Code Of Law’s Michelle Wong Overcomes Fears To Play A Butt-Kicking Cop

Nothing in Michelle Wong’s body of work — including supporting roles in the campus drama Faculty, the Dick Lee biopic Wonder Boy and the Michelle Chong-helmed rom-com 3 Peas in a Pod — prepared her to play Senior Staff Sgt Miki Lee, one of the new characters in Season 4 of Code of Law. “I’m not usually a physical person, so I was a little shocked when the producers said that I have numerous fight scenes,” recalls Wong, 26. She says she developed a phobia of doing action scenes after a terrible performance on The 5 Search three years ago.

She confronted her fear by taking up mixed martial arts.

“Prior to filming, I decided to learn Muay Thai to get over my fear as well as to boost my strength,” she says. But playing the “chilli padi of the team” was both physically and mentally exhausting. “It was quite a challenge to get into the mind of a police officer who has an impulsive personality. But speaking to friends who are in the police force helped me to better understand the role. Hopefully, I was able to fully internalise my character.”

She was happy to show off her ass-kicking skills on the show.

In one ep, her character is involved in a gangland fracas in a dark alley. “That night was truly memorable for me,” says Wong, who started acting when she was 14. “It was my first overnight shoot, and it was physically taxing because I had to fight continuously and I was dragged around the alley. By 5am, we were all really tired but the professionalism of the production team and my fellow actors made it fulfilling. It was a great learning experience.”

She’s now sweating it out literally in Malaysia with Chen Hanwei and Rebecca Lim.

“I'm currently filming [the Ch 8 time-travelling drama] Blessings 2 in Ipoh and Penang. It’s been an amazing time. I'm enjoying myself very much and learning a lot from my experienced colleagues. That, plus the good food.” But she has an issue with the weather. “You’d be surprised how hot it can get! There’s no air-conditioning, and fans had to be switched off so they didn’t interfere with the sound recording during filming. It definitely made me appreciate the comfort of shooting in a studio in Singapore.”

Code of Law is on meWATCH. Blessings 2 premieres Oct 1 on Ch 8.