In the 1990s, Chew Chor Meng was popular for his boyish good looks, cheerful attitude, and comedic roles like Ah Bee (from the Channel 8 sitcom Don’t Worry, Be Happy) and Mr Kiasu from the eponymous Channel 5 comedy.
However, the local actor has a side to him that even his wife and mother didn’t know about.
In the latest episode of the meWATCH talkshow Hear U Out, local host — and Chor Meng’s co-star in Don’t Worry, Be Happy — Quan Yi Fong pointed out that the Chor Meng she met while filming the series was “the real you that I know” and what everyone saw of the actor later on “wasn’t the real you that I liked”.
This sparked a discussion on what the 51-year-old was like on set back then.
Chor Meng said his colleagues found him “smart and bad-tempered” — although he never lost his cool on the set of Don’t Worry, Be Happy — and that he was “known for telling dirty jokes” and “swearing a lot”.
Screengrab from meWATCH
Even Yi Fong didn’t believe he was someone who swore because he had a “pretty boy look”. She also said that he “never showed this side of you to the public”.
Chor Meng added: “It’s not just the public. Dennis Chew once said to me, ‘You’re really good at swearing.’ My wife got a shock. She asked me why I wasn’t like that in front of her.”
The actor confessed that he doesn’t use vulgarities when he’s with his wife and his mother.
As for why he swears and tells dirty jokes, he explained: “I needed a way to release the stress from filming. Nowadays, everyone’s on their phones once they’re done with filming. In the past, we had to tell jokes.
Local actor Chew Chor Meng. | Screengrab from meWATCH
“Or when we got bored during filming, we would do double entendres on some lines. Like, how about we replace the lines with vulgarities?”
Due to his antics, the cast and crew of Don’t Worry, Be Happy became a tight-knit family, Yi Fong said.
But Chor Meng has had his fair share of brickbats from the public though it doesn’t bother him.
He said: “Some people think I’m a show-off, arrogant, aloof, but I don’t care about those things.”
This article was first published in AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
Lead image source: Screengrab from meWATCH
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