Li Nanxing explains why his surgeon role in dystopian-crime drama The Leftovers is 'hardest I've ever had to play'

With four decades of experience in the entertainment scene, local veteran actor Li Nanxing has bagged dozens of roles — from Zhang Tianpeng in period drama The Journey: A Voyage (2013) to Wei Lantian in crime series C.L.I.F (2013-2016) — but his latest stint might be his most challenging one yet.

AsiaOne visited the set of Mediacorp's upcoming dystopian-crime drama The Leftovers on Sept 26 — where actors including Zoe Tay, Jesseca Liu and Shane Pow were filming a ballroom scene — and spoke to the 60-year-old, affectionately known as Ah Ge.

"This drama is the hardest role I've ever had to play because I have to act from young till old, across three drama seasons spanning around 30 years," he said, adding that it's also the first time he's worked with "so many actors".

The Leftovers is set between 2017 and 2043, where the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in the fictional island of Equaland results in severe environmental pollution and high rates of organ failure among citizens. Subsequently, organ transplantation becomes a necessity, giving rise to kidnappings and organ trafficking on the black market.

Immersing himself in the role

Nanxing plays the role of Xiao Wenze, a disgraced doctor who is determined to advance his research on artificial human wombs and lab-grown organs.

When he visited the film set at Johor Bahru's Iskandar Studios, witnessing the scenery and set design for the underground city, he was amazed at how "massive" it was.

"They have to look as dirty as possible, as if they're poorer than beggars, so I think these people are really pitiful," he said.

"It made me feel like I really exist in that world and the feelings slowly came, building up my role's character. Because I am a doctor, in order to help these civilians — the ones who are poor, in distress or sick — get healthy, I have to quickly develop my research."

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On whether his character is a villain by nature or circumstance, he chose the latter, citing the pressure from Equaland's survival-of-the-fittest environment.

"It depends on how you perceive the person, because I look at the overall story. Equaland has a law that once a person is brain dead, all their organs must be donated.

"My character wants to quickly develop his research so he can save them instead of having to harvest their organs because in this world, organs are worth a lot of money. The black market is fighting over and kidnapping people to harvest their organs for the rich."

Learning how to be a surgeon

Nanxing recently commemorated his 40th year in showbiz with a star-studded celebration held at Raffles Sentosa Singapore.

Although this is not his first time acting as a surgeon, he said it is the first he has been so involved in such a role.

"I have acted as a doctor before, also a surgeon, but I did not get the chance to really enter the surgery room or hold the medical tools in those roles.

"This time, we really had advanced equipment and even requested an actual surgeon to teach us how to handle the stitches, the protocols, etc. We really did it ourselves," he said.

As pigs are known to have the closest anatomy to humans, the show also used real pig kidneys, pig livers and pig skin on set for the surgical scenes.

Nanxing recalled that, over the long hours of filming, the organs would begin to smell but despite the stench, he had to remain professional and maintain his facial expressions during filming.

The future of virtual production

The Leftovers utilises virtual production and stepping into this new world, Nanxing was fascinated by the quality of the set and "dumbfounded" when he first saw the virtual world.

When asked if he prefers working on physical sets or with virtual production, he leaned towards the latter because it allowed him to "experience and feel what the future is like".

"This virtual world made me realise that all the people behind it love to play games. They deal with games 24/7 so they're very imaginative," he said, praising the production team.

"We need time (to understand) because they speak too fast and feed us too much info. We need to slowly digest. If we can't digest, we can't follow along, so learn loh." 

He added: "Virtual production will bring you to the future. Our acting will all be done with virtual assistance in the future. It can let you float from the first floor to the 50th and 100th floor." 

He also highlighted the need to maintain a distance from the LED screens on set as it would strain and tire the eyes, which was important for actors as they "use their eyes to act".

We also spoke with Zoe that day and she told us: "It's the first time I'm involved in virtual production so the first time I went to the virtual set, I felt very curious and found it interesting, exploring how this thing works."

She added that after a whole day of filming, she would feel a little dizzy because of the LED screens on set.

Zoe, 57, plays Ding Yazhu, the chairperson of Equaland National Hospital and Wenze's (Nanxing) boss.

Describing Yazhu as "kind of a villain" which she "rarely plays", she said: "On the surface, she acts like a very just businesswoman and chairperson but underneath, she does unjust things... using the hospital as a ploy to get organs and illegal methods to sell them on the black market."

While she may not have as many action scenes this time around, she had a chance to showcase her dancing skills in a song-and-dance scene, performing in the passionate style of tango.

She said: "I learned some Chinese dance when I was young so I have a bit of foundation. Along the years in this industry, I was always given a chance to perform in certain events like charity shows, so I have been practicing all these years so I still have a bit of the fundamentals there."

The scene features a solo number by her followed by a duet with Shane. Being her first time dancing this genre, she said: "Tango has a lot of punching, a lot of energy - it's a very sexy and energetic dance.

"We were given two lessons to complete the whole dance. The first lesson, my partner (Shane) and I took two hours."

For her second lesson, she spent 90 minutes learning her solo part and the rest on her duet with Shane, joking that she had "returned it all to my teacher already" the next day.

The Leftovers also stars Desmond Tan, Jeremy Chan, James Seah, Zhang Zetong, Zhu Zeliang and Yunis Toh. The show has three seasons, with the first set to premiere in October 2026 on Mediacorp and Mewatch.

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esther.lam@asiaone.com

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