Latest / 987 The Shock Circuit / INTERVIEW: ANNETTE LEE

Transcript

INTERVIEW: ANNETTE LEE · 987 The Shock Circuit

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And my guest at this point in time, we are
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: live on air. We are live on TikTok. It's somebody
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: who we've seen, you know,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Expand all the things that she does in this space
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we call social media, and now on the silver screen,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: she wears so many hats. She's an actress, comedian. What
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: else can you do? You, you can host, you're a singer,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and now you're a director. You're a scriptwriter as well.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Annette Lee in the studio.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Hello.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Again today,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: time to do
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: all
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: this.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: That's why I, I've been trying to let go of something. I,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I kind of retired from music, but I, I had
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: to write a song. I had to write two songs
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: for my films and I came out of retirement because
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: when you
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: retired from music, I was just about to say, but
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you're performing on stage.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I really didn't want to. I feel like I could
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: have done better, but it's OK. You know, I mean,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I wrote the music just because I, I wanted to
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: go into film. I'm like, I'm focusing on my film,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: which the truth is actually, I think a lot of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: people don't know. I, I like film has always been
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: my first love. Like, I went to film school, you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: back in university and everything, and that's like the one
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: thing I wanted to do.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: But then I stumbled into social media and then it
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: feels like, yeah, now I'm just going, I went all
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the way around and I'm like coming back home.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Actually it's funny because I was putting aside for a while.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like I've not gone indepth with you as
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the creator and personality you are. We've had.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The show many times for different reasons, but, but today, like,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I feel before I speak to Annette Lee, star of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Dream Stall Meng Xiang Xiao Tian, right or wrong? Hey,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: come on, la. Don't laugh at me, OK. The IPS
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: survey says that we're losing affinity with our mother tongue,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: so I'm trying my best to improve it. Um, can
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: we start? Like, how did you even stumble into the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: world of social media and content creation? I mean, we,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we know you as so many characters, but even before that.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Were these things always in your head? Did it come
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: naturally to you?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Uh, I mean,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: all
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: these content creation, the characters that you have, scriptwriting, being
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: funny and being yourself,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I don't think I'm
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: particularly a very funny person. I just like to observe
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: things and like there's so much of our life that
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: is just funny without being funny. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: And like I love like capturing those moments and I
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: think uh
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I, how I ended up is something the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: social media was because when I was in film school,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: everything I made was so depressing because, you know, when
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you're doing the art house films, a lot of times
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: it's just very serious, very drama and everything. And like
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I always loved comedy, but then when I studied film,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it was like we never studied comedy movies. We were,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: we were always watching like the classics and we're watching.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: You know, really serious stuff, and then I just started
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: a blog at that point in time just writing funny
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: stories of my life because I just needed an outlet
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: to just to have something a bit more lighthearted in
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: my life. Um, and then, yeah, there was a couple
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: of blog posts that went viral and then it was
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: reshared on like, uh, um, the, the local media platform
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: SK and then they asked me to join the team
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to make memes and write articles.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: And so I just, I was like, OK, let me
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: just go and I started the video team over there
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: because I, I really wanted to make videos. So I
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: went over there and I was just like, hello, actually,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I can make videos. And so they gave me like
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: a camera and like, OK, sure. Um, and then yeah,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: so just I, I was one person doing everything and
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: it was just by accident that I, I just because
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I had to be a one-man show, I just started
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: doing everything and then I got used to it.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And then
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, that's how it all started. That's how I
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: started in social media when I really just was a
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: film school kid who just wanted to make like films. Yeah,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: and so actually at that point in time when I
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: graduated film school, what I wanted to do was make
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: a web series. So even when I joined a social
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: media company, I was like, I want to make a
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: web series, but they say, yeah, you just make the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: sponsored videos first.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So after we, I made all the sponsored videos, then
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: somehow I want to make a web series, it didn't
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: work out. And then I quit in 2020 and I
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: was like, screw it, I will do it myself. And
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: so I just, uh, you know, made my own money
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: for a year and then I just invested it into
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: my own web series. It was called Asian Billionaires and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: people really liked it as well.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: And then I took a bit of a break and
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: then uh I guess this was like the next step.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I remember when I saw you last year, was it
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the Bishan concert or something? I saw you last year sometime, yeah, yeah,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and then, and then it was your husband. He was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: with you and then he, I asked her, so what's
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Annette busy with now? Oh yeah, I got her own movie,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: and then she gave the deadliest of stares to the husband.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Like that's under wraps for now. OK, I won't ask
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: you anything about it, but
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Now we can finally talk about it. I did speak
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a bit about it but you didn't give too much detail,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: not that much. So what inspired Dreamstall? Tell us the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: story without spoiling too much of it. And what kind
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of cinema is it? Because when you think local movies, right,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and to be honest with you, I'm just gonna give
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you my personal take.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Most Singaporeans would think, oh, local movies are Jack Neo
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: style humor, you know what I mean? We, we are
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: not so exposed to directors like Puhin Feng, for example.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: So what kind of style can we expect from your
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: movie when we go to watch Dreamstone in cinemas?
