Her name is JOE

Her name is JOE
So why is the star of Taiwanese hit drama You're My Destiny called Sticky Pad Girl?
By Chang May Choon

In the hit idol drama You're My Destiny, Taiwanese actress Joe Chen plays a bespectacled, meek and kind-hearted office girl who says yes to all her colleague's requests scribbled on self-adhesive notes. It's a character that has endeared the actress to the fans who fervently followed the series, which ended in Taiwan late last month. The drama is now showing on E City (StarHub Ch 56) at 7pm, Wednesdays to Fridays.

At its record-breaking peak, the drama, which co-stars Ethan Ruan as Joe's suave love interest, attracted more than 13 per cent rating in Taiwan - or more than 2.7 million viewers. The Sticky Pad Girl became an overnight sensation, reportedly boosting the sales of self-adhesive notes in Taiwan. When a company in Taichung put up an advertisement looking to employ a Sticky Pad Girl (a Girl Friday of sorts), it reportedly got more than 200 applications. Even The Wall Street Journal reported on the trend, likening Joe's character to the unfashionable magazine editor's assistant played by America Ferrera in the US hit drama Ugly Betty.

In a phone interview with The New Paper on Tuesday, Joe said of the comparison: 'Ugly Betty is quite close to my character - both are easily neglected by people, but that's why they strike a cord with viewers. 'There are lots of girls around us who are like the Sticky Pad Girl, who are nice but shy and don't stand out.'

In real life though, Joe, 29, is nothing like her alter ego. 'I'm the one who orders people around, like 'Hey, get that for me!' she said with a laugh. She came across as a jovial person and spoke candidly over the phone from Taipei, where she lives.

Her biggest bugbear was that she had too few lines in the drama. 'My performance was limited because I didn't get to talk much, and I'm not like her in real life, so it was tough to act as her... I'd rather memorise lots of lines!'

But the biggest challenge for Joe was what she calls the most daring bed scene in her seven years of acting. The story goes that she has a one-night stand by accident with Ethan's mega-rich character on board a cruise ship, and they are forced to get married when she gets pregnant.

Recalling how she filmed the 10-minute sex scene for the first episode when she and Ethan barely knew each other, Joe said they were both so nervous that the director got them a bottle of red wine to drink to soothe their jitters. 'Filming it was okay... we were both drunk! The awkwardness only arose when I was watching the playback... That was quite scary,' she said with a laugh. 'I had to distract my mum when it was being shown on TV, but she saw it in the news anyway and told me to try not to do such scenes in the future.'

As for her Australian boyfriend of three years, an English-language tutor known as Michael, Joe said she didn't address the issue directly with him. 'I just told him that's not me (laughs). But he should understand that's just my job. I was also reluctant to do it, but to become a real actor, you have to keep on challenging yourself.'

No explicit sex secnes

But Joe will not go as far as emulating Tang Wei's explicit sex scenes in the controversial Lee Ang film Lust, Caution. 'That's too much! I have to consider my parent's feelings and acceptance level. So the furthest I can go is to bare my back. I can't be like Tang Wei.' Well, Joe already bared her back in April to promote her autobiography See Or Not.

As an actress, she craves to take on more unusual roles, like a schizophrenic or someone who can see ghosts. She said she has played too many Cinderella types in idol dramas like The Prince Who Turns Into a Frog and 100% Senorita.

Come November, she will fly to China to film her first Chinese drama, playing a woman who slowly loses her sight. 'I've always wanted to play a blind girl,' said Joe excitedly. 'I've discussed with a friend before how to act like a blind person and it's fun. But I don't want to play a mute because learning sign language would be too tough.'

Despite the fact that she's pushing 30, Joe has no plans to get married yet. She is also not thrilled by the prospect of having children - she professes to have no patience for kids and prefers animals instead. 'Work comes first for me, and only if I'm happy at work, then I can find happiness in other areas of my life. I don't feel that love is very important, and I won't place too much emphasis on it.'

Maybe it's because she already has an understanding beau who accepts her celebrity status and puts up with her busy work schedule. They met at a friend's gathering three years ago, and he reportedly fell for her at first sight.

Joe said they speak to each other in a mixture of English and Mandarin, and they rarely quarrel over anything. 'If I'm not working, I don't talk much. We might be watching DVDs at home and he'd be talking because he loves to talk. I'd just pretend to be listening, ha ha.'