SPIRIT OF THE THESPIAN

YOU DON'T GET TO BE A DUKE OF CALDECOTT HILL WITHOUT XU BIN'S DISTINCT AMALGAMATION OF STYLE, SUBSTANCE AND CHARISMA. A STORIED LIFE DOESN'T HURT, EITHER

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

AS A LIFESTYLE JOURNALIST, one of my job hazards includes having to interview celebrities. I say job hazard because it’s not always what late-night talk shows depict celebrity interviews to be like. It can get cold and impersonal. Sometimes you don’t get to converse with a human being. Sometimes, you’re talking to a walking PR machine, spewing practised key PR messages.

Fuzhou-born local actor Xu Bin is an exception to this. There is a very down-to-earth quality about his charisma. At our cover shoot, you can see in his eyes the playful young man, but also the seasoned actor. He’s done a ton of shoots like this one, but you can’t deny his appreciation for his career and how far he’s come even as the spotlight bears down on him.

Just as a library is a multitude of stories, the 34-year-old has lived a very storied life. He left his native Fuzhou at a young age to study in Singapore. His first brush with stardom came in talent competition programme Campus Superstar, but it was in 2012 and 2013 that he really burst into the scene, getting noticed for his performance as Oscar Yang in Gonna Make It and Zhong Junliang in Don’t Stop Believin’, the latter of which earned him his first Star Award for Favourite Male Character. Today, he’s also starring in a new role: that of father to his two children, Ethan and Elyse.

But what does it take to be Xu Bin? We study the spirit of the thespian that he embodies, and the guile and grit which has pushed him to the upper stratosphere of our local entertainment industry.

Congratulations on another strong showing at this year’s Star Awards, including getting on the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes list for the fifth time in 10 years. How does it feel?