SINGAPORE — Acting in the The Caregivers was back-breaking work for Yuan Shuai.

In the medical-themed MediaCorp TV Channel 8 drama, Yuan plays the boyfriend of Jayley Woo’s character. But having such a youthful partner did present some problems.

“I felt like I had to get a lot of sleep because Jayley is much younger than me and she has really good skin. It was quite stressful playing her lover,” he quipped.

And the stress only intensifies as the series goes on. “My character doesn’t appear in that many scenes, but you won’t forget him. Towards the end (of the series), I ended up always crying because my girlfriend fell into a coma. I do a lot of things in the hope that she’ll wake up and I’ll get to see her again,” he explained. “In the hope that his girlfriend will come around, he carries her on his back to all the places she liked to visit and walks slowly around.

“The scenes are heartbreaking. The director had to keep reminding me, ‘Don’t cry. Smile. Have hope.’ Because carrying her on my back, I just kept thinking, ‘Will she wake up?’ and there were real tears in my eyes.”

Bawling his eyes out while carrying an unconscious Jayley wasn’t quite the awkward bit for Yuan Shuai though. “The awkward bit was probably the physical contact,” he said. “I carried Jayley around in a piece of cloth on my back for days. In the middle of filming, it would rain and we would have to continue the next day. And then it would rain again.”

How did his back fare? “It was only the day after that I felt the strain. I went straight to the gym and worked out all my other muscles — so that they would hurt just as much — and achieve balance. Otherwise, it’s strange if just one part of your body hurts,” he said.

“I think it was worth it. It makes you feel that a man should do just that — he should protect his woman. (But) I hope nothing like that ever happens to me in real life!”

Catch The Caregivers starting March 11, weekdays at 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.