Benjamin Kheng, Julie Tan get hot and steamy for Wonder Boy

​For those who are raring to catch upcoming local movie, Wonder Boy, in theatres later this week when it premieres (August 3), here’s a minor spoiler for you – male lead Benjamin Kheng of local band The Sam Willows fame, as well as local actress Julie Tan will have not one, not two, but three “bed scenes” during the run of the 96 minute film, which is rated NC16.

The film chronicles three years of celebrated singer-songwriter Dick Lee’s life, leading up to the release of his debut album Life Story in 1974. Co-directed by Daniel Yam and Dick himself, Wonder Boy stars Benjamin as a young Dick Lee, who was known as Richard back then. Julie plays Richard’s mysterious love interest, Linda.

When asked about the bed scenes during a group interview after the press conference for the movie, which was also attended by Constance Song, Michelle Wong and Foo Fang Rong, yesterday (August 1), Benjamin deadpanned “It wasn’t awkward at all,” when asked about the scenes, as the rest of his cast members, Chen Yi Xi, Ryan Ang and Zachary Ibrahim broke out into raucous laughter.

“Guys, it was so awkward, I swear,” Zachary laughed, imitating Benjamin, who quickly denied everything.

“Julie was very professional about things,” the 26-year-old shared. “We had a job to do, [the scene] was part of the story, and it had to be done.”

“It’s actually a lot more technical than people think it is. When you do a love scene on camera, it airs for only three minutes but we actually filmed for five hours! The whole thing was really like a dance, it’s not as glamorous as you think it is,” he laughed.

Julie was absent at the press conference due to work commitments in China. However, we managed to touch base with the 24-year-old through a phone interview.

Just like Benjamin, Julie laughed that it was “very awkward” filming the scenes, as they had to get down to business and film the scenes early on, before they got closer to each other.

“We filmed these intimate scenes on the very first day of filming. It was really awkward at first, even when we were supposed to be intimate with each other, there was still a ‘friendship gap’ left between us. But, when we watched the playback on screen later, we realised that the camera had really magnified our awkwardness, making it really obvious,” Julie said.

The actress shared that the duo then had a quick chat with each other, and resolved to eliminate any trace of awkwardness between them for the cameras.

During the five-hour filming process, they gradually got closer with each other, sometimes opting to continue embracing each other even after the director yelled cut, in order to better portray the feelings their characters had for each other.