If you have been watching You-Tube videos recently, most likely you will have come across an advertisement for Netflix Asia featuring actor Aaron Aziz.
But, instead of his familiar dapper and smart look, the Singaporean star is green, bald and pointy-eared. That is because he portrays a toyol (a Malay child spirit) in the regional advertisement for Netflix’s new fantasy crime movie Bright, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton.
“It was a sticky experience,” Aaron, 41, said to New Straits Times about the three-hour make-up process he had to undergo.
“I dreaded it because I was not used to being painted on, wearing contact lenses and having my teeth painted black.”
Nevertheless, the father-of-three agreed to do it as he felt honoured to be part of a renowned global brand, despite knowing that the clip’s reach was limited to the Asian region.
The clip, shot in Malaysia in November, shows Aaron (as the toyol) super-imposed into a scene from the movie, in which humans coexist with fantasy creatures since the beginning of time.
“If I had a human face, I would love to look like Aaron Aziz,” the toyol, apparently a police in training, told Smith and Edgerton’s police characters as they drove downtown. It is later revealed that the toyol is a human in disguise, who is after valuable information from the two policemen.
“The most fun part of project was definitely seeing the final video. It is amazing to see what technology can do when it places me in a part of the movie’s scene,” Aaron said.
He said, as of now, no future collaborations with Netflix was planned, but he did not mind acting in one of its original movies.
“But, I do not expect to get any calls from Hollywood because of that video.”