“When Netflix first approached me, they were actually interested in Lulu,” says Michelle, referring to the character she plays in The Noose and her third film, Lulu The Movie. But since that character doesn’t belong to me outside the movie, I suggested an entirely new character, and that’s how Ah Lian came about.”

“I binge-watched Orange Is The New Black to get a better idea of the show,” says Michelle. “I had this Ah Lian character in mind for some time, so I thought this would be the perfect way to introduce her. I also wrote the script for the videos.

“They were very open to the ideas I had, and didn’t censor me at all.”

Michelle says her character was based on a viral video of an Ah Lian who exchanged heated words with an auntie on an MRT train. The video was posted on citizen journalism site STOMP in 2012.

“I wanted to replicate the big hair, winged eyeliner, opaque, pale pink lipstick, and the fake diamante nails that Ah Lians tend to wear,” she says. “The funny thing was, we searched all over Singapore and couldn’t find those fake nails here. Ironically, I ended up buying them at Walgreens in the US! So America also has Ah Lians, okay!”

Because the promotional videos were filmed on location in New York’s Kaufman Astoria Studios, Michelle was inspired by a scene in Orange Is The New Black featuring spicy jalapeno peppers, but wasn’t sure if they would sell the green chillies and red chilli padi in the scenes – so the Netflix Singapore team packed them from Singapore.

“We didn’t want to fly all the way there and realise they didn’t have the right kinds of chillies, so they bought them at NTUC and ‘smuggled’ them across,” she says with a laugh. “Luckily, they didn’t get confiscated, or the scenes may not have happened!”

“I loved Uzo Aduba’s ‘Crazy Eyes’ character, and specifically requested to work with her. I think her character is one of the funniest on the show, and Uzo is an Emmy Award winner, you know? She’s so popular and in high demand, so we weren’t sure if we would get to shoot with her, but we did. It was a great honour and privilege to work with Uzo. She was fabulous; very professional and very fast.”

“A lot of people think that Uzo doesn’t know how to pronounce ‘Ah Lian’ because she says ‘alien’, but that’s a misconception,” says Michelle. “She knows how to say it, but I thought it would make the scene funnier if she said ‘alien’ instead, and I knew it would be something controversial people would talk about.

‘It makes sense, because to people in the US, Ah Lian is kind of like an illegal alien!”

“Ah Lian In Litchfield was filmed very late in the day – around 8 or 9pm – and because the crew was busy shooting other scenes, we didn’t have much time. Thankfully, we managed to do each scene in one or two takes.”

“I wrote material for three scenes, but because we were short on time, we had to combine all three scenes into two.”

“Ah Lian culture is something that’s very unique to Singapore. The Ah Lian truly belongs to us, and I’m hoping to bring her back. I think she should be as iconic as the Merlion,” Michelle jokes.

This isn’t the last you’ll see of Ah Lian: Michelle is planning to showcase more of her character on her YouTube channel, The Michelle Chong Channel.