By Han Wei Chou, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : Singapore actress Jeanette Aw looked a little under the weather while she sat on a horse in an elegant tube bridal gown, during a beach wedding scene for her upcoming drama serial “New Beginnings”.

A very good icebreaker in almost all situations is to talk about the weather, so I decided to go with that when I caught up with Aw on the set earlier this month. I didn’t expect to get a reaction from the usually composed star.

“When we were waiting down there, right at the end [of the beach], waiting for the cue to start moving, our backs were like burning, the sun was so hot and we were not moving, so we [she and co-star Jesseca Liu] were like ‘Okay, we are sun tanning over here’,” said Aw.

“I applied [sun block] already but I think it’s not working,” she said with a frown as she pointed to her slightly red forearms.

Fortunately, that was the last day of shooting for the show and her skin will heal. What stuck with her, however, were the experiences she had when she researched her role in the show: A woman who gave up her studies to help her father run a funeral home and put her siblings through school.

The 30-year-old actress spoke to two funeral directors to learn about their lifestyles and experiences.

“I had this thought ‘Maybe I have to be very sad because I have to deal with death everyday’,” said Aw.

But the reality could not be more different.

The funeral directors have encountered so much death that they have adopted a very nonchalant attitude towards it and sometimes even joked about it, she said.

And their stories and way of life have changed on her views on mortality.

“At the end of the day, when you leave the world, there is nothing to bring along with you. And there is really nothing to feel so sad or feel so scared about because this is something that happens to everyone at some point in time,” said Aw.

She added that she did not need a grand funeral when it is time for her to depart, but would instead prefer to be cremated and have her ashes scattered into the sea. She also did not want her descendants to trouble themselves and pay their respects every Qing Ming festival.

“I thought it [scattering of ashes into the sea] was a very nice way to just end it all, it was very simple,” she said. “I don’t need the future generations to keep going to pray to me, to like pay their respects and to go visit me every Qing Ming. I really don’t need that.

“As long as they are happy in their hearts, I think that is sufficient.”

That Elusive Best Actress Award

No matter how you look at it, it’s way to early for Aw to be having morbid thoughts and thinking about how she’d like to go. She is at the height of her career and looks set to go places.

She had enjoyed enduring popularity since she first joined MediaCorp in 2002 and has picked up five Star Awards Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes Awards to date.

She even got a Best Actress nomination in 2003 for her role as the carefree Mo Jingjing but lost out to veteran actress Chen Liping. And the following year, she picked up another nod for her role as a dedicated social worker in “A Child’s Hope 2″.

Her popularity skyrocketed after she starred in the hit 2009 drama serial “The Little Nyonya”. She was nominated for a Best Actress award for her role in the show, but was again edged out by co-star Joanne Peh.

This year, she is nominated once more for her role as Yao Jianhong in the blockbuster drama “Together”. But will history repeat itself and see her co-star (this time it is Eelyn Kok) named Best Actress instead?

Aw, who mentioned she is happily single at the moment, was not very confident about her chances and paused frequently as she gave her carefully worded reply.

“I don’t know. I just feel that I want to take things in a very easy manner. I think at the end of the day, there are things that you cannot control and the awards are one of them,” said Aw.

“Yao Jianhong is very simple; her ups and downs are gradual… She does have scope but compared to other characters [in "Together"] who are more colourful in that sense, maybe this simple kind of portrayal may not be that outstanding.”

And Aw seemed more concerned with her future roles than whether she is going to win for her past ones.

She described her role in “New Beginnings” as “new material” and “something the viewers have not seen before” but pointed out that her character was still a ‘goody goody’ role that had virtually no flaws. She hopes to be able to play a less perfect character next time round.

“I would like to challenge something different. I mean nobody is happy all the time, even for you and me. I just want something that is very true to life, something that requires me to be not too good sometimes.”

Catch Jeanette Aw in “New Beginnings” when it debuts April 14, 9pm, on Channel 8, and the live telecast of Star Awards 2010 on April 25, 7pm.

This post was tagged with the following: Drama > New Beginnings 红白囍事, Media > Channel News Asia, Misc TV Programs > Star Awards 红星大奖