Jack Tan's incredible commitment for his role in 'Gold'. Photos: Jack Tan/Instagram
It took Abang Adik actor Jack Tan three months to train to play badminton like a professional for the new film Gold.
Furthermore, the 33-year-old had to learn to play with his left hand, which is not his dominant one, as he is portraying national para badminton champion Cheah Liek Hou who plays with his left hand.
Cheah is a Paralympic Games gold medal winner, who is about to participate in this year’s Games.
According to Tan, what was more challenging than picking up this new skill was the fact that he had to put on a lot of weight for the role – 20kg, for some scenes in the movie.
In order to film the scenes that showed his character at his lowest, the production halted for three months so Tan could gain weight. This was after Tan had shot all the scenes of him playing badminton and looking fit.
“The body transformation turned out to be very difficult,” Tan told StarLifestyle.
“When I was talking to director Adrian Teh, we thought all I needed to do was to eat a lot. Can-lah.
“So every day I ate four meals. But, after a month, I saw that I didn’t gain any weight, which was at 67kg. How was I supposed to get to 90kg?”
The actor who is into extreme activities reasoned: “It was because I trained so hard for that earlier three months – six times a week – that my metabolism was high; it just burned all the food I ate.”
Worried that he won’t be able to meet the deadline, Tan started eating double every meal, and up to six meals a day.
“I ate desserts, drank soda, fried food, and went to sleep after eating. I had stomach upset so many times because I kept overeating.
"Finally, I gained 20kg. Liek Hou weighed 93kg in real life when he gave up playing badminton, but I got to like 87kg only,” Tan said.
He added: “And we shot for four days for all the parts where he had gained weight.
“In total, I was involved in the movie production for some six months.”
After the filming wrapped, Tan had to quickly lose all that weight as the film Abang Adik, which was released late last year, was gaining critical attention and he'd been invited to attend various international awards ceremonies.
“I ran every day and luckily lost all the extra weight I gained. But it did take me another three months,” said the in-demand actor who is going to China for his next project.
"This is the first time I have tried something like this and I think this is the last time too."
Despite the challenges, Tan said he's honoured to portray shuttler Cheah and is excited for Malaysians to see the movie Gold, which is based on Cheah's life and journey to his victory at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Gold is set to open at cinemas nationwide on July 11.
