'Some days I'm a bit of a nutcase': Desmond Tan on his most intense role as a serial killer
Being the regular good guy on screen has made Singapore actor Desmond Tan gleeful about his latest role, where he plays a villain in upcoming Channel 5 legal drama “Code of Law”.
The 31-year-old plays banker and serial killer Derek Ho in the show’s fourth season, which also stars Keagan Kang, Sharon Ismail, Fauzie Laily and Oon Shu An, who plays Tan’s love interest. His last villainous role was in 2009 for Channel 8 drama “Together”.
In preparation for this role, Tan spent months researching serial killers and reading his script multiple times to make sure he knew when to play up the intensity of Derek Ho’s character.
“The good thing was that I didn’t go full method for this role, which was my original idea. Thank god I didn’t because this character is really dark. Some days I’m a nutcase on set,” Tan told Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore at a media conference on Thursday (25 Jan).
There are days where he prefers not to be disturbed and would even avoid speaking to the production team in order to stay in character.
“I’m just more quiet on those days. But on other days, I’ll hang out with the team,” he said.
During the course of his research, Tan was surprised to find nothing significant about the way serial killers spoke or looked.
“Your neighbour might look exactly like them. They’re normal people with a ‘special hobby’. This killer just has a thrill for the stuff that he does,” he said.
But that doesn’t make his job any easier because Tan still wants to be a memorable on-screen villain for his audience.
“When you’re playing a villain, people expect something out of you. If you play it too normal, people will say this person doesn’t look like a villain at all,” he said. “But when you reveal too much, people will think that you’re a superficial bad guy.”
This isn’t his only proud moment in recent months. After nearly 10 years of being an actor contracted under Mediacorp, Tan has finally made his silver screen break with “A Simple Wedding”, in which he stars opposite Taiwan actress Amber An.
This year, the actor will continue to focus on acting projects, one of which will see him acting overseas.
“Code of Law” airs on Channel 5 on 2 April.
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