'Everyone called me Tofu': Carrie Wong explains new nickname, feels 'proud' for performing 70% of stunts in new drama

"Hey Tofu, time for filming!"

This was the nickname that Carrie Wong earned while filming Mediacorp's new drama series Shero, where she plays the owner of a female bodyguard company with the titular name.

Speaking to AsiaOne at a press conference yesterday (May 30) afternoon, the 29-year-old shared that because of her multiple action scenes in the drama, she had bruises all over her body.

She shared: "I think I am someone who gets bruises very easily. In addition, because I am also very fair, it is very easy to see my bruises and scratches.

"Throughout filming, with all the punching and kicking scenes, as long as the contact was too hard, I would get bruises. Sometimes if it was in a visible area, I would have to conceal it. It was very memorable."

She added that she even pulled her upper right thigh muscles while filming a fight scene. As there are multiple scenes to film in the same week and she did not want to delay filming, she endured the pain.

She added: "I didn't get MC because the scenes were major ones. I think it was really tough during that period but I had to bite the bullet and just endure it."

Carrie reassured us that she is alright now.

Luckily, the production team was prepared for medical emergencies and had prepared first-aid kits onset.

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"I was not the only one who got injured during filming, there were others, so there were a lot of first-aid items on set. The staff taped my leg tightly to prevent it from getting worse, so that I could still function," Carrie added.

For all of that, the cast nicknamed her "Tofu".

Carrie said: "During filming, everyone called me that because I fell very easily and got injured very easily."

She added: "They don't say, 'Carrie, go for lunch'. They were like, 'Tofu, time for lunch', 'Tofu, time for shoot', 'Tofu, come quickly'."

In Shero, Joanne Peh plays Zhang Yinchen, a freelance photographer who switched careers to become a bodyguard after her sister Yinxi (Carrie) goes missing in action during a mission. Yue Ruixiang (Romeo Tan), the CEO of a ship building company who was collaborating on a project with Yinxi before she disappears, works together with Yinchen to find out the truth, while their partnership slowly blossoms into something more.

Carrie said that Shero is the first drama in which she performed most of the stunt scenes herself. She added that without any martial arts foundation, filming them were challenging for her at first.

Carrie, who eventually did 70 per cent of her own action scenes in Shero, said: "We actually learnt the fighting scenes with taekwondo and muay thai moves through the process of filming.

"It was pretty tough for me because I think that I am the only one among the actresses with no martial arts foundation… yet I am supposed to be the best of them because I am the boss of the company.

"It just added extra pressure and stress on me. I had to work extra hard."

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With hard work comes great rewards. Through practice and training, she was able to throw a decent punch and do a proper turning kick towards the end of filming.

Carrie made an Instagram post on March 19, which shows her doing a fight scene involving a complex stunt move. The post has since received more than 14,000 'likes', including from actors Chew Chor Meng, Jesseca Liu and fellow co-stars Romeo Tan and Tay Ying.

She shared with us that she actually learnt the move in 10 minutes.

She explained: "That particular action is more about the flow and not something that you have to train for many, many years to achieve… I had to understand how to place my body and how to learn to release and let go. Then, I just had to trust the stuntman."

"I posted [the clips] because I was proud of myself. I never expected myself to accomplish something like this in my life. When I saw the trailer, I thought the scene came out very nicely and I am very happy."

Carrie also said that because of the training and experience that she had while filming the drama, she became interested in martial arts and would love to go back to have more training.

"I am very happy with [how the scenes turn out] and cannot wait to film my next action show."

Shero premieres June 12 and airs on weekdays at 9pm on Channel 8. It will also be available on demand for free on meWATCH from the same day.

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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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