In a career under the spotlight, it's natural to bask in fame. But for local actor Richie Koh, it's his passion for his work that comes before stardom.

In a recent interview with AsiaOne, the 32-year-old spoke to us about what matters most to him in this year's 30th edition of Star Awards. A nominee in four awards — two performance-based and two popularity-based — he shared that it's the craft of acting he values above all.

"I don't really go for the fame route, but I want to go for performance — that's number one. If you're a singer, you definitely want your music to be listened to. If you're a dancer, you want to dance forever in your life."

'I want to tell people's stories'

For his role as Xiaoming in Coded Love, Richie has been nominated for Best Actor and The Show Stealer in this year's Star Awards Performance categories.

The character is also in the running for BYD Favourite Male Character, and Richie for Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes, which he was also nominated for but didn't win last year.

Regarding popularity awards, he remarked: "I always think that if you're known for something you do, it's great. But if you're known for something that you do particularly fantastically, I would be very honoured to be seen for that — this is something I've always hoped for. I want to tell people's stories, right?"

He previously received acclaim for his lead role as the intellectually disabled Zheng Tiancai in Your World in Mine (2023), which earned him two performance awards at Star Awards 2023: Best Actor and Favourite Male Show Stealer. His portrayal also landed him a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 2022 Asian Television Awards.

Richie, then 29, was the youngest Best Actor in 26 years since Christopher Lee's win at age 26 in 1997.

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The Spirit Hunter and A Good Child

Richie was speaking to us at the press conference for his new fantasy drama The Spirit Hunter and talked about his dual roles as Gouli Ge and Jian Ling.

In the drama, Jian Ling's soul is infused into a toy sword wielded by the jaded Gouli Ge. When the latter dies, 20-year-old Tian Nana (Hong Ling) becomes the next swordbearer, which curses her to see supernatural entities she must defeat.

Every time Jian Ling is summoned by Nana, his clothing would change and so Richie was given close to 20 different outfits.

"When I'm in costume, I'll try to imitate the way [my costume's archetype] speaks, so sometimes people on set won't understand me and they'll be like, 'Hahahaha...'

"So in one scene I was wearing a full British suit. And you know Peaky Blinders? I tried to speak like Tommy Shelby for that scene and I wanted to light a cigarette, then Nana made me disappear," he laughed. "So it's little things like that which I put into different scenes [to make Jian Ling more fun]."

Another interesting role he will be playing is transgender drag queen Jia Hao in the film A Good Child, which will premiere in December. He shared that the film's director Ong Kuo Sin had personally approached him to take on the role.

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"The director and I had been talking about A Good Child since 2023. He had the script and asked me if I would be interested to explore this and I said, 'Yes, of course.'

"He told me that this whole story is based on a real person's life — it speaks her story, about dementia, about the LGBTQ+ community, but in a good way when you reflect on parent-child relationships.

"Then, I met up with this person and followed her to work. So [performing] is all about that — the hard work you put in, understanding people and characters, and telling their stories."

The Spirit Hunter will be available on demand for free on Mewatch from June 30. It will also premiere on Channel 8 on July 3, airing weekdays at 9pm.

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kristy.chua@asiaone.com

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