'Wow, who is this girl?' Pierre Png and Cynthia Koh recall first time they met at water park as teens, Entertainment News

AsiaOne

a day ago

Local actors Pierre Png and Cynthia Koh are no strangers to one another in the entertainment industry, with their first on-screen collaboration dating all the way back to Holland V in 2003 as siblings Mo Yangyang and Mo Yanyan respectively.
Since then, they have played spouses and even ex-spouses, but "seem to have skipped the girlfriend-boyfriend stage," joked Pierre, who turns 52 this October.
Now, the two have taken up the role of husband and wife yet again in the upcoming thriller series Decalcomania, which is a collaboration between Singapore and Thailand.
Pierre plays Mark, a policeman who is a doting husband and emotional "punching bag" to his domineering wife Sue (Cynthia). The latter runs a restaurant with her bitter mother Granny Lu (Hong Huifang), who suspects Mark is in an affair with socialite Leia (Mookda Narinrak).
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In a recent interview with AsiaOne on the set of Decalcomania, they revealed that their history dates even further back to their pre-showbiz days. Their first meeting was in a water theme park when the duo was in their mid-teens, one year apart in age.
Pierre recounted the series of events: "My version of the story? I met her when I had a friend who was interested in her in secondary school. They went out, and I tagged along kind of as a plus-one. Funnily enough, my first memory of Cynthia was that we were all at some water theme park.
"So she was there, my friend was there, and I was like, 'Wow, who is this girl?' And many years later, I'm working opposite her."
AsiaOne asked if they still bring up the moment, to which he said: "Oh, all the time. She teases me and I choose to remember a few things, while I want to forget a few things as well."
Cynthia, 51, recounted her perspective: "I was from a convent school, and Pierre and his good friend Daniel would always come by our school. Back then, we would always hang out with the boys who hung around our school, or rather, camped out there.
"So me and my good friend Elizabeth — who ended up dating Daniel for a short while eventually — went out together with him and Pierre to the water park and that's how I knew Pierre. I can't remember which water park it was or the white swimwear he keeps teasing me about, but it's been so many years. I was only 15 or 16 back then."
Pierre reportedly went to Holy Innocents' High School while Cynthia was in Saint Anthony's Canossian Secondary School.
"And then after that, obviously I was not interested in him so I didn't get his number," she joked. "And the next time I saw him, he was at the Fame Awards and I was in Mediacorp too."
The Fame Awards was a Channel 5 talent competition which Pierre won in 1998. Cynthia joined showbiz in 1992.
So when it comes to working on set, what's their dynamic like now?
Cynthia, who recently won Best Supporting Actress at Star Awards 2025, told us there are perks to their bond. "I'm quite glad I'm doing this together with Pierre, because we don't have a lot of time on set to build chemistry this time round. And to work with someone that I've built chemistry with over the years in projects like Zero Calling (2014) and I Do, Do I? (2023), the chemistry is already there — I understand him.
"And although sometimes he can be a bit troublesome, being a guy with many, many questions, he just likes to clarify things. And that's something I've kind of come to work with and accept over time in our work relationship."
Pierre added: "It's really great working with Cynthia — we have a very comfortable relationship. I trust her, and she's also a very giving actress. And I've said this many times before, but I think acting has a lot to do with trust. When you come to the set, there's trust with the director, your co-stars and the crew."
He elaborated: "Because the actors are giving their all and putting their emotions into a scene, so you trust that the actor acting opposite you will reciprocate your efforts. You need a safe space to create and to play."
In Decalcomania, two women with identical faces (both played by Thai actress Mookda Narinrak) — Neungdeaw, a hardened owner of a nightclub in Bangkok and Leia, a sheltered Singaporean socialite — suddenly have their souls swapped after a car crash. Neungdeaw must now learn to survive a world of high-society manipulation, while Leia must navigate a criminal underworld unknown to her.
The series is set to debut on Thailand's TV channels One31 and OneD application streaming worldwide in December 2025, with its Singapore broadcast on Mewatch to follow.
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