At a recent press conference for the upcoming Chinese New Year movie 3 Good Guys, local businessman and content creator Tommy Wong recalled his experiences acting in his first lead role.
Also known as TommyNBCB, the 39-year-old is best known for founding the local burger chain Nothing But Cheeseburger.
The romantic comedy follows best friends Jeremy (Simonboy, also known as Simon Khung), Ah Bao (Mayiduo) and Mike (Tommy) on a trip to Thailand where they are confronted with the problems in their love lives. They are forced into a spiritual adventure, where they can only escape after learning empathy and winning back their partners’ love.
Back home, Mike is a verbally abusive and passive figure who depends on his wife En (Grace Teo) to do the household chores and take care of their child while she juggles a corporate job. The couple share an emotionally distant relationship, so much that En hides her cancer diagnosis in fear of upsetting him.
During the press conference, actress Germaine Chow — who plays Ah Bao’s wife — and Tommy talked about one particularly challenging scene they filmed in Bangkok.
Germaine, 37, recalled she had to wear heels and run long distances back and forth, to which Tommy supplied: “I remember it was about 38°C that day and I was wearing a three-piece costume, and Simon and I ran at least 20 to 30 times just for that scene.”
In the same sequence, he also had to repeatedly push Mayiduo on a trolley across multiple locations, and the total weight was at least 200kg according to Tommy.
Ultimately, Tommy “blacked out” and fainted in the middle of filming. It was only 40 minutes later that the cast, crew and a standby medical team brought him back to consciousness with fans and essential oils.
“I was wearing my mic pack on top of my costume, with no ventilation in [the carpark] set while running constantly. That’s why it was so tough for me, because I was sweating so profusely,” said Tommy to AsiaOne about the ordeal.
“We wanted to complete the scene quickly because it wouldn’t be good if the sun kept shifting in our shots, so as actors, we didn’t waste time on water breaks. I think I pushed myself too far.”
In a separate scene, Germaine caused Tommy’s gums to bleed after slapping him over 70 times. As most of the cast apart from Grace had no professional acting experience, they were not trained in landing fake slaps.
“For some reason, the scriptwriter felt that it would be funny that for every word I said in one line, Germaine’s character should slap me once,” explained Tommy. Unfortunately, he had nine words in that line, and almost 10 retakes.
“While Simon and Mayiduo took only two slaps each, I happened to be the random guy she slapped the most. And because she wore rings under her gloves, one of her slaps impacted my gums and a piece (of my gum) came out — I could taste my own blood.”
Throughout all the accidents on set, he remarked that he did not visit local clinics or hospitals for treatment as there was a medical team on set, in view of Thailand’s sweltering weather and their large production team.
‘Why I can do this work is because of her sacrifices’
On his character’s backstory — which was not explored in the movie — Tommy told AsiaOne: “Mike was born poor and he fought very hard to be successful in life, so he’s got this subconscious ‘alpha’ feeling that he needs to control everything.
“He thinks, ‘If you’re not doing what I want, that’s when I get angry.’ He sees money as his primary goal in life, which is why he tells En things like, ‘I’m already very stressed, so why are you disturbing me with your own problems? And I already told you not to work, it’s not like you’d earn much anyway.'”
However, having grown up as a millennial himself, Tommy admitted he sees some logic in Mike’s behaviour.
“As men, we’re brought up in a way where we need to earn money to look after our household, wife and family. The male psyche is wired to chase more money and less love, that’s why there’s so little communication.”
When asked what he would do differently from his on-screen counterpart, Tommy admitted wanting to learn more from the younger generations — Z and Alpha — in being open to communication.
Referencing his own relationship with his wife, Tommy opined that people change after being together for a long time, and so do their chemistry and circumstances. This year marks their eighth year of marriage, after five years of dating.
“Sometimes, we might take our partners for granted and assume they instinctively know what we’re doing or what we’re thinking,” he reflected.
“At some point between my wife and I, there were lots of misunderstandings because there was very little talking, and it got worse when all our attention was on our kids instead of each other.”
Eventually, they realised that something was “missing” and they agreed that they needed to talk to one another more and spend time away from their children, thus setting aside mandatory dates together. For instance, they recently signed up for weekly trampoline classes at Our Tampines Hub.
“If the parents are not in a good relationship, how are we supposed to take care of our children?” said Tommy.
With the filming of 3 Good Guys happening abroad in April 2025, Tommy had to be away from his wife and two sons – aged two and five years old – for a little over a month. He grew incredibly homesick.
“It’s lucky that we have technology, because my family and I FaceTimed a lot. [The cast and crew] joked that I forced my wife to take leave from work to visit me in Bangkok while we were filming,” he quipped.
But as soon as she arrived, the first thing she did was sleep in their hotel room.
“When I saw her, she seemed really tired and that was when I realised that she was just one person against two young boys for almost 40 to 50 days — she’s as good as a single mom when I’m filming overseas. It made me love and appreciate her so much more,” recalled Tommy.
According to him, she approaches his fame and success with “nonchalance”. As he sees his endeavours as work he has passion for, she motivates him with tough love.
“She’ll tell me, ‘If you’re going to do this, make sure you do your best – don’t come home and complain,'” he explained.
“But when she watched 3 Good Guys for the first time at the gala screening, she just told me she really enjoyed it and that I did a good job, and that she felt the one month we spent apart wasn’t wasted.”
He added: “I told her that while only I can see her sacrifice and tough work, what’s on the screen is for everyone to watch. Why I can do this work is because of her sacrifices, and I hope people can acknowledge that when a man is in the spotlight, it’s either his wife or mother agonising behind the scenes.”
3 Good Guys opens in Singapore cinemas on Feb 12, featuring guest appearances from Thai actors Ananda Everingham and Prang Kannarun, as well as local actors Mark Lee and Annette Lee.
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