While she loves comedies and had an enjoyable time on set, she admitted that filming wasn’t easy.
Due to the hectic filming schedule, pulling all-nighters in Hong Kong was very common, and Celest would survive on an hour, sometimes 30 minutes, of sleep each day. This went on for three months.
“We had to film 18 scenes in a day [Ed: the norm in Singapore is less than 10 scenes] and were constantly in a rush… And after a long day’s work, I couldn’t go to sleep ‘cos I had to learn my lines for the next day,” Celest lamented.
It didn’t help that Cantonese was not one of her main languages and she struggled to remember her lines.
“I just kept memorising my script. I would recite my lines in the shower. Even when I was doing my hair and make-up [on set], I was still at it,” she recalled.
Despite the lack of sleep, Celest was full of energy on set. She would catch some shut-eye between scenes and developed the ability to sleep anywhere.
“If there was a scene that didn’t require me, I would immediately find a chair and sleep. I could sleep anywhere, even on the floor. It was good training. After that I could sleep anywhere and could doze off immediately,” she said.
Celest admitted that there were many times when she felt like giving up, but it was not an option.