If there was a chance to meet his younger self, Gurmit Singh would tell him to choose a different career.
The 59-year-old was on Rachel Lim’s podcast Who We Are, released on March 4, where he shared: “I would tell Gurmit to go be a system analyst. Don’t let your family go through what they went through.”
Rachel is the co-founder of fashion brand Love, Bonito.
He added he didn’t mean to show any disrespect towards fans and audiences who had supported him for the past three decades, explaining that his family were “disadvantaged” by his fame.
Gurmit said: “My kids had friends whom they were not sure of, whether they were really their friends or because the latter knew that they had a famous father. My family has lost their privacy too and it’s so unfair.”
He is best known for playing the titular role in local comedy sitcom Phua Chu Kang, but Gurmit believed that even if he’s not in the entertainment industry, the series would still come to fruition with another actor playing the role.
“I would be quietly doing programming in an office, having a family, going for holidays with nobody disturbing us, able to eat outside without having interference, able to go anywhere without having to time or to plan how we go there, how we dressed up, how I act in front of people, how I cannot be who I really want to be because I’m in the public eye,” he said.
Gurmit also shared that as a public figure known for being a comedian, he wasn’t allowed to show his true emotions, even if he was feeling down.
He recounted that when his mother died in 2001, people came up to him asking for a joke because they didn’t know about his situation.
“It was so difficult,” Gurmit admitted.
When his father died in 2003, he had to take two weeks off from filming Phua Chu Kang.
While on stage at the Asian Television Awards and also Star Awards to pick up his trophies, he took the opportunity to break the news to the public in his speech, telling them that he was not going to be the “funny guy” for some time because he was grieving.
“But of course not everybody watched the show so people still came to me and said, ‘Hey, tell me a joke, why so sad?’ When you become a public property like that, it’s hard, really hard. To put my family through that, not nice,” Gurmit said.
In an interview with The Daily Ketchup last August, he shared during that period, while he was able to perform in front of the camera, he became reclusive after the job was done and would cry every day in his car while going to and from work.
When asked what he was most proud of looking back at his life now, he told Rachel: “My wife and kids. I like to think that was the one thing I did right in my life.”
Gurmit married Melissa Wong in 1995 and they have three children aged 27 to 11.
He was also asked to share about his real self, which he said: “Gurmit is an introvert who is forced to be an extrovert and someone who has a lot of empathy and sympathy and is a mush inside.
“He is someone who often struggles to show his real self because he’s scared, because the public demands a certain way he should be.”
He added he wants to be remembered as a “good husband, good father and good friend”.
When Rachel remarked that he didn’t say anything about his profession, he said that those were “superficial”.
He added: “When you are in good company, it doesn’t have to be famous or high-ranking people, just good-hearted company, you will feel that and would want to stay for a bit longer. I think that’s beautiful. That keeps the world going around and keeps you sane.”
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