Felicia Chin Reveals She Has Anxiety 'Cos She Grew Up "Fearful" In An "Unstable Environment"
The actress shared the effect her mother’s temper as well as her father’s death had on her.
Anyone who’s met Felicia Chin can attest to the fact that she’s a ball of sunshine. Her ready smile, coupled with her penchant for making those around her feel at ease, are some of the things that we love most about her.
But behind that sunny disposition is a painful past.
On this week’s episode of Quan Yifeng’s talk show Hear U Out, the host got Feli talking about her formative years when she brought up the actress' first Mediacorp drama Always On My Mind in 2003.
“The only thing I remember from back then is how nervous I was," laughed Feli. Yifeng then pointed out that the actress is someone who gets nervous easily, to which Feli sighed and said: “There’s a reason for this. I grew up in an unstable environment and I was always fearful.”
Felicia & her mum
When Yifeng pressed for more details, Felicia said: “My mum has a temper, and she doesn’t know how to express herself. The way she said certain things could be harmful to a child. It’s an accumulation of things that happened over the years that made me afraid of doing the wrong thing… I’m very sensitive to what others think of me, and how others feel. If someone’s unhappy, I’ll think about why they’re upset.”
Yifeng then suggested that maybe she's like this because her father passed away when she was just 17. In response, Felicia said: “I can’t say for sure because you digest everything differently when you’re 17. When I looked back on what happened after I grew up, I realised that I was very hurt by what happened. I lost my father, and both my mother and older sister had their own issues to deal with. I was 17 and still growing up.”
Does Zoe find Feli weird?
This fear of offending others led to a hilarious incident that involved Zoe Tay when Feli was just a newbie.
“Ah Jie and I were walking towards one another outside the make-up department and I was wondering how I should address her. ‘Ah Jie? But she doesn’t know who I am. She might think that I’m pretending to be close to her. 'Zoe jie?' 'Zoe Tay jie?’ With no time left to think as we were about to cross paths, I said ‘Good morning Zoe Tay Jie!’ and ran off immediately.’ She must have thought that I was really weird!”
Feli's in a much better place now
Her anxiety was why she had an eating disorder in her first two years of showbiz. She would buy two bags of snacks from a nearby 7-11 to binge on every day ‘cos there were just too many things she couldn’t understand about filming. “I was disappointed because I felt useless [at work],” she shared.
“This unhappiness would follow me home, and I’d be even sadder after eating everything. I’d look at all the opened food wrappers and think to myself, ‘I’m filming in the morning tomorrow (…) My eyes were puffy at work and my face was getting rounder, so I’d force myself to vomit everything I ate.”
Felicia continued, “I’m not the type who will tell others about the negative things that are happening to me ‘cos I would feel like I’m complaining to them… Thankfully, I met a lot of nice people then, including Xiang Yun-jie and [Pan] Ling Ling-jie.”
You can watch Part 1 of Felicia's interview on Hear U Out here.
Photos: Mediacorp, Felicia Chin's Instagram