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's a bit of a mix between
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: something commercial and something artistic. Uh, you know, I'm a
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: big fan of like commercial films that are, you know, have,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: have an an artistic message, something to say.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: But I also have, and also, I'm also a big
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: fan of like, you know, um, art films that are entertaining,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: you know, and I do find that it's possible to
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: find that balance and I think in Singapore, sometimes we
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: kind of split between the two divides, um, where it's
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: either you're very commercial and you're just making a comedy
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: movie that's just for cheap laughs or you're doing like
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a really serious depressing art house film that
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it's meant to be just really deep and,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: and honestly, like not, not entertaining in a, in a
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: commercial sense, but I find that it's possible to find
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: a middle ground and I, I wanted to find that
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: middle ground. And um it's funny how I, um, I
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: would say,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: That because, you know, I feel Jack Neo represents that
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: very commercial side of Singapore filmmaking, and I would say
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: maybe Anthony Chen represents the very like art house side
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: of like filmmaking in Singapore, and both of them had
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: a bit of a hand in this, in that, um,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I actually did not want to make a movie. I
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: was just trying to take a break. I had a kid.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And then I met Anthony Chen and he's just like,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I think you should make a movie. Like I think
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: you could make the Singapore equivalent of Bridesmaids. And so, yeah,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and so because he encouraged me, I was like, yeah, I,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I was like, fine. I mean, I will think about it.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And then so I did think about it and I thought,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: what story would be great. And I felt that, you know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I think my life working in media in the last
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: 5 to 7 years.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I, I felt like I had a very, I
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: had very interesting life experiences, you know, the good, the bad,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the ugly, and I could incorporate it into this movie.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And then, um, yeah, when I came up with the
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: story of, um, a young hawker, because at that point
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: in time, the phenomenon of young hawkers was like a
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: huge thing. And I felt it parallel a lot um
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: of my life trying to do something a bit more
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: unconventional in a very like commercial corporate Singapore. Um, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: so I told the story that way.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: And somehow I felt like I want to make this
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: a commercial film. And then I went on social media
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and just made a joke about Jack Neo. And then
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: he responded to me. And then,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: He's, in the end, he's acting in the film. He
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: got a small part as a greedy landlord.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I'm
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: gonna go on social media and make fun of Jack Neo.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's how it works here in the industry. Anyway,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: when we come back, we hear more from Annette Lee
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and Dreamstall in just a bit on the shock circuit.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: But if you want to ask some exclusive questions on TikTok,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: feel free. But speaking of tickets and celebrities that we
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: have in the studio, how about you get a ticket
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to go watch Dream Stall now available in cinemas. We've
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: got Annette Lee who just joined us. Hello.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Always good to have you here trying to keep your
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: energy up for 9:37 a.m. in the morning. OK, so
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: walk us through the entire process of co-writing, directing and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: acting in the film. When it comes to directing and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: acting at the same time, it's very interesting. Do you
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: call your own shots while on set?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Like you're standing as an actress. OK, this one, the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: camera come here, come there. OK, 321, roll, action and
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: start acting. No, I mean, I, I plan my shots
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: with my, my director beforehand and then my, my 80s
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: know everything. I plan my, my, my, my director of
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: photography is, my DOP.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And then, uh, uh, my, my assistant directors, they know everything.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: So then on set, I just need to block all
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: my actors and then check the, the, the shots whenever
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: they're done. Yeah. So it's tough. It's very hard, but
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: do. I mean, was it a stressful time for you
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: doing the whole film and what kept you going?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: can you only imagine so many roles you're balancing even
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: being a mom as well in real life.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, um, so, I mean, we'll, we'll start writing,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I guess. So I had this story and then, um,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Uh, my, my husband, he knew Gary from MM2, um,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: who's our EP like from way back, and then so
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: we just spoke to him. Um, he was interested, and then, uh,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: when I decided I want to do this hawker story,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I felt that, you know, it should be a bilingual film. Yeah,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: and again, you know, I think just now we were
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: talking about, you know, people not believing in this. I
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: think there were so many.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Comments and stuff and even like concerns like why do
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: you want to do a bilingual film? It's not going
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: to be a place anywhere. It's not, it's neither English
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: is norm, nor is it Mandarin, like the English crowd's
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: not gonna watch it, the Mandarin crowd not gonna watch it,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: but I felt like this is authentic to my Singaporean experience,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: but also bilingual here. I want to tell a story
