February 20, 2001

Long-haired and tanned beauty Celest Chong bursts onto screens in the new Channel 8 drama, You Light Up My Life, and discovers how useful sunblock can be.

By Junie Ong

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Celest has one of those versatile visages. You can't decide if she's more credible as a sexpot or as the innocent schoolgirl. Share your views on her.

After treading the high road of bitch-politics as a runway goddess and her bimbotic debut as the Girl Friday in Making Love, she's taking a turn at being the angel.

New-age Florence Nightingale
In her most recent foray as Yang Fan in You Light Up My Life, this first-time Channel 8 star becomes the idealistic social worker.

"It has a very meaningful storyline, much more important than being beautiful or glamorous." Check out stills from the TV show.

"The stories are very real to me and it makes me really sad and angry when I listen to those tales," she tells us, her face crinkling up in sincere compassion.

That's why the actress has no trouble turning on the tear ducts for her numerous crying scenes: "I felt every moment of it, the realness of the pain."

The busy thespian first encountered children when she gave tuition, among her many other jobs before becoming a model, and then as a volunteer with kids during her NUS days.

"My dream is to set up a cash-cow business to bring in the money and use it to do language courses with kids," she says.

Sunblock Is A Must
"The most important thing I learnt through this show is that I have to use sunblock when filming! Even Ix Shen (her co-star) uses it," she laughs, explaining her tan.

"They were always shining the light directly in my face during the shoots and it was so hot and made me even darker than I already am." Well, dark beauties are more exotic, aren't they?

Was That Her Voice?
"Yes, it was my voice on the show, I'm quite effectively bilingual," clarifies the feisty Celest, even offering to carry out the interview in Mandarin. Ok, we're quite convinced, that won't be necessary.

"I actually love Chinese culture and music very much," she shares, though she gets more of the "you kan tang" (literally translated as "sweet potato" but used to refer to someone who's Americanised) rather than the "must have gotten A1 for Mandarin in school" remark from people.

Modelling must have seemed a breeze compared to the long, breakneck filming hours over the last 2 ½ months. "It was tiring and after shooting, I had to go home and read my scripts for about 4 hours each night because it was in Chinese."

Donning yet another hat for the show, the ex-member of now-defunct pop group, Jungk, also helms the singing front, sweetly tweeting the melancholic main and sub-theme songs.

Talk about having a full plate on your lap. No wonder the over-worked lass fell ill, but thankfully, after filming was over.

That Long, Long Hair
Like Jennifer Aniston, Celest's long locks are the envy of many and have become her trademark feature.

"I didn't intend to keep it this long all the time; I even wanted to cut it short."

Gasp, you mean you weren't scared enough by your hair disaster at your very first modelling assignment?

"Boy, that one was bad! I was just 14 and the stylists at the hair show I was modelling for chopped off my waist-length hair and it had this horrible bowl-shape. I cried my eyes out and even put mascara on the back of my head to cover the bare skin."

But this gutsy adventurer will not say die, claiming: "I want to bleach my hair platinum blond and streak it with bright orange stripes."

Fortunately, she has a sensible image consultant to spare her the agony of another hair fiasco.

Catch You Light Up My Life on Channel 8 from Monday to Thursday at 9 pm.

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