Russell Ong dives into acting

SINGAPORE — It is still a bit early in the game, but Russell Ong is a face — and body — you may be seeing more often on your television screens.

The former national swimmer, who retired earlier this year, is considering going into acting full-time, depending on the reception of his first television project Lion Moms, which airs on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 next month.

He plays a fitness trainer who falls for his housemate (Vanessa Vanderstraaten), and is frequently seen walking shirtless around the house.

We had to put it to him bluntly: Did they cast him for his abs? (Also, are those abs insured? Because they should be.) “Possibly!” the 26-year-old said, guffawing. “I know there is more to me than my abs, but that is what people see. I’m used to being practically naked, in my swimming trunks, on TV all the time. I go to the SEA Games, there’s coverage across South-east Asia with I don’t know how many hundred million viewers.”

The opportunity to act for television came along just as “I was ready to move on from swimming”, said Ong, whose first acting role was a small part in the 2013 Eric Khoo film Ghost Child.

“I’ve been swimming since I was a kid. All I do is look at that stupid black line at the bottom of the swimming pool, and go up and down. You don’t interact with people. It’s not like track and field, where you can talk to the person next to you. You’re just by yourself in the water. Acting was a breath of fresh air for me — something else that was very interesting, which I actually liked to do.”

Even so, he is keeping his options open until he graduates in December from a course in finance at Singapore Management University. “I also have to consider the opportunity cost of the other career path,” he said.

And surely he knows the dangers of entering showbiz with a reputation for having a chiselled body, and having to maintain it even if he no longer feels like it. “I am quite lucky that my body is well-conditioned,” Ong mused. “I work out maybe three times a week now — (so there is) not really much maintenance work. I keep fit because I want to be healthy. If I don’t exercise, I feel very lazy and lethargic.”

Go ahead and hate him — you know you want to.

Catch Lion Moms starting Sept 14 at 10pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.