No one would dare lay a finger on Mediacorp’s Ah Jie Zoe Tay now — but the same can’t be said for when she was a rookie in showbiz.
In the debut episode of the Mediacorp talk show The Zoe and Liang Show, Zoe spoke about the hardships of being an actor and also revealed that she was bullied as a newbie actress.
“At work, co-workers ostracised me,” the 55-year-old actress said, to the shock of co-host Guo Liang and their celebrity guest Ben Yeo. “They just wouldn’t talk to me. The group of women ganged up and totally isolated me.”
Recalling an anecdote, Zoe said that there was one time where she entered the makeup room only to be given the cold shoulder as these women “refused to talk to her”.
Feigning outrage, Guo Liang, 54, asked: “Who were the people who didn’t talk to you back then?”
Zoe shook her head and said that she couldn’t reveal their names, to which Ben queried if these people are still in showbiz.
“Yes, some of them are still around,” Zoe revealed. Adding further details, she also shared: “They just ignored me and refused to acknowledge me — I didn’t feel part of the group.
“Yet we had many group scenes together, but after the scenes, I was ostracised… I was marginalised and had to eat alone.”
Hearing this, Ben, 44, admitted that he felt this was something “unavoidable”.
Providing perspective, he explained: “Those before you might have slogged for years and didn’t attain your showbiz status.”
Zoe, who shot to a high “showbiz status” after her win in the 1988 Star Search, suddenly entered the industry with her name on the lips of many members of the public.
It was natural, then, that people questioned why she could “skip steps”, Zoe weighed in.
“It’s only human to feel that way, that’s why I gradually felt frustrated while working — I wanted to perform, but it’s not like you can just pick up performing at the snap of your fingers. There are many difficulties involved,” she said.
The dialogue then shifted to Ben as Guo Liang asked if he had been treated similarly in the past. Ben, an actor and TV host, was talent-scouted and won a reality competition in 2001.
Shaking his head, Ben denied that any ostracism had occurred.
“It’s because I probably look blur to others, therefore I’m no threat,” Ben deadpanned.
‘It was embarrassing’
While Guo Liang admitted that there was very little competition among TV hosts due to the lack of talents in the field, ostracism did exist elsewhere.
“(Quan) Yi Fong and I often say we’re excluded by the drama team. Once, we were all rehearsing outdoors, after which it was mealtime. [A staff member] attended to all the celebrities except Yi Fong and I,” Guo Liang recounted, calling it an “embarrassing” experience.
Yi Fong, 48, is also a host alongside Guo Liang and Ben.
Guo Liang added: “He ignored us completely, and later Yi Fong and I went searching and found a group of dancers sitting on the floor with their meal boxes. We asked them where they got it.
“It was okay, we didn’t really feel aggrieved… Yi Fong and I encouraged each other and said, ‘It’s okay, ultimately it’ll be the both of us who [remain on stage the longest]!”
Bursting into laughter, Zoe agreed: “Right! Just like at the Star Awards… You’re the one talking on stage all night!”