IN order to create a stylish tango scene with his old friend and actress, Maya Karin, suave leading man Remy Ishak, who is a main star in the action-packed heist movie 'The Experts' suffered minor but painful injuries to his leg, knee and back.
"It really hurt me. For days, I had a painful back, knee and leg," said Remy, who plays a thief with good intentions named Amer in the star-studded movie.
According to 'Berita Harian', Remy said the scene was one of his most challenging to date, and to make it believable, he had to attend tango dance classes for six weeks with Maya, his co-star in the 2011 romantic comedy 'Cun!' and the 2010 Istana Budaya play 'Natrah'.
"I'm not good at dancing and honestly, I felt that those six weeks were very demanding. It was difficult to dance the tango, which is a very fast dance with precise, sharp movements."
"If given a choice between doing a fighting scene and a dancing scene, I would rather do a fighting scene, but dancing is a great opportunity for me to show my diverse talents and break out of my comfort zone as an actor.
"And if there is an offer for me to act in a musical, God willing, I would take up that challenge, too," he said at the premiere of 'The Experts' recently.
In addition to dancing tango, 'The Experts' also marked Remy's first silver screen effort playing a funny man, albeit one with a serious side.
"My character is not a slapstick comedy character. I chose to play Amer as a man with both a serious and a funny side.
"While I have played characters that have a funny side to them, on television and on video streaming services, Amer is the funniest character I have played to date."
Remy added that he did not want to play a typical funnyman like those found in most Malay language comedies.
"Originally, the producer and script writer Joel Soh wanted me to play Amer in a typically goofy manner, just like most Malay comedy characters.
"However, I decided to make him more complex, and after discussing and developing the character further, we both agreed that Amer would be my very own interpretation, a realistic yet sarcastic person who is not made up."
Remy said that he wanted to play each movie character differently, as viewers would think him "boring" and "un-adventurous" after a while if he didn't switch it up.
"I also wanted to avoid being labelled as an actor who just uses his 'hunky appearance' to sell his movies.
"Being deemed as a star who largely depended on his good looks and brawny image is a big 'no' for me," said Remy, adding that he made Amer look slightly messy with long, unkempt hair and a trim but untidy beard.
The Experts features strong performances by popular actors Datuk Aaron Aziz, Syafiq Kyle, Mimi Lana, Remy and Ray Dapdap.
The film produced by Astro Shaw in collaboration with ZAK Capital and TGV Pictures has been screened in 172 cinemas throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei since May 23.
The 121-minute film tells the story of a family of four brothers and a sister who have long given up being thieves, but are forced to commit one last crime together because of a threat to their lives from the most dangerous crime lord in town.
This crime lord forces them to commit a major heist with serious risks, and while they are at it, the siblings are tormented by old grudges that stem from family tragedies, as well as unresolved issues involving their late father, who lost his life while committing a major robbery.