Oon Shu An on why she got into acting, and dealing with depression

Down to earth, creative and genuine – these personality traits are some of the reasons why Oon Shu An is a hit with brands like Chanel, Michael Kors and Estee Lauder (really, we asked some of them).

And it’s not hard to spot those qualities in the 34-year old: Look through her Instagram feed and you’ll see a delightful mix of personal and #sp posts of musings, inspirations and conversations with her 85,000 followers.

Following her debut in Becoming Royston 14 years ago (the then 20-year- old Shu An played the role of Ah Girl), Shu An’s star has steadily been on the rise.

She has appeared in numerous feature films, short films and television shows, and hosts the wildly popular Clicknetwork series Tried and Tested (it’s been running for 180 episodes now).

She has garnered a few Life! Theatre Awards nominations, most notably for #UnicornMoment, her 2014 one-woman show, which she also wrote.

We love that she isn’t shy about sharing her love for autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos (she has a whole library of it on her Instagram page).

The sounds of her chewing, slurping, and crunching away may be relaxing to some, but perhaps, more significantly, she actually uses these popular videos to do good.

During the height of the Covid-19 outbreak, she exclusively featured local F&B businesses, generously tagging them and adding swipe-ups to their delivery pages or menus.

There’s a lot to love about Shu An. Here’s how she came to be this gem.

1. You are an actor, host, influencer…

I act and host, and like most people in this field, I post things on social media. Does that make me an influencer? I don’t know. It isn’t a term that I’ve ever resonated with actually!

2. Do you think of yourself as a role model?

Not at all. I’m just trying to live my life the best I can! I just want to keep evolving, learning, and growing to be the fullest version of myself that I can be.

I want to educate myself, unlearn harmful narratives that I learnt growing up and rewrite them, understand and manage my triggers, deal with my insecurities, heal my traumas, and learn to treat myself with kindness and empathy.

I really want to be able to offer the best of myself to the people in my life, and the community that I am in.

3. Why did you get into acting?

I wanted to live through other people’s lives – I’ve learnt from all the roles that I’ve taken on, all the scripts that I’ve read, and all the discussions I’ve had in the rehearsal room.

I remember when I played Andrea Sarti in Galileo, we learnt about science and religion, and how he was persecuted because he said the earth revolves around the sun. Back then, they believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun and planets revolved around it.

To be able to think about it from a human perspective, that’s what I find exciting about the arts. I guess it’s always been a part of who I am, and so I just say what I feel.

4. How would you describe your fashion style?

I’m actually super simple. It’s usually T-shirt and jeans, maybe with a simple jacket thrown over; tailored pants and a simple top; or suits. I still haven’t gotten over my love of harem pants and boots. And perfume. I love perfume, I feel so naked without it.

5. Do you think things are going the way you’ve always wanted?

I don’t know if I have actually ever wanted what I have now. I never knew that I wanted to be a full-time actor. The important thing to me was working with people to collaborate and create work based on shared values.

It wasn’t so much like, “I want to be a massive celebrity” or “I want people screaming my name”. That was never my goal. It was never my dream to be a Hollywood star. It was always to tell Singapore stories.

6. You had therapy when you needed help. What led you to it?

I was diagnosed with depression in 2015, but was probably dealing with it for a while before that. It was confusing for me because career-wise I was doing well.

I find that quite an interesting observation looking back – that in my head, my career going well meant that it didn’t “make sense” for me to be “sad”. I saw a psychiatrist, but after one or two years, I went off meds.

Then I saw a therapist, but at both points, I didn’t think I needed to see anyone. I think in our culture, people don’t like to talk about this, and often view it as a weakness, like we’re finding excuses for things.

7. How did it work for you?

The funny thing is, more people worry for me now because I now talk about it, so ironically, I have a bigger support system than when I was struggling three years ago – when I was appearing totally fine.

I feel like it’s interesting because I think having to appear fine is not necessarily a good thing. If you, say, broke your leg, would you still be like, “But I managed to run three miles on a broken leg”? Is it strange that this is something we might be proud of, that we might view as strength?

8. What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on a show called The Cheater’s App. I can’t say too much about it, but it’ll be 13 episodes, and it’s about an app that predicts whether or not your partner will cheat on you.

This article was first published in Her World Online.