My awkward moment: Yao Wen Long

SINGAPORE — Actor Yao Wen Long found himself in hot soup on the set of Soup Of Life, in which he plays a humble hawker selling bak kut teh.

As one of Channel 8’s staple character actors, there is very little that Yao hasn’t dealt with. But even so, nothing could have prepared him for the touchy-feely side of his co-star, the oh-so-liberal Belinda Lee.

“My scenes with Belinda Lee were awkward! (Culturally) I am a “Chinaman” and she’s more Western. She surprised me during a take by hugging me suddenly. To her, it’s very normal, but I am a Chinaman, so I was shocked by her actions,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh, you’re going to be like that? Okay, then, I’ll have to adjust.’ But that became a little awkward because it seemed like I was trying to avoid her.

“Later I realised that was just her manner — hugging when people meet and all that. After she realised I was like this, she stopped doing it. But while filming, for example, a scene in which I was really sad and she was sitting beside me, she put her arm around me and rested my head on her shoulder. I felt like: ‘S***! I’m not used to that!’”

Soup Of Life is on weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8