Tan Kheng Hua takes a bite of humble pie
By Ilsa Chan, channelnewsasia.com | Posted: 17 November 2009 0934 hrs

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SINGAPORE : She’s an award-winning actress who has spent over two decades of her life doing serious theatre, but actress-producer Tan Kheng Hua ranks her role as a hard-hitting private investigator in upcoming MediaCorp sitcom “Mr & Mrs Kok” as one of her toughest ever.

Not because of the physical stunts the 46-year-old had to take on, but because she had to speak Mandarin.

The brainchild of Tan, “Mr & Mrs Kok” was never meant to be a Mandarin sitcom. It was originally pitched to Channel 5 but “it wasn’t something that they were looking at at that time”. Not one to lose heart, Tan and her co-executive producer Pauline Yu approached Channel 8 and they loved it.

“Mr & Mrs Kok” stars Tan and comedian Mark Lee as the titular characters, a successful husband-and-wife crime-busting team going through mid-life crises as well as a rough patch in their marriage.

Though this is not her first Mandarin-speaking role - she was even nominated for Best Supporting Actress Star Award for her role in 2002’s “Beautiful Connection” - the actress thought there would be objections to her playing Mrs Kok, a scholar, due to her lack of proficiency in Mandarin.

Thankfully there wasn’t.

“But that character that I played [in ‘Beautiful Connection’] was an owner of a provision shop, so the words I had to say were very easy, so pu tong [Chinese for common]. So when I was playing a learned character, I found it very difficult,” said Tan, who is best known for her role as Margret Phua in the English sitcom “Phua Chu Kang”.

In fact, she told this reporter that she felt like a fish out of water on set, and the whole experience really humbled her and opened her eyes.

“The culture was so unusual. Everybody was speaking in Mandarin. I was like ‘Stop! Slow down please, for me.’ And then they would support me.”

She added, “Not wanting to be arrogant, but in most of the projects that I was on, because I’ve been at it for such a long time, I am never the one that is the weak link, I am never the one that slows people down, I always know my lines. Suddenly to be the one [with] 14 takes, 16 takes, really, really humbles you.

“And then to have to do that sort of homework, it really brings you back to when I was a beginning actor. But you know something? Maybe we all need to be reminded. It’s a really humbling experience and I think it’s good for people.”

And it seems to have rubbed off on Tan’s 11-year-old daughter, Shi-An.

Tan said, “My daughter saw me studying so hard, and it was during her exams and strangely enough, her Chinese results at this SA2 improved so much. Maybe it was because she saw me studying and she realised that we all got to study, even at my age.”

The theatre veteran had a Mandarin coach to help her with her lines during the last couple of weeks of filming when she had to “do a lot of explaining of crime concepts and jargon”.

Though the rest of the cast praised Tan’s Mandarin, calling it “pitch-perfect”, the actress has been told that it might not be good enough for TV.

“In all probability, they will dub me because I do not think I made the grade, and I accept that.

“I feel that because I was involved in the conceptualisation and producing of this project, it has allowed me to be more humble. And because I derive my satisfaction from so many other aspects of seeing this show get on its feet and be broadcast, it’s easier to take that,” she said with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

The idea for “Mr & Mrs Kok” came about because Tan wanted to tell a story about people who were going through a mid-life crisis.

Having gone through a mid-life crisis of her own five years ago, Tan “wanted to utilise some of the feelings and situations” that she went through and put it into a story.

“Making them private investigators and the crimes that they solve are just ways to bring out some of the issues that face couples in their 40s.

“And, then I wanted to work with this man, so I called him up,” she said pointing to Lee, whom she worked with briefly on “Phua Chu Kang” when he guest starred on the sitcom.

Besides the storyline, Lee joked that he had signed on to do “Mr & Mrs Kok” “for revenge” - it was his turn to laugh at Tan’s Mandarin.

“It’s the only time I can laugh at her because when we were filming ‘Phua Chu Kang’, she kept telling me, 'Mark, you are really lousy!'" he said, referring to his 'broken English'.

“And every day when I arrive on set, she is expressionless, busy memorising her lines,” added the funnyman.

But it was not all bad. Tan had a blast working with good friend Mark Lee as well as performing her own stunts in the series. In fact, she was in her element on stunt day.

“I was so happy on stunt day because I was like ‘No need to speak [Mandarin], can relax already!’” said the self-proclaimed jock, pumping her fists into the air.

“Let me kick, let me jump off the third floor, I don’t care, as long as I do not need to speak.”

Despite the challenges, the gung-ho actress is game to take on more roles in Mandarin series.

“I am always character-driven. Many times after ‘Jiu Cheng Gao’ [Beautiful Connection], because I was nominated, every year I would be offered but I always turn them down because if the role was not something that I was interested in, I wouldn’t be in it.

“But I love Mrs Kok, I love this character. I created these characters, so there’s no way I would have turned it down. If we do another season of ‘Mr & Mrs Kok’, and I certainly hope that they will, I hope that I would have enough lead time and I would want to try again. I am that sort of person, I would want to try and see whether I can make the grade again this time.”

"Mr & Mrs Kok" debuts November 26 at 8.30pm on Channel 8.

- CNA/il