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: that is, that feels real. And so anyway, um, my
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Mandarin obviously is not great enough to write a whole, uh, uh,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: like full characters that spoke in Mandarin.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: So we brought on this co-writer, um, who was much
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: better at Mandarin, and meanwhile, I was taking like Mandarin
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: classes every week. So my Mandarin has improved actually quite
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: a bit,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Um, Mandarin songs from Annette.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I've quit music, everybody, I retired. So anyway, um, like I, yeah,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: and so my co-writer is great. Um, um, he just
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: adopted this story, and, and, you know, he knows my
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: whole life now because this is such an intimate story
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: for me, right? And, and like, we, we really just
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: fleshed the whole thing out in over a year and
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: a half or more.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, I do really plan with my DOP
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: who's also amazing. Yeah, he's so good. Um, I was
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: very specific about certain things like, like, you know, colors
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: that I wanted, shots that I wanted.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Um, and, and he just, he, he got it all
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: done beautifully.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: What was it like auditioning actors? Did you audition Mark
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Oh no,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't audition. You just knew
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you wanted him. No,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: so Mark again, so you see, I, I tell you, right,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: sometimes when I think about the people who actually believe
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: in me, right? I'm like, I want to cry because
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I know of like so many people my whole life
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: who just did not.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: You know, like, give me a shot. But anyway, so
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Mark just came and one day when he found out
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I was making a film and he said, you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: anything you want, I will help you out. Like just
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: let me know anything you need. And so I was like, OK, uh,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I was writing the script and I went like, uh, I'll,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: I'll have you play my dad. Is that OK? And
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: he was like, yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: And then, uh, yeah, that's how he, he ended up
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: on the project. He just offered his help, like out
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of nowhere.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: so as I mentioned just now, if you were, I
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: don't know whether I mentioned this in the previous 10
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: minutes ago, uh, there's a surprise cameo from Jack Neo. Yeah, yeah,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: and I threw money at him. That was very exciting.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Um,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: basically representing every investor for Jack New Films are throwing
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: money at him. Yeah. Uh, can I ask, he
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: had a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: great
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: time doing that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: What, what's happening with, uh, Malaysia's very own So I'm Jen? Why,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: why are you fighting? Why is she crashing your stage performances?
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Jen, um, yeah, she's, she's, she's a crazy Malaysian, um,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: but I in the best way, I love her so much. Um,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and she has a cameo in the film too.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, uh, at the gala premiere, she, she heckled me,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: like she Will Smith me.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Uh, we did a performance of the Bakute song that
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: we decided to do, and so that was also out
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of nowhere. One day I was just like, hey.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I want to do this like rap song.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, where it's like about Malaysia Singapore versus Singapore Bakute,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: but at the end of it, we realized that, you know, uh,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Food is what brings us together. And I was like,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: do you want to write something together? And she's like, OK.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And then, so that's how we wrote the song. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: so yeah, we have this Bakute song out right now.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: It's called Better Than Yours. Um, and it was so
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: much fun. It's also the song is also featured in
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: the movie during one sequence, and Jen is doing, uh,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: featured in that montage sequence. So she's a great actress.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Two final questions for you. The second one will be.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: What would audiences feel watching Dreamstall in cinemas?
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: What what do you want them to feel?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I, I was asked this the other day also, um,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and I feel like I want this. I want everyone
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: to take away whatever they want in their own way. And,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: and that has been the case so far from, from
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: the audience reactions, like everyone, you know, um, they, the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: film speaks to them in their own very personal way
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: because I think, um,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: I'm, I'm a big like character writer, you know, I'm
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: all about like, you know, making sure every character uh
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: um is fully fleshed out and interesting. And what I
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: found from a a lot of different people is that
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: they relate to different specific characters. Um, and yeah, so
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I don't want to tell you what to take away,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: but I do hope you'll be touched by the film
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: and I do hope.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, the film makes you feel like home
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: because it is a Singaporean movie about our culture.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Wrap up and be honest here. Singapore or Malaysia.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I like both lah.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: OK, but Singapore, Singapore Bakuteh. I'll choose Singapore Bakuteh.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Because, you know, Singapore.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us in the studio
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and and really sharing almost in-depth about the the the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: mind and the whole thing that went on behind producing
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: this film and writing, directing and acting in it and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the music as well. Make sure you catch Dream Stre
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: live in cinemas. It's available. Go support everything.