How Michelle Chong Ended Up Facing Off With Uzo Aduba In Orange Is The New Black Promo Clips

There’s a new Singaporean inmate in Netflix’s hit prison series Orange is the New Black (OITNB), and her name is Ah Lian. Played by our very own Michelle Chong, the hilarious character recently cameo-ed in two of Netflix’s uniquely Singapore promo videos for the show’s latest fifth season.

Meet Ah Lian, Litchfield Penitentiary's newest 'inmate' played by Michelle Chong

I was only there for about three days last November ’cos I had to rush back to Singapore for the premiere of my movie Lulu The Movie. Uzo and I filmed the videos in a day. It was all very fast — just one to two takes for each shot.

Her heavy eyeliner and nude lipstick game is on fleek.
Ya! I got the idea from the general look of Ah Lians. There was this video of an Ah Lian quarrelling with an auntie on the MRT over a seat. I took [a screengrab of the girl] and showed it to OITNB’s makeup people and told them that’s the look I want, right down to the pale pink lipstick that’s so opaque you can’t even see your [natural] lip colour.

I also insisted on having Ah Lian-style diamanté nail art — on the show, the prisoners were all very resourceful [with their beauty routines] anyway. I finally found the stick-on nails I wanted at [US drugstore chain] Walgreens the night before the shoot. I think they’ve their own version of the Ah Lian there too (laughs).

[For the promo videos], we also spoofed a scene from the show where Crazy Eyes offers [lead character] Piper some jalapeños. We did it with green chilli padi instead, and we had to bring some over from Singapore. I thought it’d be very funny.

Netflix's minute-long Orange is the New Black promo clip also showed Michelle Chong's Ah Lian character displaying her Singaporean quirks in the US-based prison

Will we see Ah Lian in her own spin-off series?
She’s going to appear regularly on my YouTube channel. We’ll be launching a video in mid-July, and I wrote a jingle for her. Ah lian culture is uniquely Singaporean and belongs to only us, so being an Ah Lian is something we should be proud of. She should be as iconic as the Merlion (laughs)!

Orange is the New Black’s Season 5 is on Netflix.