'I looked like a ball with some facial hair': Shane Pow puts on weight and belly dances outside Esplanade for new drama

Shane Pow is usually comfortable with showing skin, but not when his belly is a single lump instead of a six-pack.

Shane revealed in an interview with AsiaOne on Thursday (Dec 8) for the new Mediacorp drama Love At First Bite that he had to put on weight and perform a belly dance outside of the Esplanade for his role.

"I don't remember ever showing my belly on TV like that," the 32-year-old actor said. "[My belly] was so chubby, it was quite memorable.

"I didn't want to half-a** it, so I was like, okay, I need to make sure that I really have a tummy there that really has fats, so that when I jiggle, it will really jiggle."

Shane plays Chang Shengjun in the series, a down-to-earth individual who ends up bankrupt after a failed business venture. Because of his losses, he becomes a food delivery man, living day-to-day in low spirits.

He ends up troubling his sister Xiyue (Chantalle Ng) quite a bit, which earns him the irritation of her friend Zann (Tasha Low). But their interaction brings them closer and Shengjun is lifted out of his gloomy state, especially when he's around Xiyue and Zann.

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And for his performance, Shane needed to put on weight quite quickly. Thankfully, he was travelling prior to filming and was in the US, eating tacos and fried chicken on the daily.

Two months before filming began, he shared his decision to hit the gym on Instagram but the director of Love At First Bite immediately jumped in to stop him.

"The director was like, 'Hey, don't go and lose weight, don't go and gain muscle! You need to look chubby.'"

The executive producer also agreed and told Shane that he needed to look cute and plump. From then on until they were done filming, Shane got the green light to never hit the gym.

And even though Shane was all-in on gaining girth for his role, he wasn't too comfortable baring his belly for the camera.

Said Shane as he lightheartedly laughed: "I really wanted to finish shooting [the scene] faster. I stopped posting photos and videos [on my social media account] for about three months and I think throughout that period, I looked like a ball with some facial hair — I wasn't very into myself."

As he did his belly dancing scene, it didn't help that some of the cast and crew around him also found his predicament humourous.

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"I think they were laughing," Shane said. "It was quite hilarious. And I was doing it… outside Esplanade, at an area with a park, so there were quite a lot of people.

"I was like, 'Okay, I'm just going to go for it.'"

While he quite enjoyed putting on weight, losing it, however, wasn't so simple.

"It's not that hard for me to gain weight, but it's very hard for me to lose it," he said. 

"It's really very hard, especially now as I age. I feel like my metabolism is different. It takes a lot more to lose weight and also the discipline that you need and everything else makes it very difficult."

Since completing his role, Shane has lost seven kilograms over two-and-a-half months.

Love At First Bite also stars Romeo Tan, Xu Bin and Brandon Wong and will be available on Dec 19 on meWATCH or on Channel 8, weekdays at 9pm.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com

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