'I disappointed him': Ian Fang feels he 'abused' Christopher Lee's mentorship

Back in 2011, local actor Ian Fang stole the hearts of audiences with his performance in the drama series On The Fringe, playing the younger brother of Fann Wong's character.

It was also through this connection that the 34-year-old got to know Fann's husband Christopher Lee, who became his mentor.

"I was taking the MRT home when I received a text message which said, 'Hi, I am Fann. I am using my husband's number to text you. I want to know if you are available from September to November, because Chris needs someone to act as his son in his drama.' I was like, 'oh my god'," he shared in the latest episode of YouTube series Rise 'n Shine Sessions.

The video, hosted by Simonboy, Noah Yap and Lukey, was released on Oct 11.

The drama Fann mentioned was Show Hand (2012), produced by Wawa Pictures, and Ian approached the latter for an internship.

Ian shared that when he first joined the company, Christopher was still filming medical drama The Oath (2011) and he worked as a production assistant on set. When he was subsequently offered the role in Show Hand, he was told that he would still be a production assistant when he was not filming.

He recounted that Christopher, 53, was someone who liked to share his experiences and he was able to learn a lot from the senior actor during the process.

Ian also started calling Christopher "shifu" (master).

"For about 13 years, Christopher was really quite a good mentor to me in terms of my acting," Ian shared, adding that the former would point out areas for improvement.

However, various news about Ian in 2019 made him feel that he had let Christopher down.

"I think I disappointed him a few times. He doesn't say it, but I can feel it," Ian said.

While he didn't specify the incident, it was believed to be his scandal that year.

In 2019, a private exchange between Ian and local actress Carrie Wong via direct messages (DMs) on Instagram was leaked. Besides the inappropriate language used, it was understood that both of them had their own partners then. Both Ian and Carrie released separate statements later to explain the situation and apologised for their behaviour.

"During the period in 2019, he really kicked my butt. I saw him outside Mediacorp and he told me, 'Wow, you really, come here.' He did it for my own good. I think it's true that I disappointed him in a way that I abused the relationship between a mentor and student. I believed a lot of people wanted to learn from him and he tried to be fair to everyone, but he really taught me well and led me to a certain stage of my life," Ian said.

Christopher also said, when Ian called him shifu, he wanted to feel proud of him. Ian reflected on this and he felt that he had "let Christopher down".

"Nowadays on social media, I don't call him shifu anymore, I just call him elder brother. When I am at the stage where I can make him feel proud of me, I will call him shifu again," he explained.

Towards the end of the episode, when Simonboy asked if he had anything to say to Christopher, Ian responded in tears: "I want to say sorry. I feel really bad towards him. That's all I can say. He really took care of me but I disappointed him for quite a bit.

"There are a lot of ups and downs in life and I have a lot of emotions that nobody would know. People would always think that Ian Fang is quite cool, arrogant and all that, but I'm also quite sensitive and fragile."

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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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