Tosh Zhang Reveals He Gave Up University Opportunity In Melbourne To Star In Ah Boys To Men In 2012

Tosh Zhang's Sergeant Ong was one of the most pivotal and beloved characters in Jack Neo's 2012 blockbuster Ah Boys to Men.

But who knew he almost passed on the role?

In light of the recent open casting call for Jack's upcoming firefighter-themed film, Ah Boys to Firemen, the 37-year-old actor reminisced his own Ah Boys to Men casting that kickstarted his journey to stardom.

Tosh revealed on Instagram that, in early 2012, he was preparing to leave Singapore for Melbourne to study film at university.

However, in March that year, he was scrolling through YouTube when he came across a video of Jack announcing his new movie, Ah Boys to Men.

To his surprise, Tosh, who had "built a small name in Singapore's YouTube scene" through his vlogs at the time, heard the casting directors mention his name.

"To the vloggers out there, if I were to name a few — Aaron Tan, Noah Yap, Tosh Rock — we see that you have the potential and you love being on camera," they said in the casting call video.

Tosh spent several days wondering whether he should audition before finally mustering the courage to reach out.

"Having zero acting experience, I failed miserably in my first audition with the casting team. I had a bad feeling that was it for me," he revealed.

"But thankfully, sometime later, Director Jack asked his team to bring me in for a face-to-face audition with him."

The actor said he nervously did his best under Jack's direction. 

Unexpectedly, he received an email from the team with good news just four weeks before he was due to leave for Melbourne.

"When I told my parents I wanted to stay [in Singapore] to do the film, they were like, 'Then what about university?' They were livid," said Tosh.

His mum had even taken out a loan to pay for his university fees, so she was understandably taken aback.

"Thankfully, she decided to let me defer my studies and give acting a shot," he wrote.

Tosh eventually did not pursue a university education and currently holds a diploma in New Media from Republic Polytechnic.

He later found out he had been cast as the strict, sarcastic, yet caring Sergeant Ong.

According to Tosh, he and the rest of the cast, including Joshua Tan, Maxi Lim, Noah Yap and Wang Weiliang, were "very worried that the movie wouldn't do well".

"We were afraid nobody would want to come watch a bunch of random unknown guys. What made it worse was that only 15 people turned up for our first promotional event before the film was released, most of whom were family and friends."

Surprisingly, the movie topped the box office on its opening weekend.

The two-part film eventually grossed S$6.18mil and S$7.08mil domestically respectively, while also breaking records for the biggest opening day and opening weekend for a local production.

"Moral of the story: Never try, never know!" the actor mused, adding the current casting call announcement for Ah Boys to Firemen as the final slide of his post.