Rui En, Pierre Png celebrate Life

SINGAPORE — Rui En and Pierre Png will reunite to play a couple once again in the upcoming MediaCorp TV Channel 8 drama, Life Is Beautiful. The cast, comprising Ya Hui, Ian Fang, Chen Shu Cheng, Cynthia Koh, Cavin Soh, Jeffrey Xu, Lin Mei Jiao, Allen Chen, Hong Hui Fang, Sora Ma, Dasmond Koh and Taiwanese actress Esther Yang Yong Chun attended a lensing ceremony today (June 30) to mark the start of filming.

The drama is presented by the National Kidney Foundation in collaboration with the Singapore Kindness Movement, and aims to get audiences thinking about kidney health and how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Rui En, who plays a classic good girl, shared that her challenge would be to bring some humanity to a potentially too-perfect character. “The role is written very positive. It’s written very sunshine. It’s just a very likable role. She puts everyone else first. She nags all the people around her to eat healthy: Less sugar, less salt, less everything. But for me, I’m more interested in making the role real. I’m more interested in making it relatable rather than popular. And so that will be my challenge because she’s perfect,” the actress said.

“I did talk to the producer to say I do want to add a little bit more of a human element. People who are considerate and put others first are still people. They have their moments where they have a temper or are disappointed.”

Although Pierre plays Rui En’s love interest, he said: “The love story is secondary.” The primary thing, he said, is to “tell the real story” of people who have to watch their loved ones suffer health issues.

“Honestly, I’m a bit apprehensive. I personally did go through something like that where I was on the sidelines and someone close to me was taken ill and she underwent dialysis and a transplant. Fortunately, I didn’t lose her,” he said.

He’s talking, of course, about “my ex-girlfriend and current wife”, Andrea De Cruz.

“I think the challenge for me, playing this role, would be to show the whole of Singapore what I kind of went through then,” he shared. “I don’t know whether it will open the floodgates for me, but I’m trying to make it as real as possible, because it’s going to be quite complicated.”

Life Is Beautiful begins on March 2, 2015 on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.