‘I have to put down my ego’: Nick Teo on acting lessons in Taiwan and wise words from Chen Hanwei

When local actor Nick Teo was told to go out and speak to the locals when he was in Taipei for an eight-day acting course with other Mediacorp actors, he did not understand the purpose of it.

As someone who used to be shy and did not want to talk to people, the 34-year-old was apprehensive about speaking to anyone, much less to people in a foreign country.

However, once he completed the exercise, he realised something — he had experienced the lives of the people that he had spoken to.

Speaking to AsiaOne recently on the trip, Nick said that he has learnt to appreciate the art of acting through the course and added that the opportunity was something that he treasured.

“I have to put down my ego and not let my job define me. Acting is all about portraying people’s lives. These people may be the one you just talked to, seen or someone around you,” he said.

Nick was one of the eight Mediacorp actors, including Ayden Sng, Denise Camilla Tan, Zhang Zetong, Chantalle Ng, He Yingying, Gini Chang and Sheryl Ang, who attended the acting course between July 17 and 24 in Taipei.

They learnt about body movements and voice acting and heard from experienced actors and directors during the lessons.

Using his ‘power’ as an actor to help others ‘find a voice in the world’

One of their acting coaches was Taiwanese film director Wang Shaudi, who showed them videos about people with rare diseases.

Nick said that seeing how “cheerful and strong” these people were when describing what they had gone through inspired him as an actor.

It motivated him to want to portray a character with similar life circumstances as he felt that he would be very “content” if given a chance to help them “find a voice in the world”.

He added: “I really want to use my ‘power’ as an actor to help someone. It will be so meaningful.”

Nick said Shaudi also told them that “living their own life is the best experience an actor can have and to constantly upgrade themselves”.

This coincides with what local veteran actor Chen Hanwei told him previously.

He shared: “Hanwei told me that acting cannot be taught. It is all about life experiences. Now I understand what he meant. Being an actor is not about you.

“We should never isolate ourselves thinking we are different from others and we should live our life like any other people so that we can have the life experience to portray any character.”

Bringing acting to ‘another level’

Besides understanding the life purpose of an actor, Nick also learnt to improve his acting skills, and one of the most memorable things he was taught was voice techniques, which he believes can bring his acting to “another level”.

“Usually during filming, we will need to retake some scenes and the voice techniques our acting coach taught us allow us to keep using it without losing our ‘feel’ for the scenes.

“I hope that I am able to speak differently for different characters. The way someone speaks is one of the most distinguished ways to differentiate a character,” he said.

Nick shared that in the past when he had to cry in a scene, he thought that he needed to relate the situation back to himself or the role that he is playing. However, in this course, he had once again learnt that acting is not just about him.

He said: “Our acting coach taught us that we are able to feed off emotions through each other and the energy on the set.”

Enjoying Taiwan

Although Nick and the other actors were there to learn, it was not all work and no play. Nick shared that they visited the night markets and checked out local food together.

“In the mornings, Zetong would send text messages to our group chat indicating some local breakfast stores. I seldom acknowledge the messages but we would see each other at the store later!

“Our favourite thing to do was to visit the night markets and we went to Ximending and Raohe night markets together,” he added.

His fiancee, local actress Hong Ling, 28, also joined him in Taiwan after the course ended and they toured Yilan together on a rented bike — in the midst of a typhoon warning.

Nick shared: “Fortunately, the typhoon did not hit Yilan. The first day when we were there, there were very strong winds and some parts were raining. We even went to the beach to ‘have a taste’ of how strong the wind can be.

“I was quite shocked that the wind could really topple me! On the second day, the typhoon left but Hong Ling and I still wore our raincoats. The locals gave us weird stares. It was quite funny, so we took it off in the end.”