SINGAPORE - School isn't what Ah Boys To Men star Joshua Tan needs a break from. It is where he escapes to.
The 23-year-old leading man of Jack Neo's hit local movie says Melbourne, where he is pursuing a degree in journalism and communications at Monash University, is where he gets to "chill out", away from busy acting schedules and being recognised by people.
When he's back in Singapore though, it's a different matter, with casting calls to attend and fans to meet.
"I enjoy my privacy and freedom in Australia, because I'm under the spotlight here," he said.
Tan was on a trip home over the weekend to appear at traditional pastry shop Thye Moh Chan's Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations at ChinaTown Point on Saturday.
For 45 minutes, the local actor - who appears in Thye Moh Chan's new commercial - posed for pictures with fans and played a game where he and his fans tried their hand at reciting traditional Chinese poems.
Ms Law Liang Ting, a reservations and ticketing officer at Resorts World Sentosa, was one of the fans who tailed the heart-throb from start to finish at the event.
A fan of the Ah Boys cast since their first fan meet last October, the 21-year-old has gone for almost all their public appearances, as well as Ah Boys actor Wang Weiliang's getai performances.
Over 500 pictures
She also has more than 500 pictures of her with the boys in her mobile phone.
"Joshua is a very good actor and Weiliang is very caring,' Ms Law said.
Tan said he's touched by the support of the fans since Ah Boys To Men was released last year.
"They're my regular gang," he said, nodding to a group of girls waiting for him to finish our interview.
Yesterday, it was goodbye to all that again for a while as he returned to Melbourne after just four days here so that he won't miss classes today.
Even though Tan missed quite a few lessons last semester for Ah Boys To Men Part 2 promotions , he managed to get three distinctions.
He says he hopes to do well again this semester, despite already having been away from classes for two weeks for the National Day Parade, at which the Ah Boys performed, and the filming of upcoming telemovie Hongbaos and Kisses alongside local actress Felicia Chin.
In it, he plays a gym instructor who gets caught in a messy love triangle between Chin's character and her mum, played by Amy Cheng.
"I was a bit nervous about the shoot because I had never done a kissing scene before," Tan said.
Though he was unable to participate in Neo's next movie The Lion Men - which stars fellow Ah Boys Wang and Tosh Zhang - due to his school schedule, he still keeps in touch with his former co-stars through four different group chats .
The boys, he revealed, are still very close to each other. Indeed, they rallied to support fellow Ah Boys actor Ridhwan Azman, 19, after news broke last month that he had hit his girlfriend and later had a meltdown on Twitter.
Ridhwan, who is now serving national service, was caught in a firestorm of controversy after his girlfriend posted pictures online showing a bruised face and saying that she had been hit by him after she refused to meet his friends.
He later apologised over Twitter, saying "there's no reason why anyone should hit girls", but has been uncontactable since.
Tan, who said he is the closest to Ridhwan among the boys, said: "He is a guy who doesn't filter, who doesn't think through his words, but I know him through and through, and he is the gentlest person.
"The action is not defendable, it's wrong, but I did advise him that admitting your mistake is the first part to your road to redemption." The boys will reunite for Ah Boys To Men Part 3 next June, after Tan graduates.
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