Singapore actress Carrie Wong couldn’t sleep after 3am call about starring opposite Lee Joon-gi in ‘Kidnap Game’

SINGAPORE, Oct 19 — When Carrie Wong first heard she would be starring alongside South Korean actor Lee Joon-gi in the new international drama thriller Kidnap Game, sleep became the last thing on her mind.

The 32-year-old local actress told AsiaOne recently that she was in London when her manager called her at around 3am to share the news.

“I was already having trouble sleeping because of the time difference,” Carrie recalled with a laugh. “Then my manager called... and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m so excited!’ then I couldn’t sleep already.”

While details about the project and the script were not yet finalised at the time, she said she was immediately drawn to the thriller concept.

“Being part of (a thriller series) is something I’ve never thought of before, but it was very exciting,” she said.

Kidnap Game is a suspense thriller series that centres around seven simultaneous kidnappings across Asia, with the victims’ families becoming entangled in a deadly game. Each character is assigned a vastly different mission in a scheme designed to claim six lives, leaving only one survivor.

Carrie plays cheerful flight attendant Janice whose fiance, played by local actor Herman Keh, is kidnapped. Meanwhile, Joon-gi, 44, plays genius surgeon Han Ki-joo, whose visually impaired daughter is kidnapped.

The series also stars Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi as elite detective Toshiro Niide, Taiwanese actress Alice Ko as influencer housewife Christina, Filipino actor Joel Torre as taxi driver Miguel, Thai actress Praew Narupornkamol Chaisang as nightclub hostess Ayun, and Stanley Yau – a member of Hong Kong’s popular boy group Mirror – as multinational corporate lawyer Andy.

It is produced by Hong Kong-based MakerVille, in collaboration with South Korean production company SimStory and Japan’s Fuji Television, and was also filmed in Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Manila and Okinawa.

On whether she needed convincing to join the series, Carrie candidly admitted that she didn’t even need to see the script.

“I’ll definitely do it because of course I want to work with Joon-gi and Kentaro,” she laughed, adding that the opportunity to be part of a regional production was another major draw.

She was also especially intrigued by the show’s premise.

While most thriller series such as Squid Game and Alice in Borderland see the characters compete for their own survival, Kidnap Game is about fighting to save your loved ones, she explained.

“I’ve never seen this kind of concept before. Usually when you take part in a survival game, if you lose, you die. But this one is very different. I think this is worse,” she said. “I just feel like this is very brutal.”

Initial impression of Joon-gi

Carrie filmed all her scenes in Singapore and Joon-gi was the only cast member whom she worked with in person during production.

Although there were scenes featuring her and some cast members, Carrie never got the chance to film with them in person.

Carrie and Joon-gi were spotted filming together near Merlion Park and at the Bayfront area in November last year.

The latter was also spotted shooting solo scenes at Joo Chiat and previously shared an Instagram post featuring photos and videos of himself viewing Christmas decorations at Orchard Road and jogging from Clarke Quay to Marina Bay.

Despite her excitement about working with Joon-gi, Carrie admitted that her initial impression of the Korean star came from his role in the 2016 historical K-drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, where he stars as fourth prince Wang So.

She described his character as “so stern and so scary”, which shaped her first impression of him. However, that image quickly disappeared once they began filming.

She revealed that Joon-gi’s actual personality is “a complete contrast”, describing him as very cheerful, bubbly and extroverted.

Beyond his warm personality, Carrie was also thoroughly impressed by his language skills, revealing that he spoke fluent Japanese on set despite having a translator.

On how the two of them built their chemistry and rapport on set, Carrie noted that there was little pressure to develop their relationship as their characters are strangers from different regions of the world forced into the same situation.

She added that they would simply go with the flow on set and that everything was open for discussion.

Because of the story’s intense plot and heavy theme, most of their off-camera moments were spent unwinding.

“There’s nothing happy about the entire series,” Carrie quipped. “Other than some happy flashback scenes, it’s quite tiring.”

And while she knows some Korean and was able to communicate a little with Joon-gi in it, she couldn’t go into anything deeper without help.

“Everything I needed to communicate on set was too difficult for me to express in Korean,” she said.

The two would instead spend their downtime resting and having casual conversations between takes.

Carrie even attempted to teach Joon-gi the meanings of some Singlish words such as lah, leh, and lor, which she quickly realised were “very difficult to explain”.

Meeting the rest of the cast

Carrie recently attended the drama’s premiere in Tokyo, where she finally had the chance to meet the rest of the international cast.

She admitted that she felt a sense of familiarity seeing Alice in particular: “When everyone around you is speaking Japanese or Korean, it’s nice having someone you can speak Chinese with.”

She added that one of the most amusing parts of the premiere was watching translators juggle multiple languages throughout the press conference.

She said: “I’ve never seen translators so busy before.”

She told us she wished she had been able to film scenes with the other cast members, but nonetheless, some of the cast members have kept in touch since then.

She said she had plans to catch up with Joel, who was in Singapore until Oct 15.

Carrie also revealed a second season of Kidnap Game may already be in the pipeline. — AsiaOne