My awkard moment: Tracy Lee

SINGAPORE — Tracy Lee finds intimate couple scenes awkward — unless there is physical contact. Yup, that’s pretty much the opposite of every other actor out there (and here, we won’t mention Rui En. Cough.).

In the ongoing MediaCorp TV Channel 8 drama C.L.I.F. 3, in which Lee takes on the role of a police officer, it’s her third time playing Elvin Ng’s love interest. And thankfully, she has found a way to get over the awkwardness she feels when it comes to emotional couple scenes — even though co-star Ng thinks her method strange.

“I am the kind of person who needs you to make me feel secure before I show my emotions, especially with guys,” she said. “In the past, when I cried, I had to turn my face away from Elvin. I couldn’t let him see me cry because it made me feel very insecure to cry in front of him … It was because we were not close. I told him, ‘I can only cry in front of the people I trust’.”

But now, she said: “We’re much friendlier and he knows some stuff about my private life.” And she has also landed on a neat trick: “When filming, I tell him, ‘Give me your hand’, and I squeeze it hard. That helps me get into the mood — and then I can cry. He finds it very strange.”

That’s not the only thing that’s strange about Lee, whose other close friends are Romeo Tan, Andie Chen and Joey Ng. “I’m so close to them that I bite them,” she divulged. “When they go, ‘What are you doing?’ I tell them, ‘I only bite the people I’m close to.’”

It’s an unconventional way of showing affection, quite unlike on- and off-screen C.L.I.F. couple Joanne Peh and Qi Yuwu, who, apparently, make things awkward for everyone else on set with their lovey-dovey behaviour.

“Joanne, on and off screen, is very clingy to Ah Wu. So there’s no need to suspect that their relationship is fake,” said Lee, with a laugh. “They are so extreme that they don’t even take any notice of the rest of us. When Ah Wu is in a scene, Joanne turns into his little fangirl and won’t stop taking pictures of him. As long as the camera isn’t on Joanne, Joanne will take out her camera and snap pictures of him. And they always engage in public displays of affection in front of us. It’s too much! Humph!”

Catch C.L.I.F. 3 on weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.