One dance was all it took to set the dynamics of their onscreen relationship in their new drama Highway To Somewhere.
During a pre-filming workshop, local actors Jeanette Aw and Romeo Tan were asked to improvise a dance.
It started with her choosing a piece of music. What followed, she recalls, was an unplanned but deeply emotional exchange.
“Our (acting) teacher actually asked us to do an improv. It was a dance, and then he asked me what music I wanted to play,” Aw says at a press event on March 4.
“It was an instant emotional connection between Romeo and me. There were no lines, nothing. It was just us feeling each other.”
The moment was so powerful that the director immediately took note.
Aw adds: “Everyone there who was watching this improv really liked it, and our director added it to the drama.”
That improvised dance – sensual, raw and intimate – became a central, wordless scene in the series, mirroring the silent tensions and unspoken desires of a couple who embark on a road trip to Malaysia in a bid to save their fraying 15-year marriage. They head to Kukup, the fishing village where their romance first began.
Highway To Somewhere also stars Nick Teo, Herman Keh, Seow Sin Nee and Bonnie Loo.
It is not the first time Aw, 46, and Tan, 40, have played a couple, having first romanced each other in The Dream Makers II (2015).
Recalls Tan: “We went through the whole phase of romance, from getting to know each other to dating and then to the proposal.”
He explains that taking on the role of a married man with a teenage daughter in Highway To Somewhere was a new experience.
Tan, who last impressed TV viewers with his villainous performance in Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story (2025), adds that having Aw on board helped.
Though it has been about a decade since they last properly worked together, he says slipping back into rhythm with his co-star came surprisingly naturally.
It also helped that they spent hours together in the car filming driving scenes and talking in between takes.
“We chat a lot more, try to understand each other more – like how we’ve been these 10 years,” he says, noting that their time together deepened their chemistry.
Highway To Somewhere also marks Aw’s return to the small screen as a lead actress after a six-year hiatus since 2019’s After The Stars.
She went on to become a patissier and opened her bakery Once Upon A Time in 2021.
One reason why she agreed to star in the drama was that it felt markedly different from their earlier collaboration because of how focused it is on just the two of them.
“It’s very rare that only two actors are always playing off each other,” she explains. “Usually in a drama, you have four or five people together. I kind of like it.”
That intense focus meant their chemistry was not just a bonus, but the backbone of the show.
Both actors believe the story’s emotional core will resonate with young married couples with children.
“We talk about how marriage between husband and wife could be strained by different parenting expectations, all the quarrels that we have... even the lines that we had were very realistic,” Aw says.
“I’m sure as the story unfolds with a possibility of infidelity from both parties, viewers would be interested to see what’s going on, what secrets are there, and who is the one really at fault.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Highway To Somewhere airs weekdays at 8.30pm on Astro AEC (Ch 306).
