Carrie Wong once missed a shoot because she snoozed her alarm
The Singapore actress shared about having 100 missed calls, how being late stresses her out, and how she's been learning to take care of her mental health.
The struggle to wake up is very real, especially for local actress Carrie Wong.
As someone who is “not very easily stressed”, the 29-year-old confessed that there is one trigger for her - being late.
She told Yahoo Southeast Asia in an exclusive interview, “When I am late for something, I get very, very easily angry, and I panic. I'll get a lot of negative emotions inside me when I'm running late… When these kinds of emotions start kicking in, that's when you know that you have to breathe.”
Though she doesn’t think she struggles with punctuality, Wong sheepishly admitted to “snoozing a lot” as she likes the feeling of being able to go back to sleep after the alarm rings.
Have there been consequences? Well, the actress has overslept for a shoot before (fortunately, she didn't miss her Met Gala afterparty).
She shared with a laugh, “It’s like alarm rings - okay, snooze. The next moment, [it’s like] ‘Why is the sky so bright?’ Then I jumped out of the bed. Then it’s like ‘Oh my god, it’s 9am. I was supposed to be on set at 8.30am.’
“So you see like 100 missed calls [asking] where are you. The real struggle in life starts there.”
The fix to that problem was simple, as Wong treated the production crew to lunch. The fix to ‘snoozing’, though, took a little more.
Wong said that she sets her alarm to go off earlier so she can ‘snooze’ and get up half an hour before she’s supposed to. This allows her to leave the house 15 minutes earlier to buffer for any unexpected delays in her commute.
Working out makes her feel better
The actress, who mentioned she almost gave up acting when she felt her career stagnate, also shared that she exercises (about four times a week) to manage her stress.
“I need to sweat. So be it my HIIT sessions, my Pilates sessions, my tennis sessions, or even like going to the range and hitting some golf balls, [these] make me feel better,” she said.
“Now in this period, I’m not filming a drama so I spend most of my time doing all these things and I feel very wholesome. These are the things that make me feel relaxed, and I can think better and focus better.”
While she may not be hiking, like other celebrities do, she revealed that fellow actor James Seah invited her to a workout session and she intends to join his group.
“I love cardio,” she smiled. “Cardio is my favourite.”
Listening and sharing are essential for mental health
Aside from keeping stress away through fitness, Wong has learnt to listen more to her friends as she realised how much it can mean to them.
She added, “I also feel sharing is very important. I used to bottle things up a lot. Whenever I had negative emotions, I don’t share with people. I just indulge in my own little bubble, in my own room.
And I realised it wasn’t very healthy for me. Bottling things up will just end up in more negative emotions. Sometimes I don’t even know how to deal with it, then people will think ‘Why are you showing attitude? Why are you so angry?'Carrie Wong
While Wong may deny doing so when her emotions act up, ultimately, she said that “people see you very clearly”.
So, she’s learnt to open her heart and talk to the people she trusts and loves by letting them know when she isn’t feeling good. For her, it’s a way to release the emotions and reset herself.
“I encourage everybody out there who are struggling with negative emotions to find someone to talk to because I feel that it is a way out. After you share things, you’ll realise that it’s not shameful to feel insecure, it’s not shameful to feel not confident, it’s not shameful to feel not beautiful.”
That said, Wong knows it’s tough to take that first step to open up about the bad things as she didn’t used to do that. So for her, she’s taking “baby steps”.
The turning point came when she had a big fight with her friend and the latter called her out for not sharing her feelings because no one knows what she is thinking or feeling.
Wong said, “It was a pretty big fight. After that, I cried and cried and cried. Then I went back and thought, ‘Maybe it’s true that I should start telling my friends how I actually feel.’
“Because sometimes, people expect too much. People expect that those you love [will] know you. People expect you to know that they’re feeling unhappy and you should give them comfort. But it’s not like that.”
Wong emphasised the importance of communicating how you feel and what you want because if you expect someone to do something and they don’t, it can create more negative emotions.
“I think it’s just about taking a moment to talk to yourself - what do you want from people? Then if you don’t tell them, how are they supposed to know? This is also a part of growing up.”
“Learn to apologise to the people you love,” she added. “Don’t take anything for granted; because, especially the people close to you, they take in most of your bulls***.”
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