Creature discomfort

FIRST she had to wrestle with frogs. Now, she has to catch live worms and flying crickets.

As if that was not bad enough, actress Joanne Peh, had to pretend to eat them, by holding a big squirming cricket close to her opened mouth.


The actress, who considers herself timid, told The New Paper: 'It just gets worse with every show. I wonder what they'll make me do next? Swim with snakes?'

As we were speaking to her before filming began, she said: 'I'm still very much kept in the dark, so I can't really tell how horrible it will be later or how I'll react.'

The show is The Little Nyonya, which MediaCorp will air later this month. Joanne plays Huang Yuzhu, a pregnant woman abandoned in an old hut.

Going crazy, Yuzhu resorts to scavenging for food to sustain herself and pounces on worms and crickets when she sees them.

The scene was shot at the Tampines Mountain Biking Trail last Friday.

Joanne disclosed that in the script first given to her, she was, horror of horrors, supposed to catch live scurrying mice instead.

'I thought mice would be worse! Eeee! Mice seem scarier because somehow, it's like you can sense life... imagine the mice staring at you with their eyes,' she said. 'I'm the everything-also-scared kind of person.'

Thankfully, the director decided that worms and crickets were more likely 'prospects', given the environment where the hut was situated.

Yet, true to her professionalism, Joanne threw caution to the wind when it was time to take her place.

Wearing only a sarong around her fake pregnant belly, she gamely went down on her knees and started crawling on her hands.

When the director told her that the gloves she wore could be seen in the footage, she removed them without any fuss.

Though there were real millipedes and flying bugs making uninvited appearances on the set, Joanne managed to keep her cool.

Until the 'big scene'.

Screamed

When she saw the wriggling worms - the big, fat and juicy worms that are usually fed to birds - in the plastic disposable boxes, she screamed: 'Eeeee! I don't want to eat anything!'

She started jumping up and down in mock fear. Everyone laughed as the director called out to her: 'Oh yes, you can do it.'

And when the cameras started rolling, Joanne brushed aside the sand to search for the worms and crickets that had been 'buried'.

She scooped up a handful and picked the biggest bug among the rest.

The minute the camera stopped, she threw everything on the ground, jumped up and let out another piercing scream.

Joanne had to repeat this a couple of times before the next big scene.

This time, it involved her bringing a cricket close to her mouth.

A crew member assured Joanne: 'Don't worry. I've removed the legs on the crickets. They won't fly. Anyway, some of them are already quite dead.'

Joanne chided the director: 'I can't believe I'm so easily bought over.'

She explained later that she was referring to the director's repeated 'you can do it' coaxing.

She added: 'But that's also the beauty of working with a good director who's known to take care of the artistes.

'So even though I'm truly afraid, I know I can still trust him.'

We suggested that she might consider this as training for reality show Fear Factor.

Joanne said: 'Hey! I don't get a million dollars. Wait, it's not even like half a million.'

She rubbed the length of her left arm with her right hand and said: 'Eeeeks! I can still feel that crawly sensation!'

So is there one thing that she will not do, even for $1 million? Or an international best actress award, like the Oscar?

Joanne said: 'I'll never film a sex video.'

Does this mean no nude scenes?

She said: 'Well, I've previously indicated in an interview that I'd want to do a nude wedding photo shoot.

'My mum has questioned me about that. But I explained to her, what I meant were those (photos) done artistically. Not the lewd stuff, of course.'

And since she once told this newspaper that she found it harder to wear a bikini in public than touch a frog for TV drama Beach.Ball.Babes, we had to ask again:

So what will be easier this time? Wearing a bikini and running down Orchard Road or eating a live cricket?

Joanne said: 'Definitely the bikini!'


Source: justwoman.asiaone.com