A FORMER national golfer and beauty queen turned host, singer and actress, Natalia Ng is currently “haunting” cinema-goers as a vicious snake spirit.
The 30-year-old artiste is starring in the Singapore-Malaysia horror comedy 23:59: The Haunting Hour.
The youngest of three siblings from Petaling Jaya, Ng first found fame as a teen golfer representing Kuala Lumpur in Sukan Malaysia 2004 and Selangor four years later (where she won a gold medal).
A business and finance graduate from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, Ng emerged first runner-up in Miss Malaysia Universe 2013, and won her second pageant Face Of Malaysia in 2016.
Having appeared in various print and TV advertisements for brands such as Dior and SKII over the last seven years, Ng spent a year hosting Fox Sports Asia in 2015, besides serving as a brand ambassador for Adidas Golf.
The beauty, who is of Indonesian Chinese and Dutch ancestry on her mother’s side, released her first single Fly last year and also had cameo roles in the films Crazy Rich Asians, Four and Blackhat.
Ng was active in theatre and modern dance as a teenager, which gradually fuelled her passion for the performing arts.
Fluent in Malay, English and Cantonese, she mastered basic Mandarin over 10 months in Shanghai last year, while preparing to record her single.
Below is a recent interview with Ng:
WHAT MADE YOU VENTURE INTO ACTING?
I’ve always had a big interest in acting since I was a pre-teen. I took drama classes in university and did a lot of plays in school.
I’ve always liked the performing arts, but my father also got me interested in golf as he is a golfing coach. I learnt the game at 10, but by the time I was 20, I decided to focus solely on the arts.
Initially I wanted to star in plays and musicals but I soon realised that I preferred the big screen.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR BIG BREAK IN ACTING?
I did a couple of Hollywood productions but they were very minor roles. Then in 2015, I appeared in Blackhat with Chris Hemsworth and Wang Leehom, directed by Michael Mann.
And last year, I was cast in Crazy Rich Asians as one of the best friends of Constance Wu and Henry Golding. It was a fun experience to see really big sets and how they work.
Meeting Leehom and Hemsworth was a dream come true. Leehom is one of my favourite singers and composers, while Hemsworth is awesome as Thor.
They were real gentlemen and we chatted briefly on the set of Blackhat in Lumut, Perak.
TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR ROLE IN 23:59.
I play a vengeful snake spirit who best represents the English proverb “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. She has great powers, like turning into a human to catch her prey.
Her back story is rather tragic. The army mistreated her, she lost her loved ones and, as a result, became angry and vengeful.
Thus, every time Singapore National Servicemen train at the camp where she lives, she is provoked into attacking and devouring them.
I like it that my character is complex and what she does is out of love. She may be evil, but she is avenging the deaths of her family members. I do feel sorry for her.
HOW DID IT FEEL STARRING IN YOUR FIRST MAJOR FILM ROLE?
I’m delighted to have been cast as a memorable, eerie character. It has kick-started my film career with a bang. It has been an exciting experience all the way. I’ll always remember this film, even though it is not a large, Hollywood production.
Nevertheless, it was a pretty big set. We travelled back and forth between KL and Singapore for over a month.
Most of the time, filming took place at a National Service camp in the Klang Valley.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR ROLE?
I studied three characters from different films. The first was from the Chinese film The Legend Of The White Snake about a snake fairy who seduces men. This character is similar to my 23:59 snake spirit, except that the snake spirit is a green python, not a white snake.
The second character was Mystique from X-Men, because her make-up was very similar to mine. The crew made a latex body suit for me almost like the one donned by Mystique.
It took a painstaking 10 hours to get the costume on — it had seven layers of latex and each layer took 10 minutes to dry.
I wore it for five days, and it took an hour to remove.
The last character was The Enchantress, whom I referenced for her evil demeanour and expressive eyes. The producers of 23:59 cast me as the snake based on the SKII advertisement where I made some sultry dance moves.
WHAT WERE YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS ON SET?
That would be my very first kissing scenes. In the first scene, I was fully in my snake suit. I had a latex mask that was moulded after my face and it covered my lips as well.
When I met my co-star, Singaporean actor Richie Koh, he said, “Oh my God, I have to kiss this!” It was rather interesting to see his reaction.
The other person I had to kiss was Mark Lee, a major name in the Singaporean film industry and it was a profound moment for me to film the scene.
He was very professional and he really guided me through it. We did it so quickly and we didn’t have to do many takes.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THE SET?
I was not given any lines. I had to act completely through body language. Initially, I thought it was easy not having to memorise lines. But when you appear that many times and you don’t have lines to help you tell the story, you need to really know how to act with your whole body. It was so much more difficult than I expected.
DID ANYTHING SPOOKY HAPPEN ON SET?
I was actually scared that that would happen because we filmed from 8pm to 6am in the middle of a jungle. But when I was there, it was all right because there were so many people and it just seemed like a regular set. Thankfully, nothing happened to me. Maybe it’s because I was the ghost!
WHAT KIND OF FILMS WOULD YOU LIKE TO STAR IN NEXT?
I want to explore different types of characters. If I had a choice I would love to play the female lead in a romantic comedy or a tough cookie in an action film.
ARE THERE ANY DIRECTORS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH?
My dream directors are James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. I really admire them for their vision and the amazing films they have come up with.
Locally, I admire Chiu Keng Guan who gave us the brilliant The Journey and Ola Bola and Teng Bee who gave us Rise Of The Legend. I would love to act in English and Malay films or TV dramas.
WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018?
I’ve just filmed the music video for my second single Waiting For You and it will be out by the end of the month. It’s produced by Aaron Huang, but the lyrics are mine. I’ve been writing songs since I was 12.
Waiting For You is a sad song about despair, and it’s quite personal — reflecting the end of a relationship last year, and the death of a childhood friend during the same period.
The video directed by Vernon Ong is pretty dark. It is about a female spirit trying to communicate with an ex-boyfriend who is alive. The whole song is from the perspective of the deceased. I play the female spirit, while Japanese actor Takayuki Suzuki plays the ex-lover.
I'm also working on a third single Don't You Dare which is produced by Percy Pang. It will be ready by year end.