The Lead That Wasn’t

About a month back, I did a docudrama about the First Volunteer Force in Singapore, playing one of the co-founders, Mr Lim Boon Keng.

Prior to the shoot, I have no idea who the dude was, other than he got some road named after him.

So imagine my surprise when this came up from what I googled :

Of course, I play a younger version of him. *koff koff*

Anyway, although it was one of the two lead roles in the docudrama, I felt my involvement was just one of a supporting character. Out of 3 days of shoot, I was only involved in one and my most significant screen time was one when I deliver a speech to Parliament. It seems they liked my delivery of that speech very much, and it was also how I landed the role.

I would of course very much preferred the other role, especially when I found out I’d get to have a wedding scene with a lovely bride…

Anyway, I digress.

The shoot was not a pleasant experience all together though. This was largely due to poor wardrobe logistics on the part of the production house. Imagine, they made us wear clothes and SOCKS that were worn by sweaty extras the day before, which were still damp! There was a huge battle scene the day before involving the extras in uniform and you can imagine the yucky feeling I had when I had to wear them in the state that they are.

I’ve been to many shoots before, and this is the first time I’ve been treated this badly in this aspect. But like they say, the show must go on. It does make me reconsider working with them in the future though.

This was the uniform I had to wear. Makes me look more like a Jap soldier, no?

The other wardrobe change I had was thankfully clean clothes at last.

I think this makes me look like a perv. Somewhere out there, Mr Lim must be rolling in his grace.

Towards the end of the shoot, I had to wear back the same yucky uniform again. And when I finish my scenes, they asked me if I could do a stand-in for one actor who had failed to turn up in another role.

I was like wtf? But thankfully, they manage to get hold of him eventually and I did not had to make a decision on that matter.

I went straight home and had a long shower to scrub myself clean. Like I said, not a pleasant experience all together.