Ayden Sng confirmed today (Jun 2) that he has renewed his contract with Mediacorp, even though there have been rumours and #fakenews swirling about the up-and-coming actor leaving the company.

In a phone interview with 8days.sg this afternoon, Ayden said he believes the speculations began brewing in March, around the time the nominees for this year’s Star Awards Top 60 Most Popular Artistes were revealed.

The 27-year-old was surprisingly misssing from the shortlist and spoke about the snub to a reporter from a local Chinese daily, who then decided to publish a sensational headline that made it sound like Ayden was thinking of quitting showbiz ‘cos he wasn’t nominated.

“I was actually quite upset over that specific article ‘cos it was factually untrue,” Ayden sighed, adding that he had explicitly told the journo that while he had some reservations about the entertainment industry, they had nothing to do with his lack of nominations.

The Duke University grad explained that back then, he was feeling “some tension” between him and the industry ideal ‘cos of his more straightforward personality, something he has opened up to 8days.sg about before.

“It takes a longer time for me to acclimatise and get used to what is expected of me and it was wearing down on me a bit, so while those feelings might propel me towards rethinking my journey in this industry, it’s not related to the Star Awards,” he explained.

To make matters worse, an English-language publication picked up and translated the piece, spreading the false report to an even wider audience.

“I got hate mail ‘cos of that article,” Ayden revealed. “People sent me Facebook messages or emails saying things like, ‘Who do you think you are?’, ‘Why are you so arrogant?’, and ‘You want to leave the industry just ‘cos you never got nominated?’”

“In my mind I was like, I explicitly told the reporter that, yes, while I was disappointed like any normal person would be, it wasn’t the be-all and end-all of my career, but I don’t know why they decided to paint that sort of picture in the headline, and as a result I got hate mail, which I never spoke up about ‘cos I just decided to stomach it as I was in the last leg of filming [Recipe of Life].”

The speculations were reignited when Joel Choo announced his departure from Mediacorp, with the Chinese papers wondering if Ayden would be “the next one to leave” in their coverage.

Ayden and his manager also started receiving more media enquiries about it as well.

In any case, Ayden is here to stay after signing a new contract with Mediacorp (although he refrained from revealing the duration of his contract), and it’s his immense love for acting that keeps him going.

“I should call it ‘drama addiction’,” he chuckled. “Towards the end of filming for Recipe of Life, the executive producer, who’s like my mentor, told me, ‘Ayden, you’ve become addicted.’ I got to take on a lot of challenging scenes in the second half of the drama, and the more I did it, the more enraptured I was by acting.”

After #P2HA comes to an end, Ayden will begin shooting two Mediacorp shows: a 10-episode mental health project in which he takes on the lead role as a school counsellor, and a 9pm drama with Felicia Chin and Shaun Chen, where he’ll have a major supporting role as a “relatively successful new actor”.

“I think the cool thing is that I’ll be filming both projects concurrently, which is something I’ve never done before,” he gushed. “It’d be interesting to toggle between the two characters ‘cos they’re so different. As an actor, the best thing you can achieve is full utilisation. I just wanna be working every single day while continuing to do other things that I love, such as fashion.”

As for how long he sees himself being an actor, he declared that he will “do it for as long as the conditions allow” him to do so. “I can only say that I give my word to those who support me that I will try my very best to find a way to stay [in this industry] no matter how challenging it is for me.”

He also has big ambitions that, if fulfilled, will see him expanding beyond the Little Red Dot.

“I wanna reach a point where I can open my eyes to different scales of production and see how far acting can go. For example, there’s method acting, which is not a common thing in Singapore ‘cos the roles here don’t really require it, but there are Hollywood and Chinese productions that do.”

“I don’t know if I’ll get there, but it’s something to look forward to and it reminds me not to settle for what I think is good acting.”

Photos: Ayden Sng/Instagram