Playing twisted character in new drama is Bryan Wong's 'darkest moment' of 2026

Bryan Wong has played his most challenging character yet in the upcoming local drama Keep It Down.

The 55-year-old local actor-host told AsiaOne he was "yearning" to play serial exhibitionist Ong Khe Hui because the role was "so not me".

Keep It Down tells the story of urologist Tang Yijun (Paige Chua), who struggles with physical intimacy after a traumatic encounter in the past with Khe Hui.

She works closely with psychotherapist Zac Lee (Romeo Tan) and gynaecologist Lam Weikang (Desmond Tan), trading insights on interdisciplinary cases. After navigating treatment and surgery with Weikang who is diagnosed with testicular cancer, Yijun finds her friendship with him gradually developing into something more.

By a cruel twist of fate, Khe Hui becomes Yijun's patient after he is diagnosed with life-threatening penile cancer. As she suppresses her trauma to operate and provide him with professional care, Khe Hui realises that Yijun is one of his former victims and launches a medical malpractice lawsuit against her.

Bringing exhibitionist to life

Bryan explained to AsiaOne that he had to tackle challenging physical scenes, including one featuring masturbation, but more than that, he had to portray the psychological complexity which shapes Khe Hui into a tragic antagonist.

He shared: "If we were to look into Khe Hui's life, we would realise that his childhood plays a very important role in sculpting who he becomes in the future and his twisted way of looking at life. To me, he is a tragic character.

"I used to say that I enjoyed acting because I get to go into someone else's world and just not be me, but I take it all back, because I realised I'm very happy being who I am and thankful for my family and my friends. Whereas for Khe Hui, he doesn't have anyone like that... He is weirdly (someone to sympathetise). I pity him."

Playing such a challenging role took an emotional toll on Bryan as he had to set aside his own morals to devote himself to the character.

He recounted: "I can't play him and judge him at the same time. I had to embrace and just be him and that was the darkest moment of my life in 2026. It was rather bad, because there was nothing good or happy in his life."

Bryan also remembered that after filming emotionally charged scenes for three consecutive days, he was "emotionally and mentally gone".

When he reached home, he confided in his friends that he was feeling down and they immediately got into a group call with him, spending about two hours to help him feel better.

Despite the challenges, he added: "In retrospect, now that I'm done with the series and out of it, although I don't know how it would look, there is a certain level of gratification that I was able to allow myself to go to another space [and play a character like that]. I think that was pretty rewarding."

'Hilarious' surgery scene

Bryan also recounted the hilarious process of filming a penectomy scene with Paige.

He laughed: "I was lying down as they started 'operating' on my thighs, which I thought was quite hilarious, and I almost burst out laughing.

"I sneaked a peek at Paige and she was all serious while doing the 'amputation', but she was just fiddling with my thighs. At that point, it was just ludicrous. This is all part of acting and on screen, it will look like her character is performing penectomy, but in reality, she was just playing with my knees.

"When the scene is all pieced together, edited with cuts of people's faces and expressions and music, that's the magic of television and the art of storytelling."

Keep It Down will be available on demand for free on Mewatch from Oct 19 and premieres on Channel 8 on the same day, airing weekdays at 9pm.

[[nid:747370]]

yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne