InCinemas conducted an exclusive phone interview with MediaCorp actress, Tiffany Leong 绰琦. Many might have seen her on TV as she starred in various local dramas, including La Femme (2008), Injustice (2010), Code of Honour (2011), The Quarters (2012) and many other TV drama series.
What many might not know is that Tiffany has a ‘special ability’ to communicate with the Supernatural world since young, a dimension of life that leaves everyone, including scientists baffled by the most mysterious and unexplainable happenings in the world.
InCinemas asked the beauty queen about her thoughts on her ‘powers’ and recounts the incident when she was possessed while filming for a TV show! Be sure to catch her story on My Ghost Story Asia Season 2, Episode 4 on 25th April 2013!
Q: Hi Tiffany, could you tell us about your ‘special ability’ and how the paranormal beings are like?
- Tiffany: I am able to communicate with the paranormal beings. There are many different types of paranormal beings - some can be seen, heard, talked to, or even through possession.
I was able to hear their conversation since young but could not understand what they were talking back then. As a child, I was often ill and not in a good health condition probably due to this connection with the supernatural beings. Gradually as I grew older and into my teenage days, I found out that I was able to communicate with them and feel their presence around me, to the extent of 'seeing them’. A couple of years back, the experience became more "severe" when I got possessed for the very first time.
Q: Is it the one on the TV show?
- Tiffany: No that was the second time. I had my first encounter of being possessed in Malaysia on my first day of shoot for Code of Honour (正义武馆 - a Malaysian-Singapore an television drama). It was a scene with Zheng Ge Ping (郑各评) when I suddenly experienced difficulty in breathing. My whole body became very stiff and I wasn't able to move.
I was sent to the hospital immediately and the doctors were doing their best to get me to breathe normally. I was struggling and screaming in the hospital, and the four nurses could not hold me down and keep me in place.
When the doctor took my readings and blood pressure. Everything came out normal despite all the struggles and actions that I couldn't control. The doctors were unable to explain this phenomenon and they made enquiries about the shoot we had.
The conclusion is that the cause could be of the supernatural. Another strange thing about this incident is the speedy recovery after a needle poked into my middle finger. I was even able to walk out of the hospital by myself afterwards.
Q: How was it like? The feeling of being possessed?
- Tiffany: You will feel that you have no strength all of the sudden. I couldn't control my actions and I couldn't speak what I wanted to. Like I wanted my eyes to open but I just wasn't able to do so. And you gain conscious off and on. I can still recall the severity of the first possession when 4 nurses couldn't hold back the strength of my body.
Q: Did you do anything about it after being possessed? What did you do after that?
- Tiffany: I went through some rituals to ‘seal the body’ (封身 Feng Shen). There’s a saying that if you are being exposed to the spirit, it could be that a part of your body has been 'opened' so the ritual is to 'close' the connection. I did the same thing after my second time being possessed and the master on set helped me to ‘close my body’ immediately.
Q: What's your religion?
Q: How did your family and friends react to it?
- Tiffany: All of my family members know about my "special connection" with the paranormal beings so they didn't "over-react" since there wasn't anything serious that had happened to me. But ever since the possession incident, they become more worried about me and would not allow me to take on projects that had supernatural themes.
Like the year before last, I actually took up a TV programme that features paranormal activities, without informing them as I knew they would disagree to it. I said yes to it because I thought I could use my "special connection" to "help" people through that show. But after the show, I become aware that it can be quite taxing for me so I didn't accept their invitation to do a second series. As to taking up such projects, I will really have to think twice before making a decision.
Q: We're quite curious. Do you actually see them (the paranormal beings)?
- Tiffany: About seeing them, it's more of like blur shadows that I saw. But there's one extraordinary experience, which I have also shared in My Ghost Story Asia Season 2, that had happened to me some years back during the Hungry Ghost Festival (Ghost Month). It actually happened in my dreams but it was a continuation where the ghost came pleading me and want me to inform my elder sister about its situation and bring peace to it. The strange thing is, it knows my elder sister do chants
Q: Can you share your experience you’re telling in 'My Ghost Story Asia Season 2'?- Tiffany: The story actually happened in my dreams a long time ago during the Hungry Ghost month. (It is believed the king of hell opens the gates of hell to allow ghosts to visit the living world during this period of time). A person who died long ago, appeared in my dreams pleading me to inform my elder sister about its situation.
I don't have any special abilities and I don't know any chants that could help but my elder sister knows. My sister helps wandering ghosts/souls to seek salvation through chants every year but she wasn't able to "communicate and get in touch" with them. So I'm like the messenger in this instance.
[Note: Find out more about Tiffany's ghostly encounter in My Ghost Story Asia Season 2!]
Q: Is your special ability the reason for changing your name? (From 梁丽芳 to 绰琦)
- Tiffany: It’s actually not! There’s a little misunderstanding during earlier reports. I changed my name purely because of my involvement in the entertainment business, and not because of my communication with the supernatural world.
Q: What have you been busy with recently?
- Tiffany: I’m now in Malaysia filming a MediaCorp drama and in August, I will be travelling to China to for new opportunities and see if there will be any projects to work on.
Q: As an actress, is there a role that you wish to try in future?
- Tiffany: I'm actually interested in stylish roles. For example, Rui En's character as a female police officer (in 'C.L.I.F. 2' - Courage, Loyalty, Integrity, Fairness, or 警徽天职 2). Another role I really wanted to try out would be a mortuary makeup artist. I feel that this occupation has a lot of stories to share through his daily work and with my "special connections", I think it will be interesting taking up the role.
Q: Last but not least, you have won a number of beauty campaigns previously. Could you share some beauty tips with our readers?
- Tiffany: Okay sure! For ladies, I highly recommend drinking lots of water and soup! For healthy skin, you must maintain sufficient water in your body and besides good exercise regime, to nourish yourself from the outside to inside, it is to drink more soup!
I am a person who loves soup so I believe it helps! Remember, soup like bird’s nest soup for a healthy and radiant skin!
Q: Is the soup you mention some kind of a tonic soup?
- Tiffany: Too much tonic soup is not good either. I'm actually referring to the more hydrating kind, like Bird's nest.
Watch Tiffany and other true accounts with the supernatural told by the people who experienced them on My Ghost Asia Season 2! Some even captured their brush with the spiritual realm on photographs and on films!
Using re-enactment, interviews and archival photography, My Ghost Story Asia Season 2 takes viewers on a chilling ride through 8 gripping episodes of highly personal ghost stories!
My Ghost Story Asia Season 2 premieres 4th April 2013, every Thursday at 9.30pm on The Biography Channel (Starhub Cable TV Channel 404).