Desmond Tan recounts challenges of playing twins with polar personalities in new drama

Local actor Desmond Tan has played many memorable characters — including serial killer Derek in Code of Law (2018 and 2020) — and is challenging himself again in his upcoming drama Devil Behind The Gate, playing a pair of identical twins with polar personalities.

Speaking to AsiaOne recently, the 38-year-old shared that this is his first time playing twins on screen.

"I was very stressed about it initially. I didn't exactly know how to put myself into this project in terms of performance as an actor and the logistics, such as having to bring two sets of costumes instead of one," he said.

However, instead of overthinking, he decided to "just do it" and found motivation through the pressure to perform his characters better in the series.

"I really wanted this show and the two characters to do well, because I feel that as an actor, to be able to play a pair of twin brothers successfully for the same show, that would be very powerful. I took that as a challenge and it became my driving force," he explained.

Devil Behind The Gate centres around twins Yuan Yingcai and Yuan Yingjie (Desmond) who grew up separately after their parents' divorce. When art teacher Yingcai dies by suspected suicide one day, Yingjie returns to Singapore from France, where he has lived most of his life, to take care of his afterlife matters.

Yingjie believes there is more to his brother's death and decides to work in the art school to uncover the truth, where he suspects his students, a student's parent Lu Anna (Constance Song), the school's principal Fang Youli (Wang Yuqing), Yingcai's wife Fang Aixin (Cheryl Chou) and her cousin Jiang Xiaolei (Sheryl Ang) all play a part. In the midst, he also finds out about Yingcai's twisted and extreme side.

'I kept it as genuine and real as possible'

Speaking about bringing the brothers to life on screen, Desmond said he studied the script and filled in gaps for the characters' background stories.

"Yingcai has darker secrets and hidden emotions due to his childhood and because of that, he was harder to play, but at the same time it was also easier to portray as it's easier to differentiate [between him and Yingjie]. His emotions are more intense, so it's easier to show the difference.

"On the other hand, Yingjie is bubblier and more positive about life in general. So, with that, he was easier to play, but yet harder to differentiate. He could be any other character, he's closer to the boy-next-door."

Desmond also thought about including unique gestures to differentiate the brothers on screen, but he eventually decided against it to portray twins accurately.

He shared: "On the streets or people around us who are twins, they are just two completely different people. They don't behave deliberately in a certain way for no reason. The only thing is that they look alike. Some of them look identical, but you can tell them apart.

"For example, in the entertainment industry, we have actresses Hayley and Jayley Woo. They look identical, but we can tell them apart by the way they behave, how they carry themselves, speak and think. So that was my approach for these two characters; without adding too much unnecessary stuff, I kept it as genuine and real as possible but through their gaze and story development, viewers will get it."

Playing both characters on the same day

Playing two characters in the same series also meant that Desmond was in 90 per cent of the scenes and his filming schedule was tight, working almost every day from May till August last year.

He shared that before filming began, he and the production team had decided he would only play only one character each day. However, it became impossible to do that when the schedule was disrupted after the first few weeks of filming because of various factors.

"I would be playing Yingjie at the start of the day and when everyone headed for lunch, I'd be left alone at the set with the makeup artist to change my hairstyle, makeup and outfit to Yingcai. So by the time the actors and crew came back from lunch, I will be starting work. That was the cycle for a long time and I had to eat while I was getting my hair and makeup done sometimes," Desmond recounted.

He also fell ill a few times during filming and told us about the day he filmed under the sun on a beach in the morning and went to the cold funeral home in the afternoon for a scene on Yingcai's funeral.

He said: "I was already having a cough and slight fever a couple of days before, but I was trying to endure it through, hoping to get better. I was filming a scene at a funeral home with my photo as big as half of a television screen and a closed casket at the back. I was very sick at the time and had to film a scene where I gave a eulogy to 'myself'."

He joked to us that it was "quite ironic" that he was so ill at his reel funeral.

Speaking French

Desmond also met another challenge during filming, which was to speak French.

He shared: "It was tough, I told the production team they really need to give me more time. Normally, I can memorise my lines one day prior and it can be 12 to 20 pages. But for the three to four lines of French, that took me about over two months to remember."

While he had a language teacher to help him, Desmond found it hard because some of the pronunciations are not used in English or Mandarin, such as the uvular fricative 'r' and nasal vowels.

To ensure that he pronounced them accurately, he practised with Google Translate by recording his voice and ensuring that the translations are correct.

The most effective way of learning to speak a foreign language is to converse with a native speaker.

"I was at a Cartier event and some of the representatives were from France, so I spoke the lines to them and asked if they understood what I was saying. They said they do, although the accent and pronunciation were a little off. For me, that was at least a good sign," he recounted.

He also shared he had to speak French with two other actors in the scene.

"None of us are French speakers, so basically, we were just memorising and regurgitating our lines. It was funny, only one of them learned French in university. After filming the scene, I asked the actress if she knew what we were saying and she said she didn't," he laughed, adding that they had to film the scene a few times to get it right.

'Pregnant ah?'

Desmond revealed earlier this month that he and his wife are expecting their second child, a son.

When asked how he found out about the pregnancy, he said Mrs Tan gave him a surprise during Chinese New Year.

"We were celebrating and drinking at a friend's place. The next morning, she told me she was feeling a bit nauseous and I jokingly said to her, 'Pregnant ah?'" he recounted.

They went out for dinner that night and bought a pregnancy kit. They were celebrating their daughter's — affectionately known as Miss Tan — monthly anniversary the next morning, when Mrs Tan revealed the good news to him.

He shared that their child is due in September or October.

"I'm very excited... I think it will definitely change the [family] dynamics because my wife and I dote on our daughter a lot now, so to have a second child, it'll be an interesting change, especially a boy. I was not an easy child when I was young, so I think karma will hit me hard. I don't know whether my energy can keep up with two running around, but we'll see," he laughed.

The couple also tried to tell their daughter, now aged 13 months, she is going to be an elder sister soon, but believed she is too young to understand at the moment.

"When my wife and I came home from the gynae, I whispered to my daughter, 'You are going to be a jiejie (elder sister) soon' but she didn't understand anything. We also took her to the gynae clinic to listen to the foetus' heartbeat, though she doesn't know what is going on. All she wants to do is to touch the apparatus and I had to hold her away," he recounted.

He believes that she may eventually understand it.

Desmond shared: "We are constantly telling her that. It's funny, after the Instagram Reel went out, all our neighbours started changing the way they called her. In the past, when we brought her out for walks around the neighbourhood, they would call her 'meimei (younger sister)'. After the news came out, they would say 'you are going to be a jiejie soon'. It hurts me a bit that she is not meimei anymore, but at the same time I am excited about it."

Devil Behind The Gate will be available on demand for free on Mewatch from April 28 and premieres on April 30, airing on weekdays at 9pm on Channel 8.

yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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