SG actor once lived in his car for four months and had to shower at a club with cheap membership fees

Singapore — Singaporean actor Thomas Ong has been described as a free spirit. The 52-year-old never seems to stay put in a place for too long. After leaving Mediacorp in 2000, Ong was involved in a few businesses, such as selling corporate gifts, crystals and most recently, durians. He still acts these days, and his last onscreen role was last year’s Super Dad, but most of his time is spent dabbling in his various ventures.

In the latest episode of Hear U Out, Ong shared about the perils of being “too carefree”. Host Quan Yifeng and Ong were talking about the latter’s acting career when she asked why he left Mediacorp in 2000.  He chuckled before making the universal gesture for “money” by rubbing his thumb and index finger together. Quan and Ong then burst into laughter.

Ong also admitted that some of his business ventures didn’t work out as well as he had hoped, but as he put it: “The hurdles that I met with were good life experiences and taught me a lot.”

Admitting that his life, in general, is a little “too carefree and messy, with no clear goals”, the actor continued, “I earned money but I spent [it too]. There was a six-month period in my life which I felt was quite difficult for me.”

As reported on 8days.sg, he went on to say: “I move around quite often ─ sometimes I buy a place but sell it soon after. I’ve also rented many homes over the years. This cycle keeps repeating itself since I enjoy being in different places,” he explained. “There was a time when I had a gap in between places as the rent agreement at my previous home had expired and the next place wasn’t ready for me to move in yet. So I was homeless for four months. I slept in my car during that period of time. I’d drive my car [around Singapore] and spend a night at different locations.”

He revealed that he used to take his daily showers at a “club with cheap membership fees” as his finances weren’t in great shape either.

Ong mused, “I wasn’t in debt at the start [of the six months], but I didn’t have much cash either. I probably had a couple of thousand dollars in my bank account but it depleted quickly in those four or five months. [When I ran out of cash], I resorted to using my credit card and the bills just piled up.”

He eventually managed to pull himself out of the slump and can now help others with the money that he’s earning.

But don’t expect him to keep at one thing for too long. As he once told 8days.sg, he intends to backpack for a year once the Covid-19 pandemic is under control.

You can watch Part 1 of Thomas’ interview on Hear U Out here./TISG