Another thing that irks her is when fellow actors keep their phones in their pockets even during the filming of scenes. “I get a bit irritated. I’ve seen people whipping out their phones, very distracted and not focused. It’s not fair to all your co-actors.”
While shooting last year’s hit drama My Star Bride, for which she’s nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Star Award this year, Koh shared that there was an agreement among the young cast that phones should be used only during breaks. “If you ask me what’s the secret to My Star Bride’s success, I’d say it’s the harmony on set,” she said.
Koh is also known for being a straight shooter, and in the past few months, has made the news for bringing up issues on social media, like calling out someone she witnessed being rude to hospital nurses, and sharing her honest heartbreak when her car got keyed.
“Social media has given me the advantage of being able to show who I really am. I think my opinions are very objective. I’m open to saying I might be wrong,” she said. But, “I really think thoroughly about what to say and not to say, and how to say it. I think there is a responsibility on us as public figures not to blatantly stir shit. If there’s something you don’t see eye to eye with, first ask yourself why. I really analyse things, like, ‘Why do I see this differently?’ Or, ‘Why do I get upset about this? Am I too biased about a certain opinion?’ And then you realise there are two sides to the coin. Never rule out what the possibilities might be. I hope to inspire younger people to know: You can be who you are. You can set boundaries. But, don’t say things to hurt other people.
“Sometimes, I get DMs about body image or confidence. I look back and think, ‘I, too, had that problem before.’ In entertainment, looking good for the screen and keeping yourself skinny is part and parcel of it – the perception of how women should look. We should be skinny; whatever needs to be big needs to be big; we should have great skin.”
That was something that came to the forefront during the pandemic “circuit breaker” period, when she found herself eating more because many F&B businesses sent her food, and she wanted to help them out with publicity by way of social media posts.
When she realised she’d gained about 8kg in just a few months, “I was like, ‘What the hell is going on with you, Cynthia? How can you put on so much weight?’” She laughed. “But, as I was losing that weight, I started to know my body better; to have communication with it.”
LOVE YOUR CURVES, LOVE YOURSELF
She succeeded in regaining her svelte figure, to the point of causing a stir by wearing a famously daring Michael Kors dress, held together by little metal hoops, to a red carpet event.