Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Crescendo’s doppelgangers: Do Tay Ping Hui and Xu Bin look alike?

SINGAPORE — We’ve all cringed for the actor who has to play a younger version of himself. You know, in a flashback to his character’s youth, for instance, or if the story spans several decades, as is the case in Channel 8’s xinyao music-themed drama Crescendo.

SINGAPORE — We’ve all cringed for the actor who has to play a younger version of himself. You know, in a flashback to his character’s youth, for instance, or if the story spans several decades, as is the case in Channel 8’s xinyao music-themed drama Crescendo.

Starring Tay Ping Hui, Cynthia Koh, Christopher Lee, Darren Lim, Ann Kok and Jacelyn Tay, the drama is about students swept up in the early ’90s xinyao movement, who eventually grow up to become players in the Mandarin music industry.

And, like us viewers left unconvinced by mutton dressed as lamb, Koh’s initial reaction to the script was shock and horror, because she thought she would have to play a teenage version of herself.

“I messaged the executive producer and said, ‘Huh? Then don’t I have to go and get botox? Or should we put stockings over our heads?’” she giggled. “I said, ‘It’ll be hilarious for the six of us to play our younger selves!’”

Thankfully, she doesn’t have to suffer that indignity — not that you need botox at all, Cynthia — because Bonnie Loo plays her character in the ’90s. And with a host of young actors playing all the main characters’ younger incarnations, it’s really a game of lookalikes.

On her similarities with Loo, Koh mused: “I think our chin areas are a little similar. But I’m not sure — I think we need to have our picture taken together to be able to tell.”

Loo thinks there is a resemblance, though. “We have rather similar face shapes — we both have dimples when we smile,” the young singer-actress beamed. “I follow her on Instagram and I’ve observed that the way she takes her pictures — the feeling, the angles — is quite similar to how I take mine.”

Before filming started, Loo actually went around asking people if she looked like Cynthia when she was younger. “After we wrapped, quite a few people told me, ‘Actually, you do look like her,’ and I was very happy.”

Both Koh and Loo, however, can agree on the fact that the pair that look most alike in the drama is Tay Ping Hui and his younger self, Xu Bin.

“They have similar eyes and eyebrows,” Loo said, while Koh grinned: “Xu Bin talks in a way that brings out Ping Hui’s aggressiveness.”

What was Tay’s first thought when he heard his character would also be played by Xu Bin? “I was a bit apprehensive, to be honest. I’ve seen one or two dramas that he did and I was not sure if he could bring the character that I wanted, because the bulk of the show (features me) so, unfortunately, he has to adapt to me,” Tay said. “I was apprehensive because the younger generation tend to be a bit more on-the-surface (when it comes to acting) … But I think he did well. He rose to the challenge and I think he’ll go far.”

That said, he doesn’t think they look anything like each other. “I think he’s much better looking than I was at that age,” Tay said, adding: “I’ve never thought of myself as being good-looking.”

On Xu Bin’s part, hearing that he would have to play Tay’s prototype spurred him to start eating. “My first thought was that I’m not big enough,” he laughed. “I tried to bulk up but I failed — I stayed the same weight no matter how much I ate. You’re going to say you’re envious, aren’t you?”

The problem was resolved, he continued, by standing comparatively tall next to the other young actors. And he put effort into studying Tay’s mannerisms, too. “Before I started my scenes, I went down to observe one of his scenes. Sometimes, when he talks, his lips don’t really move. That’s not an easy thing to do!”

Does he think he’ll look like Tay when he’s older? “It’s possible. But I think I’ll look more like Chew Chor Meng,” he grinned.

Catch Crescendo starting on Oct 23, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.