By Michelle Tan • UrbanWire
email reporter • email story • printer friendly

She may be new to the Channel 8 drama scene, but livewire actress/host Belinda Lee is certainly no newcomer to showbiz.

Belinda, who’s currently flexing her acting chops in her debut in Channel 8’s latest drama serial, Room In My Heart, started out as an MTV VJ in 1998. Back then, she beat 1,000 other hopefuls to be the first Singaporean VJ on MTV’s Mandarin music channel, hosting popular Mandarin show Kan Yi Kan (Take A Look). She joined MediaCorp last November, and has since been busy hosting variety shows like Neighbourly Affairs.

“I think I’m a little greedy, but I love both [acting and hosting],” admits the bubbly 27-year-old. “The 2 jobs are worlds apart, but without my hosting experience, I don’t think I’d be able to do well [in acting].”

In Room In My Heart, Belinda was cast to play not 1 character, but 2. She plays twins from China who comes to Singapore to work. One of them eventually ends up in a love triangle.

The casting came as a major surprise to Belinda, who expected only a supporting role.

“But when I looked at the script and saw my name [listed] in every episode, I had a real shock!”

Belinda took this challenge in her stride, enduring 3½ months of “commando training” to prep her for the role. During filming, however, she fell ill due to much physical exertion.

“Drama really drains you out because you’re working 24/7, and it was something I couldn’t take physically.” But Belinda constantly reminded herself about her commitment to the serial and pressed on despite her illness. She recounted times where she had to excuse herself in between takes to vomit. After this experience, she has come to realise the importance of taking care of her health.

“Health is everything,” the hardworking lass philosophises, “Without that, there will be no wealth.”

Belinda & Pierre at the Room In My Heart press conference.

Now back in the pink of health, Belinda glows with compliments for the Room In My Heart cast, and humbly adds that she has “learnt much from different actors”. Her utmost praise, however, is reserved for her co-star, Pierre Png, whom she calls “a great person”.

“Pierre really took care of me,” enthused Belinda, “But he also pushed me during our filming. He’s very professional.”

“Everyone loves Pierre,” she adds in jest, loud enough for her co-star to hear, and goes on to describe how she’d get the brunt of the director’s reprimands when he’d merely escape from it with a smile. Ahh, such love between the 2 co-stars.

Jokes aside, Belinda is confident of the on-screen chemistry between herself and Pierre, and credits it to the degree of communication between them. “Communication is important between actors because that builds the relationship.”

In a moment of seriousness, the spunky Belinda sincerely hopes that viewers “will be satisfied with what they see” on screen, as that would truly make the “months of filming worth it”. She also understands that not everyone will be receptive of her debut performance, but she takes it all in her stride.

Aside from being a spokesperson for Ginvera, Belinda also has new shows coming up in August, namely a part in new road trip variety show Road Feast, and another drama serial, details of which are still unknown. Though Belinda will be tied up with lots of projects for quite a while, she always has time for feedback.

“I’d really appreciate feedback [on her debut performance],” says Belinda, “And if I keep on pushing myself [in the future], I believe I will improve. People [are]… able to see even the smallest improvement.”

Pictures by Han Wei Chou