There is nothing more tiring (but fulfilling) job than being a parent. You devote a whole lot of your time, youth and money, only to provide the best for your children. In times of despair, you can’t just hoist the white flag and announce to the world you give up. But at the end of the day, most parents, including yours and mine, will tell you ‘it’s worth it’.
For the three leading ladies in Channel 5’s upcoming drama series ‘Lion Moms’, becoming on-set mummies and nannies are just part and parcel of the deal. At the media conference held at The Learning Lab last Friday, the adult cast seem to get along very well with their on-screen children; often seen bickering, teaching and sometimes even discipling these young stars when they get too rowdy.
It's no wonder that on set - on and off camera - these actors double up as parents and babysitters to their onscreen children.
“You have to build a relationship with the children and that takes time,” said Joshua Tan, whose character is part of a love triangle with Min Yi (Vanessa Vanderstraaten) and Peng Koo (Russell Ong).
Tan added: “It really sunk in one day when he kept calling me daddy, even off-screen! He will say stuffs like ‘daddy, I want to go to the toilet’, okay; ‘daddy I’m hungry’ okay… So yeah, I realised I’m not ready for kids!
Ex-national swimmer Russell Ong echoes his co-star’s sentiments when asked if he was motivated or inspired to have children on his own after the short 2-month nanny stint. “I’m really not ready man, I think I still have a decade to go or something.”
Lion Moms revolves around three families with different parenting approach in handling their family problems; from primary school admissions to tuitions, hubby troubles to love triangles.
Playing the young, single mom to 6-year-old boy Keller Teh is host-model Vanessa Vanderstraaten. Raised by a single mother since she was 10, Vanderstraaten hopes to ‘do justice to the struggles faced by single parents’. Her greatest challenge, she says, is to be ‘true and relatable’.
“I related a lot to Min Yi, because of my own experiences as well. When you’re on your own and have a young child, you have to be everything to them. You are their mom, you are their dad, you are the doctor, the finance person, the ATM and everything,” she added.
The Hong Kong television star Bernice Liu plays the stay-home mom, Jennifer in her first English TV series since her foray into the entertainment industry in 2011. The English language doesn’t pose as a problem for the actress, but there were local terms and colloquial vocabulary that she had to learn from her co-stars such as ‘kiasu’ and ‘tuition’. (tuition in most countries refer to education costs as suppose to additional home tutoring)
“Acting in English wasn’t stressful for me. It’s actually more interesting because I’ve never shot in English for television. It was kind of weird because you actually understand 100% of what you're saying and it’s very easy to go in to method-acting because you get very involved in the character.”
Liu has been filming the series for the past two months or so, and is set to wrap production soon. If you have been following her social media accounts, besides her nature walk and hiking trips images, you might recall some of her gloomier quotes and pictures. Rest assured for Liu is still the bubbly actress we know. This is just her way to ‘set the mood’ and to ‘get away from things’.
“I cry a lot in the show and for Jennifer, there’s a thin line between staying sane and insanity.”
“If I joked around and came out of character, it’s quite hard to get back in. So for the past two-and-a-half months, I will go hiking and all that to get away from things. Other than that I’m pretty much on set. I don’t really go out to party and all. Some of my posts (on social media) you see get quite emotional… I set the mood from my very first post I put it in, so the whole day of shoot gets easy to go through, and after the shoot, we go hiking or hit the gym.”
Amongst the main casts, Nurul Aini and Fir Rahman are the only parents in real life, and both somewhat admit to being a ‘lion mom’ and ‘lion dad’ to their own children.
“I won’t say I’m a lion mom as I am much more relaxed compared to my other friends and my character, Durrani. Durrani pushes her daughter too hard but Nurul is not like that. I am not a lion mom but I do send my kids to classes... I just want them to be ready.
There are so many kiasu moms out there, and if I am not kiasu like them, and when my children goes to school, they will be shock as to what the other kids have already achieved,” said the actress.
Firdaus Rahman, her on-screen husband said: “It’s like a race. We parents just want the best for our children and don’t want them to be left behind. We just want them to be on par with the other kids."
“We went through it (education) as parents and we know that the standard is getting tougher. We really have to get them prepared for it and that’s why we are like this.”
Playing the role of the perfectionist mother who pushes her daughter too hard, Nurul reflected on herself and felt ‘really scared’ while reading the script.
“I read what happens to my daughter (Dayang Nur Balqis) and I got really scared. I am so scared that I push my own children too much! I know I am not like that right now, but I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. So when I read the script, I take caution and tell myself that this is not going to happen to me.”
Lion Moms stars Bernice Liu, Nurul Aini, Vanessa Vanderstraaten, Max Loong, Russell Ong, Firdaus Rahman and Joshua Tan, debuts Sep 7 (Mon), 10pm on Channel 5!