20
8 DAYSscene & Heard
Time to
Edwin
Fresh-out-of-NS
EDWIN GOH tells
us how his time
in the army has
mellowed him, his motivation to bulk
up and which Ch 8 actor he keeps
getting mistaken for.Zoe Tay sinks into the couch
next to Edwin Goh and Chen
Shucheng. “He acted in the same
show as me seven years ago,” she
tells the veteran actor about Edwin,
who last worked with her in 2010
movie Love Cuts. “I always mix him
up with the other actor,” Shucheng
replies. “Who?” Zoe asks. Turns
out that Edwin’s doppelganger, or so
Shucheng thinks, is none other than
fellow Ch 8 actor Shane Pow (more
on that later). The very affable Ah Jie
turns to Edwin and asks, “You ORD
already ah?” A relieved Edwin replies,
“I waited very long.”
Indeed, if you’ve been wondering
where the up-and-comer vanished to,
well, he’s been serving his military
service. For Edwin die-hards, it’s
been an arduous two-year-long wait
for his TV comeback. But no one is
happier than the actor himself that
the wait is finally over. If you follow
Edwin on IG, you’d have seen his
posts eagerly counting down the
days till he ORDs.
Well, good things come to those
who wait. A Million Dollar Dream,
about a man who wins a million
dollars in the lottery, is the ah-boy-
turned-man’s first Ch 8 drama after
finishing his National Service. And
all that military training has served
the 23-year-old well. Edwin confesses
that the imposed discipline in the
army has mellowed him. Don’t forget
that this is the same youth whose
bad boy behaviour, like being caught
for underage smoking and famously
cheating on his ex, Jayley Woo, with
Dawn Yeoh, threatened to eclipse his
acting achievements. He also sportsa more mature look. In place of the
once-scrawny lad is a lean beefcake,
whose bulging biceps were on full
drool-worthy display when he slipped
into a wife beater at the drama’s
imaging session. Yup, someone is
hell-bent, in his own words, to “shed
[his] kiddie image”.8 DAYS: You finished your
National Service in
August. How does it
feel to be out of the
army?
EDWIN GOH: Honestly,
when I collected my IC, I
felt like I had come out
of prison. (Laughs) I’m
very happy that I can
now fully concentrate on
my acting career. In the
past, whenever I took on
an acting project, it was
always being interrupted
by either my studies or NS.
Now, I hope to do as many
shows as possible.
Isn’t prison way too
harsh a word?
I didn’t like that regimented
lifestyle or the feeling of
being caged (laughs). But it
was still a good experience.
I learnt a lot about myself
and did some soul-searching
in there. I think NS has
made me mellower and more
disciplined — disciplined in
the sense that I now own
the responsibility of having
to do things that I don’t like.
My goal in NS was to better
myself and my stylist told me