Oon Shu An rocks silk pajamas in Netflix’s Marco Polo

Singaporean actress Oon Shu An is going places — like back in time to 13th-century China, for one. She has a role in Netflix’s newest original series, Marco Polo, premiering this Friday. Oon plays Jing Fei, the favourite concubine of the Chancellor ruling China (played by Chin Han) and the confidante of his sister.

“My acting teacher, (Lim) Yu Beng, was the one who sent my contact to the casting director,” she said. “When I found out how huge this thing was, I was totally blown away. It’s Netflix, you know!”

Netflix, of course, is the United States-based on-demand Internet streaming media provider that has been changing the way people watch television, thanks to its slew of original series, including House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black.

Filmed in Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, and with a budget of US$90 million (S$119 million), Marco Polo is an epic historical drama about the famous Italian explorer’s early days in Mongolia and China, and also stars notable Asian actors Joan Chen and Zhu Zhu, with Italian actor Lorenzo Richelmy in the title role.

This is only the latest feather in the cap for the 28-year-old actress, who started out in theatre and has done shows ranging from the musical Incanto to her own one-woman play with Checkpoint Theatre in May, #UnicornMoment. She also has an online presence as the host of Clicknetwork’s popular beauty series Tried And Tested. On TV, you might have seen her in MediaCorp TV Channel 8 dramas It Takes Two and Yours Fatefully, or Channel 5’s 2012 comedy sketch show Random Island.

MAKING A MARC

The actress found working on such a large-scale production in Malaysia’s Pinewood Studios exhilarating. “Going on set and seeing the scale of it — it really blows your mind because it’s so big,” she said. “You walk in and see an entire slum village ... and it really smells like a slum village! And then you walk to the next part of the set and you’re in Mongolia with all its opulence. And then you walk to the next one and it’s China, which is so beautiful and elegant and graceful.”

The best part, she said, was the feeling of being able to create something amazing. Especially when the show is drawing comparisons to HBO’s medieval hit. “They are calling (Marco Polo) the Asian Game Of Thrones — the epic nature of the show, violence ... and the sex, yes,” Oon said.

But not specifically for her, though, as we found out when she waxed lyrical about the pyjamas she wears in the show, courtesy of Marco Polo’s costume designer, Tim Yip (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame). And no, they don’t come off.

“The pyjamas were silk. They were just so opulent — layer upon layer of really ornate cloth. They were just really luscious. They were so soft, I wanted to steal them,” Oon laughed.

While there is no nudity on her plate, there might be some violence. “I can’t quite tell you for what, but I worked with a stunt team over the period of the show and that was a lot of fun,” she said. “I love being challenged physically and I also love doing movement choreography.”

Apart from that, most of her scenes are with Singaporean actor Chin Han, who is best remembered for his role as Lau, the accountant for the mob in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. “He did ask me for a durian contact,” she recalled. “He was like, ‘Where do you get good durians in Singapore?’ So I asked my mum and passed him the number. And he was very pleased.”

TRANS-MEDIA MAVEN

Besides possibly kicking off her international career, it will be a busy year for Oon. And you’ll be seeing more of her as she takes on a lead role in the third season of legal drama Code Of Law. She’s currently filming for the series, premiering on Jan 5 on Channel 5, in which she stars as the firm’s new hire — a sexy, outspoken lawyer who also practises martial arts.

“I’ve always wanted to play a lawyer,” she said with a laugh. “Especially when I watch The Pupil and Code Of Law, because I think both series are just so intelligent and well-written and well-shot and well-cast. When I watched the first two seasons, I was like, ‘Wow, if I ever get on this show, I’ll be so happy.’ (And) I really love The Good Wife ... actually, all the laywer shows, Law And Order and another series called The Honourable Woman.”

And apart from television, she has two movies coming out: Han Yew Kwang’s sex comedy Rubbers, which also stars Yeo Yann Yann, Julian Hee, Marcus Chin and Alaric Tay, and is screening as part of the Singapore International Film Festival on Dec 12; and the Cathay production Our Sister Mambo — starring Moses Lim and Michelle Chong, with a screenplay written by Michael Chiang — to be released in July. She will also be busy on stage with two productions — Checkpoint Theatre’s Normal and Pangdemonium’s Chinglish.

“I’m very lucky to be able to work across all the mediums. I like all of them,” Oon said. “I would love to keep making good work and be part of projects that tell a great story and touch people — just tell good stories.”