Following the success of The Diary Of Amos Lee, a series of books that was translated into a TV series, okto will be bringing you another children’s drama adapted from print.

ExLosers is an upcoming show based on Jessica Alejandro’s Extraordinary Losers, a series of books about socially awkward friends who have superpowers.

The stars of the show are Ivan Lo and Ian Teng, both 13, and 14-year-old Ezekiel Chee, who are familiar faces in Mediacorp TV Channel 8 dramas; as well as 14-year-olds Tan Tze Kia and Brien Lee, and newcomer to acting, 10-year-old Aadeetiya Jayashanker.

Grown-up stars of the show include Alaric Tay and Carla Dunareanu. But grown-ups beware — it’s a kids’ world in this series, and there’s a lot we all can learn from our young friends, as the ExLosers stars showed us 
when we visited them on set.

These kids were able to articulate the pressures of being on the fringe and wax lyrical about superpowers. Now isn’t that one superpower we all wish we could have at that young age?

Q: What are some examples of times in which you have felt a little loser-ish?

Ezekiel Chee: Sometimes in class when there’s a test or exam and the results come out; all your classmates are getting good results while you are the loner getting not-very-good results, you kind of feel loserish.

Aadeetiya Jayashanker: Whenever people participate in something and I’m always left out, I feel like a loser.

Tan Tze Kia: I feel like in society, they judge you based on your appearance and size. If you do not fit into what society wants you to look like — skinny, on-fleek eyebrows, nice body shape — you kind of feel like you are a loser because you don’t match up.

Ian Teng: When I was in primary school, I had crushes on several people. I was very much judged for that.

Brien Lee: When you’re playing basketball and the person guarding you is very tall, and you want to take a shot but he just raises his hand and blocks your shot, you feel very loserish because you’re that short and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Ivan Lo: When I’m studying, and sometimes I try to cheat a bit so that I can do less work but end up with the same results.

Q: If you could choose one superpower to have, what would it be?

Tze Kia: It would be so cool if I could control minds. If my parents said, “No, I’m not going to give you what you want”, I could change it to, “Yes, I’m going to give you what you want, Tze Kia. You’re a really good girl so you deserve this”. And if there are terrorists in Singapore, I can change their mindset and make them think that the world is a much better and more beautiful place so they shouldn’t do such things.

Aadeetiya: I have not much time, so if I could duplicate myself, I could be in many places at once.

Ian: I wish I could control time. Because in our lives, we make a lot of mistakes. If I didn’t do well in an 
exam, I could turn back time and redo the paper. If I wanted to relive good times, I could go back to that time and do it again. And I could also pause time or slow down time so I’d have more time to do my homework and I wouldn’t be so stressed.

Brien: Teleportation. I’d be able to travel anywhere I want at any time, and furthermore, it’s free. Before an exam, I could go the teacher’s office and steal the answer sheet without getting spotted. When playing basketball, I could teleport to the other side of the court and do a slam dunk. If I was late for school, I could teleport to school and just be like nothing happened.

Ezekiel: I would like to have an unlimited amount of money. In life, you have a lot of stuff you want to accomplish before you die, and one main factor stopping you from doing that is money. Maybe you want to take your parents on a trip but you don’t have the money. There’s a lot that you can do with money. Obviously you shouldn’t abuse it, but use it wisely and enjoy your life.

Ivan: To be able to stop time so that when I have to make a decision, I can have a long time to process it. I usually take quite a while to make a decision. If there are a lot of things in the food court, I’ll ask my family, ‘What should I eat?’ Even if they give me an answer, I’ll still think about it — whether I should eat Korean or Western food. So, if I could stop time, I could just stop and think for, like, five minutes, and make a decision.

Q: What is the most extraordinary thing about you?

Aadeetiya: I can learn things very fast. When I was only about three years old, I rode a bicycle for the first time. My neighbour helped me. She said, ‘Come on! You can do it! I’m going to kick you down if you don’t!’ I learnt in five minutes.

Tze Kia: I can laugh very loudly, like a witch. Or hyena.

Ezekiel: I can predict stuff. For example, I’m in my room, and I just have this sixth sense that my mum is going to walk in. And then five seconds later, she walks in. Just yesterday, while we were shooting, there was this board stuck to the wall, and I turned my head and was staring at it, and then, it suddenly fell.

Ian: I am able to be multifaceted. To one person I can do something this way but to another person I can do something another way. Let’s say I am, to someone I don’t like, perhaps I’m very bad to him and I’m very mean. And then to someone I like, maybe I’m slightly kinder and treat them better. That’s good and yet bad.

Brien: Mine is similar to Ezekiel’s but related to life and death. My grandmother passed away three years ago. The day before she passed away, I dreamt of her passing away. Then, the day she passed away, I dreamt of my friend’s grandfather passing away. Three days later, he passed away.