“Ice princess.” 

“Uncooperative.”

“Tough interviewee.”

“Good luck.”

These were some of the tasty morsels of advice I got ahead of my interview with Hype Records artiste Rui En.

In truth, the 1.69m-tall, 28-year old singer-actress was nowhere near as frosty as I expected.

Sure, there were times when she appeared guarded but in truth, she was polite enough, and — on the rare moments she let her guard down — even friendly.

But for a media celebrity who, in her own words, is very ”home-centric,” she is an anomaly in the entertainment industry. An oxymoron, a contradiction of sorts.

“To a certain extent, my job expects me to be in the public eye, but at the same time I don’t feel the need to utilise my personal life to gain attention or gain headlines,” says Rui En, who’s been voted among the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes for the last four Star Awards.

But how does that reconcile with her being very much a public figure, thanks to a successful acting and music career?

“I try to just finding the middle ground and walk that tightrope,” says the 2004 Star Awards Best Newcomer winner.

Having gone through the ups and downs of being in the limelight – she was initially slammed for her poor acting in Channel 5 series ”Achar II”  (2004) – Rui En understands perfectly how media and public scrutiny are part and parcel of the job.

“I think you have to accept that if you really don’t want to be seen, then just stay at home, which I do,” she says.

“When I do go out, I do realise it’s part of my job to sign autographs or take pictures with fans. But when the press start asking invasive questions or probe into your personal life, I draw the line.”

“And as long as you’re willing to say ’No’ to certain things, it’s fine. Maybe some people might be offended but as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences of saying ‘No,’ then it’s fine,” says the devout Christian.

Former FHM girl

The actress, who was a former FHM girl but now refuses any roles that involve intimate or kissing scenes, now prefers to let her acting do the talking.

Says Rui En of her hit break-out role in 2007 series, Metamorphosis, in which she played a CID police supervisor: “I enjoy demanding roles that push me beyond my comfort zone.”

“In that show, I had to give orders to people. It was the first time in my whole life I had to do that. Not even in my personal life have I ever done that. So that was really hard because I would really get self-conscious. Those things would terrify me but after that, there’s so much satisfaction and sense of achievement.”

Ditto for her singing career. Her last album “United States” was released late last year. 

“My Chinese used to be non-existent so initially it was very tough. I couldn’t speak Mandarin at all at first, so being able to write my first Chinese album is one of the biggest accomplishments. Now because I’ve done all this filming, I’m quite fluent.”

Asked to choose between singing and acting, Rui En says she will never sacrifice one for the other.

“My goals are not your typical tangible things like awards or album sales. I prefer to tell myself I just have to improve. I set quite high expectations of myself so in a sense, my goals are difficult to measure or achieve. I don’t think there will ever be a stage where I am satisfied, so that forces me to keep going.”

Reluctant runner

Rui En, who now sports a short crop and weighs a trim 47 kilos after picking up running in the last 2 years, has also been appointed the ambassador for the Nike+ Human Race 10k “Guys v Girls Challenge.”

The ”quite lazy” star admitted it was hard at first.

“I actually hated running when I was in school,” says the former Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Raffles JC and Nanyang Technological University alumni. 

When I reminded her that it was her ”running girl” character in the 2001 SingTel Hi! Card TV commercial that helped propel her to stardom, she laughs.

“I seriously hated the dreaded 2.4km. Images of running around the school track, struggling to meet the ‘pass’ timing really turned me off.” 

“But in the past 1-2 years, I have developed a liking for it. I like to be alone and running is actually a lonely pursuit. I don’t like to travel across the island to do sport, so running is something I can do alone and near my house. Running for me is now really enjoyable, as long as you don’t have that ‘2.4km test’ in the back of your mind.” 

When our conversation turned to her future, Rui En turned pensive.

Although she did confess to dreaming of having a small business selling vintage clothes or even a little cafe – ”it would be really nice to have something of my own” – Rui En doesn’t plan too far ahead.

“I take it one step at a time… and that is already quite hard,” she says.

“I used to obsess about it (the future) a lot, ’will I still have a job?’ or ‘will I be rich?’. But then you realise that it’s quite ridiculous, you just have to take it one step at a time.”

Ice queen? Nah.

Reluctant star? Yeah, maybe.

And just a little misunderstood.

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Yahoo! SEA speaks to Tay Ping Hui and Rui En @ Yahoo! Video

Rui En on:

The Nike+ Human Race 10k

“This will be my first proper race. I’ve never done a proper race so I was little bit intimidated at first but through me — me being the newbie — Nike can convey that running can be fun. It shouldn’t be intimidating when you think of the distance and I guess that’s my role.”

How would you encourage someone to sign up?

“Have fun. Don’t focus on the timing and push yourself and enjoy the run. Before I used to think the 2.4km was the mother of all distances but now you push yourself and you realise you’ve done more than 3km.”

Her diet

“I like to eat. I like food a lot. When I’m not working, I have to be careful with my food intake. I eat everything. Chicken rice, char kuey teow, mee pok, Thai food. Life is too short. So that’s why I compensate with running.”

Her running routine

“During filming, I have absolutely no time. I run on 3-4 hours of sleep a night, so when I film, I don’t have time unfortunately. When I don’t film, I can be quite obsessive about running and I run almost every day between 2 to 3km. If I don’t do it, something’s not right, my day’s not complete. I don’t like to be in the sun, so I run in the late afternoon”.

What she thinks of when she runs

“I like to think of things that frustrate me or annoy me. I focus on things that are negative and you want to run that frustration away. So it’s very, very therapeutic in that sense and that’s why I like to run so much.”

Other sports

“I’d like to pick up martial arts. My biggest dream is to get an big action role and I would love to do all the stunts myself.”

From left: Torres, Benitez and Benayoun upon the team’s arrival in Singapore.