Filming light-hearted romance dramas might not necessarily be better than doing the heart-breaking ones.

This was what Taiwanese actress Gingle Wang told AsiaOne recently, despite her going through the wringer for the upcoming Netflix tearjerker drama More Than Blue: The Series.

A year ago, the 23-year-old told the media that her eyes got too dry from all the crying. After having to repeatedly remove and wear her contact lens, she suffered abrasions on her corneas.

In our virtual interview with Gingle and her co-star Fandy Fan, we found out that she was also slapped many times for a scene.

"I've always felt very fortunate that I hadn't been slapped before onscreen in the five years since entering showbiz. But when I saw that scene on the script, I thought to myself, 'This day has finally arrived'," Gingle said, smiling in recollection.

In said scene situated in a police station, Gingle's character Cream has a heated exchange with her aunt (played by director-actress Vera Chen) who then slapped her over and over.

Gingle elaborated: "Vera is very professional. Before we began filming, she told me how hard she would slap me. But eventually during the take, she got carried away by her emotions and the slaps turned out differently from how she mentioned earlier. I still want to thank her though, she's an extremely professional actress. She took care of me when she could and she also didn't hold back when she had to be vicious."

Because of the different angles required, she was slapped more than 10 times for that scene. Her cheek was red afterwards but she was none the worse for it.

"It sounded really loud on set," Fandy, 27, chirped.

More Than Blue: The Series is based on the 2018 Taiwanese film of the same name, which broke box office records in Taiwan that year. The movie also holds the record for the highest-grossing Taiwanese film of 2018 in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Apart from a more intricate storyline that gives greater context to the characters, the drama plot mostly parallels what happens in the movie.

The 10-episode series tells the story of star-crossed lovers K and Cream from their college years. Though they have feelings for each other, he never confessed his feelings to her, as he's aware that his hereditary terminal illness would strike any moment. Hence before he dies, he tries to find a companion for her.

During the interview, Gingle said it wasn't difficult filming the many crying scenes; what was tough were the long duration which left them exhausted. For instance, there was a day Fandy wept from morning to night, while she had emotional scenes three days in a row.

Fandy also had another challenge — to look good while crying.

"In the early stages of filming the drama, my nose would run whenever I wept and the director told me to do it without the snot. There was some difficulty but it was possible. Later on, I could control myself, like, I would breathe and hold them in," he laughed.

More Than Blue: The Series, co-produced by mm2 Entertainment Taiwan, also stars Wang Bo-chieh, Ivy Shao, Eleven Yao and Figaro Tseng, and will premiere on Netflix tomorrow (Oct 22).

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com

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