Life lessons
FOR actor Tony Eusoff, playing ace reporter Jack Lee in the first season of Ntv7 series FRONTPAGE has been a fantastic ride filled with fun and memorable moments.
In the upcoming cliffhanger episode titled The End of the Line, Tony had some of the best moments playing his alter-ego.
In The End of the Line, an international crime leader is due to be executed. His three cohorts arrive in a last ditch effort to rescue him.
When their plans falter, they decide on Plan B – to exchange their boss’s life for that of Jack. Will he make it out alive? Or will this be the end of the line for our heroic reporter?
Tony Eusoff: ‘The 13th episode is my personal favourite for many
reasons. There are a lot of intense moments in that episode and a lot
of action scenes as well.’
“This final episode for this season uses an international terrorist movement as the premise for its story,” said Tony.
“I have to tell you that the 13th episode is my personal favourite for many reasons. There are a lot of intense moments in that episode and a lot of action scenes as well. Somebody is kidnapped and Jack gets his hands dirty. He also gets beaten up and injected with poison!
When asked what it had been like to play Jack Lee for 13 episodes, Tony admitted it was an invaluable experience.
“Jack Lee is my alter-ego. His biggest weapon is his wit. He doesn’t use physical violence but he pins down his enemies with pure wit. That’s what I really admire about Jack Lee.
“He knows what he does best, he’s a bit cocky but he has excellent combat lines! Jack Lee got most of the best lines in the series much to the envy of other characters.”
Tony also complimented the series director and said that it had been a great experience working with Kabir Bhatia.
“Whatever he touches, works.”
For Kabir, producing a cliffhanger episode was a big challenge.
“This episode is very interesting and has an international feel to it as it involves an international crime syndicate.
“Writing the episode was a bit more challenging as you need a very strong storyline to get viewers wanting to see more.
Director
Kabir Bhatia
gets his
first taste
of acting
on the
cliffhanger
episode of
FRONTPAGE
“I believe that the charm of the FRONTPAGE series is that each episode has a different story to tell and it never gets boring that way.”
Interestingly, Kabir has a cameo appearance in the cliffhanger episode, and his first time acting proved to be a nerve-wrecking experience!
“The storyline needed someone with some Arabic features and I had to fill in the role as we didn’t have anyone that would fit the bill on the set,” chuckled Kabir.
“It was my first experience being in front of the camera. Luckily I didn’t have any lines to memorise. I was very nervous and my crew had a good time laughing at me.
“It (acting experience) was a good eye-opener for me as a director to be on the other side of the camera.”
Kabir admits that there has been some talk about plans for a new season but nothing has been confirmed yet.
Tony thinks it would be sad if the series does not make it to a second season as he feels that FRONTPAGE is a completely different take on locally-produced TV programmes.
“The series is very different and is multilingual too. With FRONTPAGE hopefully we can continue to push the boundaries of local TV programming.”
- The final episode of FRONTPAGE airs this Sunday at 10pm on Ntv7.
