Crazy Rich Asian’s Pierre Png Is The Most Hardworking (& Handsomest) Star On Singapore TV - 8days Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Crazy Rich Asian’s Pierre Png Is The Most Hardworking (& Handsomest) Star On Singapore TV

Fact: Pierre Png is the hardest working man on TV. He is also celebrating his 20th year in showbiz this year. And what better way to mark this milestone than with a role in one of 2018’s most anticipated Hollywood movies? (This story first appeared in Issue 1448, Jul 19 2018)

Crazy Rich Asian’s Pierre Png Is The Most Hardworking (& Handsomest) Star On Singapore TV

Photos: Aik Chen / Styling: Martin Wong / Make-up: Lolent lee using YSL / Hair: Sylin Yer at Shunji Matsuo / On Pierre: Cotton shirt & denim jeans, both from Love MoschinoThese photos were shot on location at Llyod’s Inn. Special thanks to the staff for their kind assistance.(This story first appeared in Issue 1448, Jul 19 2018)

After two decades in showbiz, what exactly is Pierre Png’s thing? Maybe it’s being ridiculously good-looking. After all, Zoe Tay once declared on IG that he’s “the best-looking actor in Mediacorp”, so you know it’s true. Or maybe being popular is his thing. We know everyone loves him. Have you not seen him hanging out at the Rugby Sevens finals with Rui En, who’s famously selective when it comes to friendships? “That was pretty much our first date (laughs). She is a very respectable person and she had a spate of bad luck. I’m glad she’s happy and in a good place right now,” he says of the famously-private actress.

Pierre Png’s thing at this moment definitely isn’t finding the right parking spot with ease.

It is T-minus 24 hours to the Trump-Kim Summit and as the world is falling over themselves trying to predict what will happen during that bigly historic moment, Pierre has to contend with one of life’s greatest frustrations. He’s arrived early for the shoot to find no empty lots outside the location: boutique hotel Lloyd’s Inn, which is just a stone’s throw from the late former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy-filled and saga-fueling Oxley Road family home. (We didn’t mean for today to get so political, really.) Pierre then goes on to park his hulking Land Rover at the foot of the hill… only to see that a lot had freed up after trudging his way back up. So he hurries down to get his car, drives back hastily and… “Please don’t say that someone took the spot already,” I ask the actor in anticipation.

“No! I finally managed to park right outside,” he laughs, as he wipes the sweat off his brows.

You can say that the lot was always his — he just had to put in more work to get it. It only dawned on me later that the same can be said for Pierre’s career thus far. The actor, who turns 45 this year but is still the benchmark for what a boyishly handsome guy should look like, is one of those people destined to be famous. He may be the handsomest man on local TV, but he’s also the most hardworking.

Anyone who’s worked with the actor would know that’s his thing. His rise to Ch 8 A-lister status was always an uphill battle. This is the Baba boy who could barely speak Mandarin, who had to work doubly hard when it came to learning his lines compared to his linguistically-blessed colleagues, who never gave up, who finally ended up as one of Chinese drama’s most dependable leading men, and who now peppers his conversation with Mandarin phrases.

He can have all the parking lots he wants, if you ask us.

Cotton shirt, cable knit sweater & pants, all from Hermes



2018 marks the actor’s 20th year in showbiz. Not that Pierre was even aware of the milestone. “Now that you say it, there are suddenly a lot of emotions and thoughts going through my mind,” he chuckles, beaming that famously cheeky grin. The rest of the crew has not arrived yet so it’s just the two of us chilling out in the Big Skyroom, a duplex suite with pristine white walls and a sun roof that engulfs the room with natural light.

The St. Gabriel’s Primary and Holy Innocents High alum came to fame in that era where must-see TV actually meant sitting in front of the television at a specific time so you could watch your favourite star in the latest drama. Those days may be over — thankyouverymuch catch-up video and the Internet — but he still has that level of fame that his younger colleagues can only dream of. He is a household name that people in your household, from age 18 to 80, actually know and talk about.

Like when I was scouting for locations for this shoot and ended up speaking over the phone to a guy who didn’t sound Singaporean. Or at least didn’t sound like he watches Ch 8. When I told him it was Pierre whom we would be shooting, he immediately said in Indian-accented English, “Yes, I know who Pierre Png is.”

This fame thing started 20 years ago. In a Ch 5 talent competition aptly-named The Fame Awards, where the finalists included one Michelle Chong, who was the hot favourite to win it all. Pierre, then 24 and fresh out of NS and “egged on by his kakis” to take part in the contest, emerged the overall champion. “In the end, the one with the most telegenic look (and a memorable alliterative moniker) won,” 8 DAYS wrote back then about Pierre, whom we had also described as a “natural charmer”.

“I didn’t think I would win, but I also didn’t think I would lose,” Pierre tells me, as if the Fame Awards had just happened yesterday. “So just try lah ’cos you never know, right? And I just never looked back from there.”

Yes, looking back is not one of Pierre’s things. But he does like looking, though.

“I’ve never been here before,” Pierre says to me when we had met earlier at the Llyoyd’s Inn lobby. He looks around in wide-eyed wonder, taking in his surroundings. “How long has it been around? How did you guys find this place?” Here’s something about Pierre everyone should know — he’s always looking and observing, asking and learning. It’s like he’s downloading information into that thumbdrive in his head which he will somehow find a way to process into his craft.

Asking questions. Actually, that should be Pierre’s thing. At times, it can feel like you’re the subject matter instead of it being the other way around. He wants to learn everything about you — What sports I do, how many siblings I have, what does my sister do, what schools I went to, if it was fun being in a boys school, which Ch 8 shows I liked, and if any of them were his — but it never borders on being intrusive. What you do feel is his sincerity and eagerness to connect.

