PUBLISHED ONJanuary 27, 2025 10:06 AMByYeo Shu HuiWhen actor-scriptwriter Jaspers Lai was preparing a sequel to the Golden Horse-nominated drag queen comedy Number 1, he pondered hard over the core message.
"Number 1 centres around how a man shoulders the responsibilities of a family. So when it came to writing the script for the second movie, I asked myself honestly, 'If this was my last movie, who would I want to have a conversation with?'" the 37-year-old told AsiaOne recently at the press conference for his new movie Number 2.
He then came to this realisation: "I want to have a chat with my father. I want to write a letter; while others may write a letter to their father, I wrote a script for him."
While he has a good relationship with his parents now, he felt that their communication could have been better when he was younger.
He elaborated: "I have a lot of things I want to talk about with my father, but when our conversation turns heated, it is hard for him to get it. Just like in this movie, when a father and his son have an argument, both of them have their own say and are unable to listen to each other.
"Now that I am grown up, I want to tell all these things to my father. In the movie, there's a line [where my character said to his father], 'You have to let go.' I have actually said this to my own dad before."
Jaspers, who plays drag queen Money in the sequel, also revealed that his parents attended the movie's gala premiere on Jan 14 and he was told by a friend later that his father shed tears twice during the screening.
He shared: "My father didn't tell me anything [after the movie], but I feel that it's enough. He gets it. My friend said he cried in a scene where Money had a chat with Chee Beng (played by Mark Lee) and also in the scene towards the end where Chee Beng addresses the audience about father-and-child relationships.
"And these are the two scenes where I really hope that my message is conveyed to all parents and children."
In Number 2, Chee Beng (Mark) faces a crisis among the drag community after getting into a conflict while working as a property agent. In an attempt to revive his career with the members of The Queens — Money (Jaspers), Pearl (Kiwebaby Chang), Italy (Darius Tan) and Unicorn (Gadrick Chin) — they travel to Thailand with Chee Beng's rebellious son Mason (Estovan Reizo Cheah), participating in a drag competition in an attempt to regain their former glory.
When asked if he would speak to his father separately, Jaspers said: "I think we already had a heart-to-heart talk through this movie."
Number 2 also provided new acting challenges for him; besides suffering a fall while performing in his drag costume, he also had a few emotional scenes and some lines in Thai.
Jaspers started taking language classes after receiving his script and memorised one line every day until filming for those scenes concluded.
He added: "I think [the learning process] is a group effort. When we were at the film set, I would find a Thai staff member, speak that line to them and ask, 'Khao jai mai?' (do you understand?)
"If they said they don't, then I know my pronunciation was wrong and I had to learn it again. If they understood what I said, then I would repeat to them that line on top of another new line ."
He also presented a different side of himself in scenes where he showed his character's vulnerabilities.
He shared: "I think the emotional scenes are hard to perform because in my previous works, I almost never had to go to that extent. I am unfamiliar with it, especially in a scene with Mark where we have a chat while smoking in the rain."
They were given a pack of cigarettes to use for the scene and Jaspers thought he would only need to smoke three sticks to get through it, but ended up using the whole pack.
"When I returned to my hotel room, I vomited. I felt so dizzy and couldn't sleep. I have never felt that way before," he revealed.
Number 2 opens in Singapore cinemas on Jan 28.
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