Romeo Tan: Obnoxious celebrity?

Celebrity. It’s a bit of a dirty word. As opposed to “actor”, “musician” or “athlete” — which are actual careers — it connotes being famous for simply being famous. A sort of unbearable Kardashian-ness of being. It implies wearing sunglasses at night, throwing blue-M&M-fuelled tantrums and spending 24 hours in the lock-up along with your entourage after crashing your Lamborghini.

In the words of country singer Brad Paisley: “When you’re a celebrity, it’s adios, reality.”

Of course, an actor is frequently also a celebrity — one is a job, the other is more of an attitude fed by popular opinion. Romeo Tan knows this because he has been put in the deliciously meta position of being a TV actor playing a TV actor in The Dream Makers 2, the follow-up to 2013’s hit drama about the entertainment industry.

Tan’s character also happens to be a self-obsessed profligate. “He’s into attention, fame, and he loves to be in the showbiz limelight,” Tan said. “He’s also a playboy because he’s rich and famous and handsome.”

One plotline is that a woman shows up and tells him he has a child. “It’s a bit like an incident that occurred in local showbiz,” said Tan, studiously not naming names.

The Dream Makers 2 is a welcome change from the heavy work he did in dramas where “I have to be either a nice guy or a villain” such as The Journey: Tumultuous Times and Sudden. Tan said this has been one of the most fun roles he’s ever done (the previous one being that of a faint-hearted paranormal investigator in last year’s Web drama Mystic Whispers).

“I was very happy playing this role because I got to imagine myself as very famous, and I could have everything I wanted,” he said. “I found that I was so famous that even Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing — in the drama they are not famous at all — have to stand while I get to be seated. I’m so much more famous than even Rui En and Jeanette Aw (both of whom play actresses in the series). Jeanette’s character even has to wait an hour for me to arrive. I enjoyed that little cheap thrill.”

In real life, the two-time Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes Star Award winner said he feels most like a celebrity “when I’m in NTUC and I have to keep taking pictures with people”.

But he does have one thing in common with the character. “I guess I do love myself a lot!” he quipped. “In secondary school, I was always going to the restroom to comb my hair. I had a centre parting and whenever my friends messed up my hair, I would have to go and touch it up. I was fat back then, you know; yet, I cared so much about my hair.”

He’s older and wiser now, but admits to still checking himself out in reflective surfaces. “Whenever I walk by a car, I reverse a few steps and look at my reflection in the windows to make sure my hair is neat!”

OF SHOW-OFFS, DIVAS AND BRATS

Ask him if he has witnessed any obnoxious celebrity behaviour and he has to rack his brain. “I know it’s quite extreme for Justin Bieber or Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears, (but) when I stepped into showbiz in Singapore, I found that, well, the actors here are very well-behaved. Our people are very good at putting up shows, so I don’t think I’d get to see anything!” he said, before adding: “I find Ian Fang quite obnoxious! I did tell him, ‘When I first met you, I didn’t like you because I found you too hao lian — showing off in terms of your actions and the way you speak.’ He accepted it very graciously.” Tan likes Fang now (“although I cannot be so swag everywhere I go (like him)”, he added), but one fellow actor he really admires is Paige Chua. “She dresses very ordinarily and she basically doesn’t give a damn about anything — not even awards or fans,” he explained.

Still, we wanted to know: If he were to become a global megastar overnight, what would be the first outlandish demand he’d make?

“Aircon everywhere,” the 30-year-old mused. “In the drama, I have one personal assistant holding a portable fan and another holding an umbrella over me everywhere I go.” After “cut” is yelled, well, that’s a different story.

Tan said he can’t even imagine himself strolling tardily onto a set, but he has heard stories. “I heard a few people talking about this actress — she’s no longer in showbiz — who was always late and did crazy things like fly overseas the day before a shoot. I was quite shocked.”

But the only diva behaviour he has personally witnessed on set is “people who cannot stand waiting for too long ... Their body language and facial expressions change.”

At the risk of losing all his street cred, Tan said the most obnoxious thing he has ever caught himself doing is rolling his eyes at disrespectful fan behaviour. “When I first joined showbiz, I was naive, so I accepted all requests with a genuine smile. But along the way, I realised there are loyal fans and there are fans who basically just want a picture with you because you’re an actor,” he said.

“While taking a picture with me, their eyes were on another actor who was approaching, so they snapped and ran off. I was a bit annoyed. I rolled my eyes, literally.”

TOO CHILL FOR SCHOOL

Even though few celebs here are naming their kids after colours, stumbling out of cars sans underwear, dangling babies from balconies or consciously uncoupling, there are local artistes whose lives are all about showbiz, Tan said, although he isn’t one of them.

“There is one person I really admire: Chris Tong. If you follow her on Instagram, you’ll see all the articles she has been featured in; what she’s doing; the next day, she’ll be in another country for a press conference. I cannot be like that. I need to have friends and family outside (of work) to satisfy me. People like Chris and Ian were meant to be in showbiz.”

Still, there’s such a thing as too much self-promotion, Tan said. “I unfollowed a few people from local showbiz, actually, because there was just too much social-media updating,” he said. “I think there was a period of time I also posted a lot of selfies ... I stopped and eventually also deleted some.

“During another period, I kept posting about my nephew, Skyler, and it might have gotten annoying for some people to keep seeing this baby popping up: ‘Oh, he’s eating! Oh, he’s playing! Oh, he’s talking to me!’”

These days, Tan said, he limits the number of pictures he posts in a day.

But the actor doesn’t see showbiz as his ultimate calling. “I just do my best; if it doesn’t work out, I will take a step back. Fame is important, but there’s only so much I can do,” he said. “When I first joined Star Search, I only hoped to be shortlisted. No matter how well I’m doing now, I still wish to draw myself back to that time so that I will not be too full of myself.

“For now, everything is going smoothly and I feel healthy, mentally. But, although I don’t have a specific age in mind right now, I will set a deadline for leaving this place. If, let’s say, I need to focus on my personal life, I will just move on.”

And what will he do if he leaves the entertainment scene? “I definitely hope to settle down with someone. Also, I hope to ... travel and take pictures,” he said, adding that he might set up a nice boutique cafe or bed and breakfast. (But I won’t do it) in Singapore, it’s too expensive — maybe somewhere else. A bed and breakfast with all my favourite pictures that I’ve taken, framed on the walls. And there must be good coffee.”

Well, if there were only one thing in life worth being particular about, we’d choose coffee over hair, too.

Catch The Dream Makers 2 starting Dec 4, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

CREDITS

Photography: Chua Hongyin

Styling: May Seah

Hair: Sylin Yer, Shunji Matsuo

Makeup: Lolent Lee (91147447) using YSL Beaute

ON ROMEO

On the cover: Blazer, shirt and tie; all from Dolce&Gabbana

Camel herringbone tweed wool jacket; yellow soft cotton rugby top; white cotton shirt; yellow corduroy trousers; navy stripe knitted tie; chocolate silk pocket square; all from Alfred Dunhill. Prices available upon request.

Special thanks to Mavrx Coffee Apothecary.