Felicia Chin gives birth for the first time

SINGAPORE — Felicia Chin hopes to break out of being stereotyped as an actress who is good only at “cheerful” roles with her performance in The Journey: Tumultuous Times.

The historical drama, set in Singapore from the 1940s to ’60s, is the second instalment in the The Journey trilogy, and also stars Shaun Chen, Jeanette Aw, Romeo Tan, Desmond Tan and Chen Hanwei.

Chin’s role as a teacher involved in political strikes sees her dealing with emotional crises such as guilt over the accidental death of a student and an unwanted pregnancy.

“There were a lot of emotional scenes — scenes that were not entrusted to me before,” Chin confessed. “So, I felt very flattered to be given this role but, at the same time, a bit terrified because I wasn’t sure whether I could do it at first.

“The director came up to me and said, ‘At first, the executive producer and I were worried about whether you could do it because it’s something you have not tried before ...’ (But) they told me they were happy that I had done very well. It’s great encouragement.”

One of her most interesting scenes — and also one of her biggest challenges — was giving birth onscreen. “I’ve never given birth in real life or onscreen,” she said. “To prepare myself, I watched a lot of YouTube videos. I had to force myself to watch them because when I see blood, I feel faint.”

Co-star Andie Chen also helped by showing her videos of his wife Kate Pang’s recent home birth. “I was like, ‘Did you ask your wife? Is she okay with me watching all these private things?’” Chin laughed. “(Judging by) the look on her face, it’s really painful.”

The other challenge, she said, was coping with the jargon used in the script. “There is a lot of lingo that I’m not familiar with,” she admitted, such as that used in the scenes where her character gives political talks to motivate the students to go on strike to fight for their freedom and future.

To that end, she asked Pierre Png to recommend a Mandarin teacher to help her. “I felt that I should brush up on that aspect so that I could speak the lines with conviction,” she said.

Still, it wasn’t all hard work. “The enjoyable part was being given a chance to take part in the (scenes with) riots because you’ll never get to do that in real life,” she said. “They had a fire engine with the water hose and all. Two days in a row, we got drenched. But I really didn’t want it to end!”

Catch The Journey: Tumultuous Times starting Nov 24, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.