Sora Ma had to 'look pretty' while playing stroke victim in C.L.I.F. 4

SINGAPORE — When it comes to landing cushy roles, it would appear that Sora Ma has no luck.

At a press conference for her latest television show, C.L.I.F. (Courage, Loyalty, Integrity, Fairness), the actress lamented that she keeps having to play misfortune-struck characters.

In Season 4 of the police drama, which also stars Elvin Ng, Li Nanxing, Rui En, Ya Hui, and Zhang Yaodong, her character is violated, and suffers a stroke that leaves half of her body paralysed.

It is the third time she is playing a character with disability — the first being in 2014’s Blessings; and the second in 118, which will soon commence filming for a second season. “Maybe I forgot to buy cake for the producers,” she quipped.

The icing on the cake, she said, was that while filming for C.L.I.F. 4, “the executive producer told me, ‘Half of your body has been incapacitated by a stroke, but you still have to look pretty’.”

“It took a lot of practice,” she sighed. “It was very difficult, especially when you have to portray feelings of anger and sadness, but you can’t move. It feels very suppressed. You feel like your body and soul are not synced.”

There are some actors who are always conscious of whether they look pretty for the cameras anyway, but Ma said: “I think I lost any ‘idol baggage’ I might have had a long time ago! From Blessings onwards, I lost it all.”

She continued: “I’m not a very technical actor. I can’t pretend that I’m sad and cry. I have to cry real tears because I have to feel the sadness. So it’s not the healthiest thing for me,” she said. “In this show, we did a rape scene at night — I had to fall onto stones and be thrown around and I bled a lot.” In order to stay balanced, “I meditated constantly”.

It is her most challenging role to date, she said. On average, she takes one month to prepare for a role; this one took her two. She also got up two hours earlier every day so she could get into character.

But she retains her sense of humour about it all, saying: “At least this is my third time playing someone with a disability, so I guess I have experience! I know how to find myself again. That’s why, after this show, I rushed to Taiwan, to find myself.”

She has just returned from a five-week language course in Taiwan, which she found highly beneficial. “I think my Mandarin did improve, and it has been helpful not only to my career — I think it has helped my acting — but also for me as a person,” she said, adding that she believes becoming a better speaker will help her spread positive energy.

And she probably needs as much of that as she can get — just to balance out all that on-screen tragedy and violence. MAY SEAH

Catch C.L.I.F. 4 starting Sept 6, weekdays at 9pm on Mediacorp TV Channel 8.