Jeffrey Xu Apologised To Everyone Involved In Safe Distancing Breach Scandal; Says He Doesn’t Hang Out With Them Anymore
He admitted that things were “quite awkward” between him and Dawn Yeoh, who was also at the Terence Cao house gathering and who plays his girlfriend in new drama My Mini-Me and Me.
When the news of several Mediacorp artistes attending a private gathering of 13 people in a very obvious breach of safe distancing rules broke last December, Jeffrey Xu, the one who posted the damning photo in the first place, was in the middle of filming his new drama My Mini-Me and Me.
And Dawn Yeoh, who can’t be seen in the wefie but later admitted to being there, plays his onscreen girlfriend in the twelve-episode production.
As you can probably imagine, this made things “quite awkward” for the both of them on set, as Jeffrey admitted during a Zoom interview with 8days.sg yesterday morning (Jul 14).
Still, he made it a point to sincerely apologise to Dawn and talk things out with her. “I spoke to her about it, and she was okay, and I also apologised to everyone else who was involved, but since I had to face [Dawn] for work, I felt it was even more important to talk to her,” he said.
Although they rarely interacted between takes, they settled things amicably enough to be able to “stay professional on set” and “focus on completing all their scenes” until the very last day without a hitch.
It looks like Dawn may not be the only one Jeffrey feels awkward with, though — when we asked if he has kept in touch or hung out with anyone else who was also part of the gathering at Terence Cao’s house, he simply said “no leh” and smiled.
Jeffrey, Dawn, and nine others including Shane Pow, Jeremy Chan, Julie Tan, and Sonia Chew were fined S$300 for their involvement in the law-breaking party. Terence, on the other hand, was fined $3,500 for hosting 12 people at his home.
As for the rest of the cast and crew, Jeffrey, 32, shared that he was very touched as everyone was very kind to him and basically acted as if nothing had happened .
“In fact, I was the one who went up to the director and apologised first ‘cos I wasn’t sure if the incident would negatively affect the show, but the director was very nice and just waved it off, saying, ‘Aiyah, let’s just get back to work!’” he chuckled. “There was never a lot of attention on this matter on set, which was very reassuring to me.”
His real-life girlfriend Felicia Chin was also always there for him despite being busy with her own things at that time.
“I’m so thankful I had her by my side,” he gushed. “I will always remember everyone who chose to believe in me. I know I did wrong, but the past is in the past, and I learned and matured a lot from this experience. Looking back, it was a very important process that really allowed me to grow.”
In My Mini-Me and Me, which also stars Xu Bin and Mei Xin, Jeffrey plays an entertainment lawyer with “a dark side” who one day meets his younger self.
He told us that the most challenging part of the role was mastering his script, which sometimes consisted of complicated professional terminology.
Making things even tougher was the drama’s unique way of filming by a cameraman from England who used handheld cameras “80 per cent of the time” to record very long, continuous shots.
“I think a lot of people assume that I won’t have any trouble with a lot of lines ‘cos my Chinese is good, but that wasn’t the case!” exclaimed the Shanghai-born star.
When we asked what he would say if he ever came face-to-face with Kid Jeffrey, the advice he would give would be to “treasure time, ‘cos it passes really quickly”, “be humble”, and “do what’s right and don’t do what’s wrong”.
We reckon that includes not breaching safe distancing measures and posting about it on Instagram. Just sayin’.
My Mini-Me and Me will be available on demand for free on meWATCH from August 2.
It will also air at 9pm on weekdays on Ch 8.
Photos: Jeffrey Xu/Instagram, Mediacorp
