Felicia Chin

COMING INTO HER OWN
Tuesday June 21, 2005
Rising star Felicia Chin: Not a girl, not quite a woman

Joyce Lin
joyce@newstoday.com.sg

"PROVOCATIVELY?" asked MediaCorp starlet Felicia Chin (picture)
hesitantly, as our photographer prepared to shoot. For a fleeting moment,
she looked unsure of what was expected of her.
But the moment the camera was trained on her, the 21-year-old looked at
ease, posing with her hands on her hips, staring right into the camera
lens.
We're not sure why she was so hesitant initially - "sexy" shoots should be
par for the course for Felicia Chin, who's graced the covers of magazines
including Her World and the Singapore edition of FHM.
But look beyond the sensual shots and you realise that, for all her poise
in front of the camera, Felicia's just a baby in celebrity terms: Finding
her feet, learning to fly.
And, not too long ago, in secondary school, she was a self-confessed
tomboy.
Felicia can currently be seen as the wide-eyed fishball seller in
MediaCorp's Channel 8 100-episode drama Portrait Of Home, her third role
since winning 2003's Star Search. The actress is now taking a break before
filming for the drama serial resumes in July.
Felicia stars as the love interest of Pierre Png and Alan Tern.
'I've got a sweet and sexy side'
"I like how my character slowly grows stronger and learns how to handle
relationship problems; she's not as innocent as when she first started,"
she said. "I identify with some of her character traits, many of which I
can see in myself."
While she was one of the four women, clad only in bikinis, to run down
Orchard Road for that famous scene from The Champion, the talk about town
focused on co-star Fiona Xie. But since then, she's been showing a sexier
side of herself, having posed in swimwear shoots for FHM and Her World.
Will she abandon her girl-next-door image for this saucier, more sensual
one?
"Every woman has a sweet and a sexy side. I want to show both sides of
myself and not just restrict myself to a certain image," she said.
However, Felicia said she separates her work from her personal life - the
sexy poses are "for work", she insisted - and admitted that she's still
grappling with adopting different images. "It's too early for a 'fixed'
one," she said.
At the interview, the actress was effervescent, almost bubbling over with
enthusiasm. She talked nineteen to the dozen, a reporter's delight: Feed
her a simple question and she gleefully runs with the thread.
"I started acting when I was only 19, right after I'd returned from
travelling with my friends. Star Search was merely by chance and I
thought, why not?," she said. "In these one-and-a-half years I've learned
quite a lot - things I'd never have learned if I'd enrolled in university
instead.
"It's so much different from just watching the drama serial at home.
There's the positioning, lines to remember - things that even veteran
actors have to keep in mind."
Inspired choice
Felicia attended an inspirational seminar by Anthony Robbins a few years
back, and it was instrumental in her career choice.
"It helped to broaden my perspectives on life and see the bigger picture.
Suddenly all the problems that I face seem smaller when compared to those
of other people," she said.
"Sometimes you may feel lousy when the criticism accumulates - but I don't
let it get me down."
Her sister's advice - to remain positive despite detractors' comments -
has helped her look beyond the critics' barbs.
"She told me that you can never please everyone and there's only so much
that you can do," she said. "I can only try to learn and grow from my
experiences."
Having put her studies on hold, she is now concentrating on her career,
but hopes to carry on where she left off on her studies someday.
"I hope I can study and work at the same time, even though I know it won't
be easy," chirps the bubbly actress.
For now, Felicia said she was looking forward to "more fun-loving,
energetic and vocal roles".

Read: She just wants to be herself.

Felicia Chin
ex-TKGian and VJC (prom queen) Star search winner (Singapore)