“I’m very happy right now,” quipped Jesseca Liu when she broke the news about her new relationship status at the press conference for her upcoming Channel 8 drama series, The Queen.
Known to be a fiercely-guarded and private person, the actress was unusually forthcoming about her new romance, during her interview with Toggle yesterday.
“[I’m] currently seeing someone and we’re in a stable relationship. [I] hope it will eventually lead to marriage,” she honestly replied, when Jesseca was asked if she was seeing anyone currently.
According to a local tabloid, the actress, who will soon be turning 37 years old on February 13, is rumoured to be in a relationship with actor-host Jeremy Chan. However, the actress declined to reveal if her other half is someone from show business or divulge any details about his identity. Similarly, she also drew the line at sharing about how they first got to know each other.
“I hope to keep these details a secret,” she explained, “I only wish to reveal that I’m in a stable relationship currently and I seek everyone’s understanding on this.”
In her previous interview with Toggle last September at the press conference for drama Hand in Hand, the statuesque actress who stands at 173cm shared that she was “actively looking” for potential suitors and even said “height is not an issue” for her when it comes to love.
In a separate phone interview with Jeremy, the mystery man in question, the actor-host clarified about online reports which stated that he admitted to his relationship with Jesseca. "I absolutely did not say it (that he is dating Jesseca). But it is true that I have been in a stable relationship for the past year."
"I'd like to keep her identity a secret," he replied, when asked if his girlfriend is a showbiz figure
He's no stranger to the cast of The Queen too and had visited the drama's set during its filming period, said Jeremy. The host later added -- after a long pause -- that he was there to visit Vivian and explained: "She called me to buy dou hua (beancurd) for everyone and send it to them."
When asked about the sudden developments in the romance department with her mystery man, Jesseca acknowledged that she had only thought about sharing the news recently. The Langkawi-born beauty shared that some of her co-stars are in the know about her new relationship but she has no plans on letting both parties meet each other.
“We both hope to keep a low profile and intend to go public only when we announce news about our marriage,” she added.
And although Jesseca’s in a stable relationship right now, she did not set for herself a due by date to get married. “I’m more or less settled at the moment – I don’t think I need to set any goals as to when I should [settle down].”
Jesseca, who will be going back to her hometown for the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays, added that she doesn’t have plans to bring the guy home yet.
The ad-hoc scriptwriter who penned web series Who Killed The Lead and two episodes of Let It Go for WaWa Productions shared that she intends to cut back on drama projects this year, after a jam-packed 2015, to focus on script-writing and is in the midst of researching and collecting materials for a short film project this year.
Of flying kicks and “fighting chopsticks” on set
A drama about women for womenfolk, Ch8’s The Queen is about five ladies banding together to form an underground support club which sees them morph into masked crusaders at night to exact revenge and punish heartless cads and cheating scums.
With the exception of Apple Hong, all four actresses, Jesseca, Priscelia Chan, Vivian Lai and Jayley Woo, will kick butt and show off their fighting chops in the upcoming drama series. To prepare for the mentally and physically challenging scenes, they were sent to attend a three-day training programme which, according to Vivian who plays a martial arts expert Cheng Jing, left them “dog-tired”.
Once, they even had two back-to-back days of filming a series of action scenes and by the end of it, they were covered in bruises and had medicinal plasters all over their bodies. “After filming these action scenes I’m like a deflated balloon. I think my husband and daughters had a very peaceful time at home during the past three months because I had no energy to nag or scold them,” she chortled.
One action scene she found particularly memorable during the drama’s shoot was when she had to fight her “boss” (Guan Xin played by Jesseca) near a river bank.
“Because we’re both bony and thin, it looked like a pair of chopsticks fighting each other!” she recalled with a laugh. The two had to rely heavily on using their arms to fend off flying kicks and block incoming punches so much so that they sustained a line of blue-and-black marks along their forearms.
Thankfully no serious injuries were sustained during filming apart from minor scrapes and bruises.
“This is like a new career high for me,” laughed Vivian, who is a self-declared klutz. “That’s why I liken us as the 18 Shaolin Golden Boys after filming this drama.”
The Queen premieres Feb 18, Thursday, 9pm on Channel 8; it will be available on Toggle-It-First on Feb 11.