We chat with the stars at StarHub's Night of Stars entertainment gala

SINGAPORE – What a star-studded night, indeed.

The StarHub Night of Stars yesterday (24 Nov) was back for another year and another glitzy and high-profile line-up of celebrities from all around Asia.

Celebrities who graced the awards ceremony included South Korea’s Kim Jae Wook, Park Min Young, Sung Hoon, boyband AB6IX, Hong Kong’s Kenneth Ma, Ali Lee, Natalie Tong, Fred Cheung, and Nancy Sit, as well as Taiwan’s James Wen and Yoga Lin.

Throngs of fans turned up at the green carpet event (green for StarHub, get it?) held at the Digital Light Canvas at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands to see their idols in person.

Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore chatted with Kim Jae Wook and Park Min Young from the K-drama Her Private Life, Natalie Tong from TVB and the boys from K-pop group AB6IX before the awards ceremony.

The cool Kim Jae Wook professes that he is more interesting and fun than people think

The leads of South Korean romantic comedy Her Private Life won big at the StarHub Night of Stars 2019, with Kim Jae Wook and Park Min Young clinching Best Male Asian Star and Female Asian Star awards respectively.

Her Private Life left fans swooning over the sizzling chemistry that Kim, with his chiselled good looks, had with co-star Park, and they rooted for them to date in real life. Naturally, everyone wanted to know what Kim’s first impression of the beautiful and graceful Park was.

“As expected of what I imagined her to be, she’s smart, acts well and I had fun acting with her,” said Kim.

This is the 37-year-old actor’s first lead role, where he played the character Ryan Gold, an art director and standoffish artist who falls in love with Park’s fansite manager character.

He once said that he was not ready to take on lead roles, so what made him decide to take on one for Her Private Life?

The reason he was not ready to take on lead roles was because it was back when he was in his 20s and he felt that he didn’t have enough experience as he didn’t actually learn acting from school. All the experience he gained was from his acting projects. But this time round, he felt that he had a lot more confidence to take on the lead role for the drama.

When asked what the one thing people do not know about him is, Kim with his cool demeanour said, “I am more interesting and fun than most people think I am.”

Romcom Queen Park Min Young would love to play nasty or mentally unstable character next

Park Min Young has had fantastic on-screen chemistry with her male co-stars, such as with Ji Chang Wook in Healer, Park Seo Joon in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? and the most recent Her Private Life which she starred in with Kim.

She plays a fansite manager in Her Private Life. Is she a fangirl of anyone in real life?

“I have never fangirled anyone in particular. But for this role, I gained inspiration from my fans and I imagined how my fans would typically react, in order to act my role,” said the 33-year-old actress, who also goes by the English name, Rachel.

She made adorable facial expressions and flashed her sweet smile throughout the 15-min interview. Little wonder she is known as a “goddess beauty” in South Korea.

After acting in a few romantic comedies, it is only natural that as an actress, she would want to explore different roles and she expressed that she would love to play a mean person or someone who is “out of her mind” in her future projects.

Park also divulged the local delicacy that she wants to try. “I’m so excited to eat chili crab. I have already made a reservation at a restaurant after the awards ceremony,” said Park in English.

She is currently filming a new drama which would wrap in March and her latest drama with Seo Kang Joon, I’ll Go to You When the Weather Is Nice is set to be released in February.

Natalie Tong on her chances for Best Actress award

TVB Hong Kong’s Natalie Tong has a lot of praise for co-star Vincent Wong in The Man Who Makes Troubles, saying that he knows her very well as a co-star and did not take offence at the cold treatment she reportedly gave him on set in order to immerse herself fully in the role.

“We have very good rapport, but if I wanted to portray the distant relationship it is going to be difficult so I thought to myself that I am going to ignore him and not talk to him,” said the 38-year-old actress, who has been a familiar face on TVB channel for the last 19 years or so.

For The Man Who Makes Troubles, they hated each other in the beginning of the drama. She added that everyone should watch the drama because Wong is “tall and handsome”.

Does she have confidence that Wong and herself would win the TVB Best Actor and Best Actress awards again? They last won at the TVB Anniversary Awards 2017.

“I have a lot of confidence in Vincent Wong because he is a dedicated actor but I’m rooting for Kenneth Ma also,” she laughed.

She has more confidence in her doctor role in Big White Duel because she studied the role very carefully and approached the acting in a different way from how she usually does. She received the script very early so she did her homework where she familiarised herself with the character’s past before she became a doctor and the divorce with Kenneth Ma’s character which was not shown in the drama. She felt that it helped her portrayed her role better because she spent time understanding the past and feelings of the character.

Natalie Tong and Kenneth Ma won the Best TVB Female Artiste and Best TVB Male Artiste respectively at StarHub Night of Stars 2019.

How AB6IX plans to stand out as a K-pop group

The audience might be more familiar with K-pop group Wanna One, but after they disbanded at the end of 2018, members went their separate ways. Lee Dae Hwi and Park Woo Jin formed a new group called AB6IX with MXM’s Lim Young Min and Kim Dong Hyun and former YG Entertainment trainee Jeon Woong.

Woo Jin was not present for the event because he is currently nursing an injury and will be absent from activities at this point of time (much to the disappointment of fans).

With so many cookie-cutter boy bands debuting in the same year such as TXT, ONEUS, Cherry Bullet and VERIVERY, how does AB6IX think they will stand out from the rest of the boybands today?

“We make our own songs and we participate in the album so I think that is our major difference from the other groups,” said Dae Hwi, who is the songwriting genius of the group.

The meaning behind their latest song, “Blind for Love”, is about a kid who is blind in love. It is to signify the love they have for their fans.

On what projects fans can expect in 2020, Dae Hwi said, “A world tour next year and a new album.”

We can hear ABNEW (AB6IX’s fanclub name) screaming in anticipation.

The AB6IX members performed their latest song “Blind for Love” at the awards show which saw them taking home the Rising Star award.

Watch the StarHub Night of Stars 2019 Green Carpet event here:

StarHub TV viewers can catch the premiere of StarHub Night of Stars on Hub E City (StarHub Channel 111/825) on 8 December 2019, 7pm. Night of Stars will also be available on the StarHub Go streaming app, under the Go Local reel, for free to all in Singapore, from 8 December 2019, 9.30pm.