'Crazy Rich Asians' reignited my passion for acting: Fiona Xie
Being a part of Crazy Rich Asians reignited her “spark and passion” for acting, after a period when she felt she could not deal with rejection again and had become a “wilted flower”, said Singaporean actress Fiona Xie.
In an Instagram post on Thursday (23 August), the 36-year-old revealed that she was “bawling” while watching acclaimed 2016 musical La La Land as it struck too close to home.
“When Emma Stone was so afraid to even go for her audition coz she didn’t want to feel that rejection yet again. That’s the life of an actor…Being worn down by doing show after show and never finding that true joy with a project that matters, with a team that cares,” she said.
Xie, who plays Hong Kong starlet and gold digger Kitty Pong in Crazy Rich Asians, also paid tribute to the “amazing leadership” of director Jon M. Chu. “Thank you… for believing in me and for that validation. I’ve almost forgotten what it means to be an actor, a simple responsibility of bringing audiences joy… For watering this wilted flower, for having such faith.”
In response, Chu commented, “Love love love u. We got more work to do.”
A post shared by -fiona xie- *KITTY PONG* (@xplacidacidx) on Aug 22, 2018 at 7:02pm PDT
Chu told Channel NewsAsia on Thursday that Xie’s character would play a bigger role in the movie’s sequel. “We needed to hire somebody who can really act, because in time she becomes much more significant,” he said.
Xie, a former model, shot to fame in the Channel 8 sitcom My Genie in 2001 and thereafter became one of broadcaster Mediacorp’s most popular artistes. She is perhaps best known for a scene in the 2004 Channel 8 drama The Champion, where she ran down Orchard Road wearing only a bikini alongside fellow actresses Jeanette Aw, Felicia Chin and Joyce Chao.
Xie retired from acting in 2009 and immersed herself in the art world as a curator in Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo.
In 2016, she returned to acting with the Channel 5 drama Left Behind, in which she played a psychiatrist.
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