Steven Lim shares more on Growing Up co-star's animosity, Jamie Yeo also became 'public enemy No. 2' on set

When Steven David Lim finished filming season one of Mediacorp's English drama Growing Up back in 1996, things were looking great.

But before the start of the second season, the young actor was called into the production office when letters of complaint came in about him, and he eventually suspected that a co-star might be trying to get him fired from the show.

Steven, now 50, first shared about this experience in an interview with Dear Straight People published last month.

In a recent interview with AsiaOne, he shared more about what happened on set between him and his co-star, and how others including his onscreen sister Jamie Yeo got involved in the conflict.

He declined to reveal publicly who this co-star is and what triggered the animosity.

"The production team asked me, 'Do you have any enemies you know of, or have you angered anybody?'" Steven recalled.

"There had been a lot of letters written in to the station complaining about me, on topics ranging from how bad of an actor I was and that I should be taken off the series, to that I misbehaved in public and should not be on the screen as a role model."

He said he had no idea who could have such animosity towards him at the time, but when he returned to filming in season three (his character was written to have gone for national service in season two), it dawned on Steven what was going on — an actor that he was formerly friendly with had become avoidant.

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"When we were filming scenes together where we were having a conversation, he would not look me in the eye at all," he claimed. "From then on, he never looked me in the eye anymore, whether it was on screen or off screen.

"It was very disconcerting."

Steven believed this person was behind the letters, but emphasised that the experience on set was positive otherwise.

"I don't bring up [the bullying] to disparage Growing Up as a product, it was a great product," he said. "The crew was amazing, and the experience I had other than this particular situation was great. And maybe because of this situation, it made it better."

Steven "learnt to disregard" the animosity and treat everything else "regularly", and ended up having fond memories of filming with the rest of the cast and crew.

"For all you know, actually he (his bully) was the one who simply made himself miserable," Steven said. "Once I learnt how he behaved, I kind of expected it and that was normal."

'Jamie became public enemy number two'

Set in the 1960s to '80s, Growing Up follows the Tay family — Mr and Mrs Tay (Lim Kay Tong and Wee Soon Hui respectively), Gary (Andrew Seow), David (Steven), Vicky (Irin Gan) and Tammy (Fan Wen Qing, Quek Sue-Shan and Jamie through the six seasons).

Steven claimed that his co-star who antagonised him would play a "his camp or my camp" game whenever there were any new actors or guest actors on set.

Jamie, 46, who joined the show in its third season became "public enemy number two", according to Steven.

Jamie, in a separate interview with AsiaOne, shared that their fellow co-star stopped talking to her after he noticed her getting friendlier with Steven, who was closer in age to her.

"[The co-star] was very unprofessional. He wouldn't say a word to me," Jamie claimed. "He wouldn't even want to rehearse with me unless the director said, 'Okay, let's rehearse'.

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"If I was standing too close [during a scene], he wouldn't ask me to maybe move a step to my right, he would ask the director, 'Can you ask her to move to the side?'"

Despite their co-star making it "really, really awkward' for Jamie, it was a learning experience for the young actress, freshly out of polytechnic.

"It made me learn big time to be a professional actress because it was really acting — we did not talk at all offstage," she said. "If I were any more nervous or any less confident, I think it would have really interfered with my performance because I was so young.

"It was my first gig and this was very unprofessional."

Her co-star broke his silence to ask to speak with her once, Jamie revealed, but it was not to make amends.

"I remember it to this very day because it really made me who I was, and it taught me a lot about this industry," she said. "He sat me down and went, 'I wanted to know, how long have you been acting?'"

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Jamie revealed that it had been six months, and she claimed her co-star told her he had been acting for a longer time.

"In this industry, you are a junior and I am a senior, so you should treat me with respect," Jamie claimed he said.

It made Jamie learn to avoid "bitchy" people who give others a hard time because "they've been around" longer, adding that she would never do that to a junior.

"Maybe because I was taught that through a hard lesson," she said. "But it was a quick taste of what the industry was like, you know?"

Jamie transitioned from acting after Growing Up into a full-time career in radio and hosting. She was formerly with 987FM, Power 98 FM, Gold 905 FM and ESPN/Star Sports before moving to England with her family in 2022.

'The differences in atmospheres on our set and their set'

While not a cast member of Growing Up, someone who had a front row seat to the happenings on the Growing Up set was former actress Chong Chia Suan.

"I was next door, in the next studio filming (police drama) Triple 9, and we had a cracking cast and crew, everyone was so tight," she recalled to AsiaOne in a separate interview. "We would go bowling after filming and we would go for supper every night together.

"I think Steven really envied that, and so did Jamie. At that time, Jamie was going out with Robin (Leong from Triple 9) and when we went out for dinner, she would join us sometimes.

"She could see very clearly the difference in atmospheres on our set and their set, and so they started gravitating towards our set."

Chia Suan, who is now an author and communication skills trainer based in York, England, felt bad for Steven and Jamie because she felt they did not have a pleasant atmosphere at work.

"It's horrible to wake up in the morning and not be able to look forward to seeing your castmates and working together."

Three people have reached out to Steven

Steven told us that he has been contacted by three separate people since he first revealed the bullying on set, prompting him to elaborate on his experience.

"After the podcast (with Dear Straight People) came out and AsiaOne picked it up, I started receiving messages from individuals telling me that he (his Growing Up co-star) did similar things to them, and it was more recent and it involved money."

Steven added he does not know these individuals and cannot vouch for them.

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He also said he isn't discussing the bullying incident to garner sympathy or "air dirty linens".

"It's not that I want to target someone and make them pay for what happened, but more about telling it so that others do not go through similar things, or they become aware that these things happen and how they can prevent them from happening," he said.

He added about the bullying and harassment he endured: "In most societies, we don't wanna get involved in such things, we don't want to hear such things and we rather people keep quiet about it.

"Maybe that is wrong, especially in situations where there is trauma and long-term negative consequences."

He concluded: "Hopefully, the people around [a bullying victim] will stand up for them and go, 'This is wrong', 'We have to stop this', 'This other person should not be allowed to get away with this or should not be doing this in the first place'."

Steven has lived in Thailand for a decade and runs a cafe (Luka Bangkok) and a restaurant (Luka/Quince at Siri House).

He also does photography and has starred in local gay drama People Like Us (2016) and Singapore's first boys' love (BL) drama Getaway (2022) in recent years.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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