Sents And Sensibility

Roz Pho and Carla Dunareanu, the bubbly stars of HBO Asia’s first local comedy Sent, tell us what it’s really like working on local productions and why “competition is good”.

- Karen Fong

Roz and Carla are not really the kind of women you’d expect to be cast in “sensible” roles. At least not after they breeze into our shoot, talking up a storm and giving the camera a tonne of energy.

But on Sent, the first HBO Asia series entirely shot here, they respectively play a timid journalist and a sensible wife – quite a contrast to their actual personalities. So what was it like working on this HBO project?

How did you both get involved with Sent?

Roz Pho (RP): I saw a casting call for it, and because I know the casting director, I asked about it, and she said no. She said it was because they were told to try and not audition people from Tanglin. So then I was, like, “Please, please, please, just tell me what you need and I’ll come in and show you something different.” Finally, she said OK. So I kind of begged my way into the audition.

Carla Dunareanu (CD): I had a call from Alaric [Tay, the director of Sent], and I just freaked out. I was like, “OMG, I’ve seen a lot of his work. I’m a big, big fan.” So I went in the next day, and read for the audition.

Was it very different working with HBO compared to other local production studios?