Actress Zhao Wei is ‘a toothless tiger’

SINGAPORE - Is actress Zhao Wei anything like the strict disciplinarian parent she plays in drama series, Tiger Mom? Apparently not. Zhao revealed that she is “the exact opposite” of her character when it comes to raising her five-year-old daughter: “I’m not strict at all,” she shared at the press conference today (May 8).

Her child, she explained, is the “tiger” in the family. “She has the highest status in our family. We ask her where we should go on outings, and follow her decision,” Zhao said. “I do whatever she says.”

But it has to be within reason, she added. “I do tell her she’s not allowed to take other people’s things or tell untruths.”

Tiger Mum - the Chinese series’ original title translates to “tiger mother, pussycat father” - marks the actress’ return to television screens for the first time in six years. The easy-going father in question is played by Tong Da Wei, while Wang Sen plays her trouble-making younger brother. Between the actress and real-life her husband, though, she said “I am always the bad guy”. “(My daughter) likes her daddy better. I am the only one who has given her a beating. Her daddy gets beaten up by her.”

Still, there’s very little of the tiger in the cool and Zen-like Hong Kong Film Awards 2015 Best Actress winner, who said: “I am the sort who flares up momentarily but forgets all about it very quickly.”

Zhao is more of a tiger mother when nurturing her work projects, she shared, because she spends more time on those than with her daughter, now that the little one has started kindergarten. However, she still keeps her cool somewhat. Even when she was directing - her directorial debut, So Young, was a huge success in China - she said: “I am not the screaming kind. I am a little more dark - I just keep filming non-stop.”

Catch Tiger Mom on weekdays at 9pm on STAR Chinese Channel (Singtel TV Ch 507 and StarHub TV Ch 822).