Dawn Yeoh Hasn't Left Home Much Since Her “Irritating & Evil” Emerald Hill Role Became The Drama’s Breakout Character

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When this writer hopped on a call for a chat with local actress Dawn Yeoh, she revealed to us that she hasn’t left home much since Mediacorp blockbuster drama Emerald Hill started airing.

Wait… what?

“Especially since now we have reached a certain part when there is a death in the story, I thought it would better to stay home,” Dawn laughed.

“In fact, I haven’t been able to bring myself up to the latest episode,” she says.

Is the 38-year-old worried she might be clobbered by avid fans of the drama?

If she has reason to be cautious, we understand why.

Her Emerald Hill character, Kang Si Li, is the scheming wife of Zhang Jing Quan (Romeo Tan), and mum to big bad, Zhang An Na (Chantalle Ng).

Talk about an evil branch of the family.

However, Dawn clarifies that her self-imposed ‘house arrest” has more to do with her being “quite the homebody” who doesn’t go out much unless it’s for work”.

Interestingly, she never thought Kang Si Li would be this evil.

Dawn even naively thought she was “quite virtuous” during early auditions.

“Unfortunately, not,” she laughs.

However, Dawn tells us that during a script reading, she made the creative decision to make her character “more obnoxious and flamboyant” though it wasn’t initially written as such.

“I wanted to make this character pop, giving a different dynamic from the other characters,” she adds.

And pop she did.

So much so, that viewers seem to have taken a shine to the loud Kang Si Li.

According to Dawn, her social media inbox has been flooded with messages about her “irritating and evil” character.

“The word “irritating” appears the most,” Dawn laughs.

“There was even someone who said, “You are so irritating. I hate you, but I love you!” she giggled.

Even her friends have joined in on the teasing.

Dawn shared an Instagram story where a clip of her character in the show was captioned, “Can you Diam?”

“Diam” is Malay for shut up.

“It’s only because he’s a close friend that he dared to be so crude to me,” she laughs.

Of course, Dawn is lapping it all up and says that she has also gotten feedback from viewers in Malaysia and China.

“It is very rewarding to hear people speaking about my role,” she says and admits that even though she has played a villain before they were “nothing as meaty or heavy as this”.

However, Dawn lets on that portraying Kang Si Li felt like “an emotional rollercoaster”.

Like her co-star Chantalle, who opened up to 8days.sg a about her mental health struggles during filming, Dawn had her tough moments too.

“It was emotionally draining to be this character, and at times made me a little emotional,” she says.

“Only after filming wrapped, did Chantalle and I realise how we were so affected by our characters,” said Dawn.

It might be early days, but with all the attention Dawn is getting from Emerald Hill, we are sure a possible nomination for a Star Award has crossed her mind, right?

After all, she has never been nominated for an acting award and was last in the running for the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes at Star Awards 2021.

“Wow…” muses Dawn before saying that many people have asked her this question.

“My take is that I’ve never thought so much about nominations and awards. But if it comes to that, then I think I will be very happy,” she says.

Photos: Mediacorp, iamdawnyeoh/IG

Catch Emerald Hill on weekdays, 9pm, on Ch 8, on mewatch or in the video below: