Felicia Chin marks her return to television after more than two years in the new local series Brighter Days, playing two characters for the first time.
The 41-year-old local actress plays the younger version of Chong Choy Hong and also her grown up daughter Fang Ying in the series. Actress Priscelia Chan plays the older version of Choy Hong.
Felicia recounted in an interview with AsiaOne recently: “I was a bit mind-blown while filming a scene where I played Fang Ying and was having a quarrel with older Choy Hong, played by Priscelia, while driving in her van.
“My usual point of view [during filming] was my daughter (young Fang Ying), but at that time it was my mum, who is also played by me. But there’s only one me. So my mind got a little twisted, I was like, ‘What is this?'”
Despite that, she felt it was refreshing and “precious” to still be able to experience this after acting for over two decades.
Brighter Days centres on the relationships between brothers Lee Yiwei and Jiewei, as well as their childhood friends Fang Daping, Kumar and Fang Ying.
Beneath the facade of a happy childhood, Fang Ying’s parents Choy Hong and Fang Kah Tong (Jonathan Lee) are addicted to gambling, racking up huge debts and turning their flat into a gambling den.
While Fang Ying loses contact with her friends after she and her parents move away from the estate, she reconnects with Yiwei (Romeo Tan) and Daping (James Seah) years later while working as a renovation contractor.
As her relationship with Yiwei turns into something more, the latter discovers that the hardships that shaped Fang Ying decades ago were his own doing.
Playing vastly different characters
In preparation to play the vastly different characters Choy Hong and Fang Ying, Felicia drew inspiration from nature.
She shared: “Choy Hong is an incredibly cute character. She is very simple-minded, never thinking too far ahead, happy with whatever she gets in her hand… To differentiate the two roles, besides their background being different, I had inspiration from a tree…
“I was just walking below my block and I saw this tree. It’s not a particularly grand or majestic tree, but a simple one with little orange flowers. It’s pretty and simple and it struck me that Choy Hong is just like the little flowers on the tree — she thinks she is pretty, not in a ‘queen-ish’ way, but in her own simple world and that’s good enough for her.”
Felicia added that sometimes the challenge in portraying a character is to simplify rather than add layers to them, and she often held the image of the tree with orange flowers in her mind while playing Choy Hong.
As for Fang Ying, who grows up under challenging circumstances and experiences trauma, Felicia said she felt “hard emotions” to bring the character to life.
She explained: “I guess this is an actor’s process and willingness to be vulnerable and broken. It’s painful for me, because I use my real emotions to act, but I also feel that’s the beauty of portraying a role, because it reminded me that sometimes, there’s beauty in being shattered and that it is not impossible to rebuild it.
“There are things to let go before I can move on with hope and courage, rather than remaining in the past.”
As filming is not done chronologically, Felicia revealed there were days where she had to portray both characters to film different scenes.
With ample preparations to understand both characters and the inspiration she drew to portray them, she was able to toggle between the roles, sometimes multiple times a day.
“I was definitely cooked by the end of the day,” she laughed.
Going on a much-needed break with Jeffrey Xu after filming
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This series is also the first time Felicia acted together with her actor husband Jeffrey Xu since their marriage in 2022.
Jeffrey plays Yiwei’s long-lost brother Jiewei. In the aftermath of his challenging experiences growing up, Jiewei holds bitterness in his heart and a deep-seated resentment towards Yiwei, and he attempts to sabotage the latter’s seemingly perfect life.
While Felicia and Jeffrey shared only a few scenes together, she felt “foreign” working on the same set as him at first.
She shared: “Before we got married, we didn’t live together. But now, we are always under one roof, in the same setting, then suddenly, we are in a professional setting… it felt a bit foreign at first to warm up to a scene together. It was also a little awkward at first, but after that it was all good.”
Felicia and Jeffrey first met on the set of local long-form series Life — Fear Not (2016), where they began dating and announced their relationship in 2016. Later, they also acted together as an on-screen couple in local dramas Life Less Ordinary (2017 – 2018) and Love at Cavenagh Bridge (2018).
After filming completed for Brighter Days, they went on a two-week trip to the United States (US) together to relax.
Felicia said: “We went to the US for the first time together and it was something we looked forward to towards the end of filming.
“We went to watch the NBA games and had road trips, including going to places such as Joshua Tree National Park, the desert and San Diego, just things that we love. It was definitely needed just for us to unwind.”
Brighter Days is now available on demand for free on Mewatch and airs weekdays on Channel 8 at 9pm.
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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com
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