Bryan Wong gives his all for Hand In Hand

SINGAPORE — Bryan Wong takes on his most physically challenging role to date as a reformed hoodlum on a mission to unite his family in the latest MediaCorp TV Channel 8 show, Hand In Hand, a drama about kinship.

“The character is so different from my actual personality,” said Wong, who, bulked up for the role by putting himself through a regime of getting up at 5am to work out before commencing on filming each day.

“I was taken aback when I saw some shots of myself,” he said. “I was like, ‘That guy looks huge!’ To see myself (on screen), I felt a little — I don’t know what is a good word to use — sense of revulsion? That is not the me that I’m used to — the look, the behavioural pattern, the sheer size,” he said.

On top of the gruelling gym training, he also suffered pain in his left heel and a hairline fracture in his left wrist as a result of getting physical while filming scenes with fighting and having to dangle from a carpark roof in spite of his fear of heights.

He mused: “When you are immersed in something, when you continually do it for months, you don’t feel it. But once you’ve taken a step back a month and a half later, when I’m almost back to being me as Bryan, and now, looking at that person who, in real life, is called Bryan, I don’t associate me with him,” he said. “Which should be good, right? Because that shouldn’t be me.”

Catch Hand In Hand starting Sept 25, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.