learned that I love to eat fish beehoon soup during lunchtime,” she revealed.
“I was sharing with my friends that in another life, or in the future, if I had the chance to be an OL, I would go for yoga in the mornings and then sometime in the afternoon I’d have fish beehoon soup and it would be the perfect life.”
In many office settings, teamwork is a highly sought-after soft skill. However, it’s one that Chantalle feels she’s lacking in.
“I would not consider myself a very good team player,” she declared. “I think it has to do with some air-related feng shui and me being Gemini, an air sign. So I’m very free-spirited and I need to be able to do my own thing, float around and be like a little bubble.”
She classified herself as The Wild Card archetype, with how she can sometimes be the life of the party at the table but deflate in energy 10 minutes later.
Admitting that although she would like to ensure her peers are happy, comfortable and having a good time at work, she felt that it ultimately takes more out of her.
However, Chantalle felt she let down her The Grind cast and crew when she fell sick while filming, leading to a delay in the production schedule. She was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s A&E for a viral infection in September, where she was reminded of “how fragile life can be”.
Recalling the sequence of events before and after her admission, she said: “It was definitely my most difficult moment on set. I went to the doctor in the morning, still hoping to go for filming in the afternoon but my condition worsened after going home…
“I have no idea [how a viral infection escalated into something so serious], but afterwards I took my flu jab so hopefully if I ever re-contract the infection, it won’t be that serious. Though it could possibly be attributed to my low immunity and me being a germophobe, so when I forget to use hand sanitiser sometimes, I get hit hard.”
Upon returning to work, extra manpower was doled out to ensure Chantalle’s safety during intensive sports scenes – body doubles were always on standby, and her colleagues would come running to ensure she had water after every shot.
She fondly recalled her friends coming down to the set to visit her, where they would take “extra care” of her due to the physical nature of her scenes. Her castmate, veteran actress Yvonne Lim, also cooked her soup to help with cleansing out toxins from her body.
Having to let go
Central to the plot of The Grind is the theme of “giving up”, when Rongjia decides to forgo her passion for professional sports to work a corporate job.
Chantalle herself is not foreign to letting go of something close to her heart. “I was in my secondary school’s volleyball team and really close to all of my teammates, but I had to give it up because of an injury and that was very difficult for me,” she recalled.
“I think having the courage to walk away from something you love because you know it would be better for you isn’t just in terms of jobs or being in a sports team. Sometimes, it’s the same when a friendship or romantic relationship isn’t right for you – you just have to learn to walk away from it.
“There’s no judgement when you leave something – it just means that there’s something better waiting for you.”
The Grind is Chantalle’s second sports drama, after Hope Afloat (2024) where she plays a para-swimmer. She reckoned it’s her disposition, given her past playing sports like swimming, golf and badminton, which landed her the athletic roles.
Now, after proper badminton lessons for this series, it has become Chantalle’s favourite sport after volleyball. She and her friends, including castmate He Yingying, still go for badminton sessions once every week.
She remarked that she had to play with national athlete Yeo Jia Min for some badminton scenes in the drama which made for a “very interesting and fun” experience.
“She helped me a lot. And when I had to receive her smashes that were really hard, she would angle them in a way such that the shuttlecock came towards my racket.”
The Grind, also starring Noah Yap and Jernelle Oh, is available on demand for free on Mewatch. It airs at 9pm on Channel 8 every weekday.
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kristy.chua@asiaone.com
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