Sass and the City

You can’t get more New York than this. Actress-turned-film student JULIE TAN went from Gossip Girl to Eat, Pray, Love-ing herself in the Big Apple. And she still found time to complete our New York-traffic assignments.

- Jonathan Fam

Julie Tan is braving the crazy New York rush hour traffic as she struts along the intersection between 23rd and Fifth. She positions herself between two of the city's iconic yellow cabs and woot whew, makes like a total traffic stopper. Well, except the traffic isn't real and she's not in New York... yet. 

It’s the middle of June and everyone in the 8 DAYS studio is in a New York state of mind, thanks to the images of Manhattan projected on our studio wall. In two weeks, the 23-year-old will be jetting off to the Big Apple where she’ll take a month to explore and settle down in the city before starting a two-month acting course in the New York Film Academy, which counts Damon Wayans, Bollywood star Imran Khan, and um, NBA great Shaquille O’Neal as their celeb alumni. Fun Fact: The only other Mediacorp star to go to New York for an acting course was Zoe Tay back in 1997. And Julie tells us it that was Ah Jie who encouraged her to pick New York over LA. “She shared with me her experiences and how NY is more accessible [than LA].”

Before Julie traipses around the Lower East Side, where she’ll be taking over a room in a two-bedroom apartment from the daughter of an acquaintance, she has to get over this darn flu first. She’s spent the  past two weeks attending a free-flow buffet of Snapchat-documented farewell parties. And the late nights have taken a toll. “Yah, like never-ending goodbyes hor,” she laughs, her melodious sundae-sweet voice now husky and her speech punctuated with sniffles.