It’s why we end up having a conversation instead of an interview. And at the end of it, it feels like he now knows me as well as I know him. The only thing missing? That there wasn’t a six-pack of beer.
 

2018 may also be the biggest year in Pierre’s career. Apart from starring in three Toggle series and one Ch 8 drama, You Can Be An Angel 3, he will also be seen on the big screen
in the Hollywood movie, Crazy Rich Asians. The film, adapted from Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel of the same name and which also stars Henry Golding, Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh, centers on the crazy rich lives of Singapore’s wealthiest elite. In the Jon M. Chu-directed movie, Pierre plays Michael Teo, a dashing former army guy-turned tech entrepreneur who is married to a woman from one of Singapore’s richest families. Pierre says there are a lot of similarities between him and Michael, one of which is that they “both married up”.

Now, if I were to ever have a daughter, I would want her to find a man like Pierre Png. Seriously, being a great husband has to be his thing. Just listening to the way he gushes about Andrea DeCruz, his wife of 15 years (and partner for 19), is enough to make us feel bad about our own relationship. “I’m very grateful for her ’cos she understands what I do,” he says of Andrea. “She has made me believe that I can do whatever I set myself out to do. I mean I already know that but she made it believable, she made it possible. So she really is my sanctuary, my rock. If I think I can’t do something and I talk to her about it, she’ll say, ‘What’s there to worry about?’”

They have one of Singapore’s most famous love stories, but here’s the abridged version: They first saw each other in 1999 at a hair salon — he recognised her but feigned indifference, she noticed him but was talking to someone else — but were only introduced to each other backstage at a play some time later. They had only just started going out when he got into a motorbike accident while on his way to meet her. He was still holding on to the bouquet of flowers he had gotten for her when she rushed to see him in the hospital. And the TLC she showered him during his stay sealed the deal for him. At that point, their relationship was kept a secret from the public but then came the Slim 10 saga in 2002. She suffered liver failure after taking the slimming pills and he decided to donate part of his liver to her despite the high risks involved.

His selfless act not only saved the love of his life, it also made him a national hero… and a national heartthrob. As if women needed more reason to swoon over Pierre Png. It’s why a whole generation of Singaporeans will forever think of Pierre as the knight who saved his damsel-in-distress.

After the shoot, he gives me a lift home, because a) it’s on the way and b) he’s a good guy. It’s actually my second time in Pierre’s car, though I’m not sure if the star would remember. It was a number of years ago when Mediacorp was still on Caldecott Hill. I had stupidly decided to leave via the back entrance but because they had already shut the back gate, I had to walk the route which would take me past a row of deserted and very creepy warehouses. It was getting dark fast, though not as fast as the dread and paranoia filling my head. After all, we’ve all heard stories of how notoriously ‘dirty’ this part of the old campus was.

Suddenly, a car stops next to me and out pops Pierre’s head. “Hey, why are you walking this way? You know what, hop on. I’ll give you a lift,” he says. And just like that, Pierre Png came to the rescue. Now that has got to be his thing.

8 DAYS: Can you believe it’s been 20 years?
PIERRE PNG: (Smiles) You know, when I was younger, NS was the longest thing I ever committed myself to. The next longest thing would be my marriage (laughs). You know, 20 years of doing something [for me], yes it is… a record.
This is your first full-time job right?
(Nods) And I hope there will be more years to come. But yeah, 20 years. It makes me think, “Am I that good?”, “I can only get better”, or it just reminds me of my expiration date (laughs). So many thoughts!
You started in 1998. What would you have kept in a time capsule from back then?
I would have keep the scripts from the first and last seasons of Phua Chu Kang. And also the script from my first Chinese drama just so I can compare the notes I wrote on it compared to [the notes I write] now. I still can’t believe I did my first Chinese drama!
Why did you throw them away?
’Cos they were so horrifying (laughs).
Even the PCK scripts?
Well [I threw them away] ’cos I didn’t think [PCK] would ever end. But all good things come to an end. I would also have kept the Fame Awards brochure. In fact, I’ve been asking around for the Star Awards booklet from the year I won Best Actor [for The Journey: A Voyage]. I didn’t keep it!
Why not?
I don’t know! I’m a really for-the-moment [kind of person]. I just didn’t think about it. But I still have the trophy lah, thank goodness (laughs).
 
What do you remember most fondly about the ’90s?It would mean I was still in the army? Yeah, that would be it.Why is the army so close to your heart?I really enjoyed it. If things had gone well, I would have signed on. I would have joined the commandos.Your life would have been so different.Andrea and I talk about this all the time. We think I may have just done one contract (laughs). I think I would have been more of a welfare officer. I’m all for having fun.Why would you guys talk about this?’Cos we say how our lives, our paths just crossed. We might have [still met] but Andrea is so sought-after. I mean….. doctors, lawyers… You know they would (pauses) and she settled for me. I would imagine the only time I would get to meet Andrea was at the NDP ’cos she hosted it so many times. And even then, I would be in uniform. Like hello, you’re just a lieutenant (laughs)’
2014 was a good year for you ’cos you were named Best Actor at the Star Awards (for The Journey: A Voyage) and at the Asian Television Awards (for Ch 5 drama Zero Calling). Did you see it as vindication for people doubting your acting abilities?I think when that year came and went, it made me realise that things were not that bad lah. While I was celebrating, I looked at myself in the mirror and I realised that I had won an award when some of my colleagues never even got a chance to come close. So I it reinforced what I believed about the industry and the hard work that I put in. It made a difference in my career but the very next day, you’re are back to work and it’s the same thing all over again. Sure, people tease you about it but you also realise that the standard has been raised. I tell my nephews and nieces that what I learnt from this is that, if you want to be good, you

Advertisement

Shopping

Advertisement

Want More? Check These Out

Watch

You May Also Like