She’s usually seen as a paradigm of primness and poise when out in public, but when she’s with friends, Jesseca Liu throws that all out the window.
In an interview with AsiaOne for the upcoming Mediacorp drama Soul Detective, the actress revealed that she tends to get a little crazy when among her close friends.
Sharing an anecdote of the craziest thing she’s done with friends, Jesseca Liu, 43, said: “We went to a hot spring in Taiwan together and soaked completely in the nude!”
In Soul Detective, she plays Lau Shu Qin, a psychic who can communicate with ghosts. She brings up her nephew Peh Ye (James Seah) after his mother’s death but he has no interest in superstition.
Ironically, Peh Ye is possessed by Ang Zhe Ren (Bryan Wong), a policeman of the netherworld tasked with recovering evil spirits that have escaped.
Shu Qin mediates between spirits and the living, all while holding on to the belief that even the scariest ghost could be the loved one of someone still living in this world. With that thought, she helps to fulfil the spirits’ final wishes and pass on their unspoken messages.
Aside from her skills in the occult, Shu Qin also stands out from the crowd with how gossipy and “crazy” she is — the latter which Jesseca Liu found herself relating.
“Once they’re familiar with me, people call me crazy,” Jesseca Liu said. “We’ll talk and have a lot of fun together — but this happens only with friends that I’m closer to.”
Elaborating on the hot spring visit she had with her girlfriends, Jesseca explained that she had gone to one in Japan on her own before. But with close friends around, it was a whole different ball game.
“The four of us are very close friends, so we didn’t think much of it at first, but when we stepped in we started having second thoughts.
“Once we went into the hot spring, we were suddenly closer than we ever were before.”
They had never really seen each other in the nude prior to this, so their shared moment in the hot spring left them with a deeper impression and understanding of each other, Jesseca said.
She also explained: “Every inch of our body was visible to one another, so there was nothing more to hide.”
‘Be crazier, be crazier!’
But that “crazy” side of her is usually reserved for her close friends and she didn’t expect to have to portray it in Soul Detective.
Recounting how the director had to egg her on, she said: “When I first started acting for the series, it was quite difficult.
“The director kept saying, ‘Be crazier, be crazier! Raise the energy level up even more!'”
As she followed the director’s instructions, she suddenly felt that it was similar to how she behaves outside of the set.
She said: “It gradually got more similar to how I behave when I’m around my friends — I’ve just never really put that into my acting before.”
But it wasn’t an unpleasant experience for her, she added.
“It was quite fun, the character I played is definitely one that’s more lively and active… But what I enjoy are scenes where I get to move around a lot and fight, so I hope that I can act in shows with that in the future before my body and bones become weak.”
Soul Detective also stars Carrie Wong, Cavin Soh, Nick Teo and Guo Liang. It premieres Nov 21 at 9pm on Channel 8 and will also be available on demand for free on meWATCH.