More than a decade after playing the naive and chubby schoolboy Terry in the I Not Stupid franchise, Eric has morphed into a hunk.
“Once you’ve been fat, you don’t ever want to go back,” quips the 1.75m-tall Eric on the telephone from his home in Taipei.
The once rotund boy now hits the gym regularly and diets to maintain his lean 70kg physique.
He started shedding his baby fat when he hit puberty, but it was not until last year that he started using the treadmill seriously, playing basketball and watching his food intake – cutting out fried food and most sugary items.
“I just want to stay healthier. A lot of people who see me in recent years tell me that they cannot recognise me at all,” he says, sounding amused.
And while Terry struggled with his studies, Eric has done better.
After high school at United World College here, he left for his native Taiwan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in risk management at the National Chengchi University.
He also has a master’s in business administration from the same school and is now waiting to enlist for mandatory military service in Taiwan.
“Director Neo contacted me a few years ago to ask me to play a role in Ah Boys To Men, but I turned it down because I was in the middle of college exams.
“Acting was really fun, but it’s more important to have professional qualifications. I’ll most likely end up working in the corporate world,” says the bachelor, who was discovered at open auditions for I Not Stupid (2002).
The elder of two children born to a housewife and a furniture company manager, he appeared in a few more films after his debut, such as Homerun (2003) and Colour Of Hope (2007), but never wanted to be a full-time actor, he says.
“My friends will watch I Not Stupid and see my name on the credits. They’ll joke that Terry in the movie is me and when I tell them that it actually is me, they don’t really believe me.”
